Part 2 - Reflection

Textiles 1 – A Creative Approach

Assignment two

Reflection

This section of the course was very good for me in that it took me right back to basics with regard to working with colour.  I began by painting a colour wheel and after doing this began to feel more confident trying out different paints.  I found recording colours accurately quite difficult to do. However, it has shown me that as I have gone on further through the exercises I am getting more of an ‘eye’ for the colour I want to mix and am finding it easier to do.

I worked samples for the colour in stitch exercises in hand stitch.  I used a plain dark background for the samples and found this quite challenging. The French knots sample in reds and yellows was most successful because you can see the colours change when they are worked more densely and close together then apart. 

In Project 4 Developing Design Ideas I felt that I was beginning to get more of an eye for colour.  I found it difficult at first to decide on an area to use from my source material with relation to shape and size.  I decided to work on a small scale and began to increase the size as I became more confident in my choices and which elements to keep or leave out.  The 3cm drawings I did from my source material were successful as they were a stepping stone for me to see which shapes worked well together and for me to then take these into drawing a larger piece.  When I look at my drawings I am now beginning to feel that certain elements are not working and I am enjoying experimenting with different colours, materials and scale and am beginning to feel quite intuitive about my decisions.

I am feeling much more confident about working independently.  I enjoyed the work on looking for shapes and drawing this has given me more confidence to look for inspiration.  I feel I am able to interpret source material in my own way although I could improve on this. 

Experiments with Printing and Painting has been a very enjoyable part of the course for me.  It enabled me to experiment with a wide range of backgrounds and fabric paints and inks. As I went through the printing exercises I realised I was using many of the things I had covered in the previous sections mixing colours, looking for inspiration, choosing areas of designs and interpreting them in different ways and sizes.   This was helped by making the different types of blocks and doing the different types of printing.  This has also helped my sketchbook work.

On completing assignment two I feel I have worked with a wide range of materials, am continuing to improve my use of colour and am experimenting more.   I do need to research other designers work more.