Back to the artwork

Reworking the artwork was more fun considering now I had some sort of direction to work with. My mood boards helped me with ideas but the style didn't come through. Making them black and white line drawings gave me the opportunity to trace them onto silhouettes or play with sizing later on.


shown below are a few examples:

Discovering the dip pen

Alas We keep coming back to the fact the the painting i was going to do would be on cotton not silk and after a few trials I realised that there were points that needed to be noted when painting on the fabric.


1. The colour is much duller than the original
2. The thinner the fabric the more the colour spreads.
3. Gutta liner is to be used only in moderation and primarily on thicker fabric because it changes the texture of the fabric leaving it slightly stiff even after washing.


When I had almost given up the battle of thin lines I happened upon an old dip pen i used to use in school.
After a bit of experimenting I realised that if held at a particular angle one can literally draw with it like on paper! below are some examples:


First, the dip pen:

JoySilk

This is video was the turning point in my attitude towards fabric painting. here i was, my illustrations getting more and more intricate while my fabric painting was beginning to look increasingly like I've let paint spill on my fabric, letting it take its course when Meera mailed me this video. She found it on a site called joysilk. 
The video basically takes the audience through the silk painting process. She also has a great technique to stretching her fabric without distorting it like I was doing.

Taking it further

After Showing it to my client she suggested the floral motifs would work better for the collection.


When I mentioned this to my panel they suggested i look at art nouveau and the paris underground movement. What Inspired me the most were the posters and the jewelry. Below are some that really inspired me.


What caught my eye in the two posters below is the way the artist emphasizes and stylizes the women's hair. The intricate smooth lines add so much movement to the picture. I began to wonder how this could add to the movement of the garment when painted on.

This poster caught my eye for the flowers in the background. The really intricate detailing could work when painted on to garments.

What I found interesting in the two images below were the fact that despite art nouveau being a very intricate style there is a lot of space left plain and quite simple. It accentuates the detail yet making the whole form seem soft and dreamy.

When I began looking at the jewelry it gave me a sense of how the style works on a 3D surface. 

My first explorations on fabric

Painting on Fabric is a whole different skill in itself, It makes painting on paper feel terribly easy. My first attempt with my teacher Meera was a little encouraging. Watching her do it made it look easy enough. That was before I actually tried doing it without her help.


So here are those initial explorations. 

Working on the moodboards

After choosing a mood board I started drawing out things that might work on the clothes. My client urged me to look to look at floral patterns. This was of course before I realized that painting on paper is very different from painting on cloth.