Chapter 1 - Research On Stars Or Crosses

I started by having a few thoughts about stars and crosses. Crosses seemed an easier option for me to choose because I love ecclesiastical embroidery and history, I like crosses, I have lots of images,  and so after a debate with myself I chose stars as the less comfortable option.

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For inspiration I looked through photos I had taken on a trip to the British Museum, in particular the Islamic Room, and a google search found some more. I decided I wanted to be a bit more spontaneous and so grabbed my camera and ambled off down the garden. I really enjoyed 'spotting' star shapes, and found they were more irregular and abstract.

 

 

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I then decided to have a search around my workspace and found fabrics and some crocheted stars in my stash - I can't actually remember which project the stars were for! Finally I returned to the computer and compared snowflakes (nature) with electricity pylons (man made). I particularly like pylons and the geometric shapes of them. I manipulated some pylon pictures on the computer to see how snowflake looking I could make them.

 

 

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I gathered a large amount of material to work from and could have filled many A4 pages of my sketchbook, so this was an excellent exercise in cutting back! I often find I end up with so much I can't decide on how to progress.

 

 

 

So onto taking rubbings of star shapes. This I found difficult. I scoured the house and pretty much came up with nothing. So I rubbed beeswax crayon over floor tiles and rotated the paper. I found a Fleur de Lys pattern on some wallpaper and compared pencil and crayon rubbings. I can see how this can be a good design source.

 

 

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I enjoyed moving along to making line drawings from my images. I find this quite therapeutic. I tried not to make lots and lots of drawings and be more selective. I like the neatness of geometric shapes, but have enjoyed discovering what a good line drawing can come from a photograph I took myself in my own garden. I'm quickly learning how a design from my own source can develop.  

 

 

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Finally for this Chapter - produce a colour wheel. This took me a long time. I started off well, once I actually did start. I spent a long time pondering a blank wheel. I had to really concentrate on mixing my colours, on some occasions more successfully than on others. The green could have been better, purple drove me to distraction and violet was a disaster. I came back the next day and retried purple and violet with a little more success. As frustrating as I found this exercise I learnt a huge amount. Adding black and white made me notice how the colours change from darks to pastels, and I started to take more notice of how the colours complimented each other, warm and dark tones and how opposites attract!

 

 

 

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