INITIAL DRAWING

Working inks and watercolours, I began drawing from both real flowers and photo's of African plants. Although I liked the qualities within these drawings, when transferred into Photo shop, they started to look very flat and lacked texture. This has been a problem for me in other projects and has been the reason I often prefer working in wet print.

Experimenting with media would give a more textural quality to my designs. I therefore began using other drawing techniques to give me depth and a range of qualities within my designs. Mark making with oil pastels before using a wet on wet technique with inks and then using soft pastels gave my drawings much more energy. To create more of this feeling of energy, I stopped making my drawings so finished-looking. I limited the time I spent on them and stopped drawing with pencil before adding colour. Thus, my drawings looked looser and more abstract. Taking this new range of motifs into photo shop allowed me more room for experimentation. Some of the drawing could be enlarged in scale and used just for their textural qualities alone. Others could be flipped and repeated without the design looking flat and dull.

Although I will work predominantly in digital print, I intend to incorporate aspects of wet print into my designs. This will give them the finish I think they need to work effectively as textural furnishing. As a collection, I want smooth silk fabrics contrasting with devore and even embellished finishes. Wet print as well as adding texture also gives designs a more hand-made quality. Imperfections make every piece unique. Thus, I would like to incorporate both digital and wet print into my collection.