Assignment 3 Stage 5 – First Sample

Translating ideas into samples

Here I am looking at different aspects of my source material and trying to inject some of my visual ideas into this project.

Having already worked on a stitched grid sample based around the idea of office building windows and reflections in Workshop 3 I’ve decided to pursue this further and I hope to include some diversity in technique which should alter the compositional qualities of the design in each case.  So this new work will come from the building observations in Stage 4 Part 2.

My initial thoughts include:

• the patterns and shapes – Lines and junctions will be my main focus.
• the scale – Having manipulated some of the photos quite extensively I’ve not found any particular leaning towards end scale and will continue to work with a materials-led approach and see where it leads.
• the colours – These are important to the visual impact.  I will be continuing along the reduced-colour palette route.  Black and grey will be my base and I’ll be adding a highlight or colour of focal interest as the samples progress.

In this first piece I aim to show some depth which indicates what may be inside the building, behind the tinted windows.  Not wanting a solid back-image I started with some painted bubble-wrap which will have a sheer overlay.  Obviously the paint only adheres on the raised bubble area and even then it is broken up.  So my colour highlight in this piece is projected through the painterly effects from this experiment.

The photo above shows the layers.  The bubble-wrap on the right is the original, on the left it has been overlaid with off-white/grey nylon sheer, the ‘window frame’ has been stitched using the black weed suppressant and netting I used earlier in the project on my previous grid.

Above is the finished piece pinned to white paper.  The black netting has only been put on the two sides to indicate shadows in that area of the window pane.  The bubble-wrap has been cut away from outside the window, leaving only the sheer layer – this is really only to showcase the feature square.  At this stage it looks fairly lifeless as there is no light shining through it.  Boy, the paint has dulled from the overlaid sheer!

Here it has been laid against a grey rock wall with the sun shining brightly.  The sheer stands out and appears quite opaque but the rock colours from behind give a mottled surface effect.  The painted bubble-wrap is very subtle – but it’s there.  I’m glad my pearls of colour can still be seen, just.

Here it is taped to the window with the sun behind it.  The nylon base fabric has disappeared and the bubble-wrap has become the prominent feature.  What a difference.  I love the black effects which create a solid edging.  The netting is giving exactly what I was trying to achieve – a non invasive, but recognisable, extra layer of depth on those shadowed sides.  However, with the sun very high in the sky the vibrancy of the paints is lost and the whole piece looks quite dark.

The sun brightened and this close up shows significantly more colour coming through, albeit reduced because there is the nylon on top.

Later in the day, as the sun was going down:

I couldn’t resist ……. This is the back of the piece.  The painted bubbles are clearer as the nylon sheer is now behind the bubble-wrap.  The circular bubble shapes are extremely pronounced because it is the back of the film (have you ever actually looked closely at the construction on the back of bubble-wrap?) and the netting is shadowed beautifully because, remember, it is now on the reverse side.

Above, close-up of painted bubbles, which have their own individual dimensions.  The off-white sheer on the back has added to the opacity of the plastic surrounding the air-filled bubbles.

 

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