Knowing what I wanted the 5 main subjects on my print to be, I went in search of an image of each of these that I could use as inspiration for the print:
- Beach huts.
- Donkeys.
- Deckchairs.
- Pier.
- Sandcastle.
Although one could assume that trips to the beach that include activities such as building sandcastles and donkeys rides is not relevant to my audience (29 year old woman without children), the focus of the print is not on the relevance of the subjects to the audiences life now, but relevant to memories that they may have had as a child. Nearly every british person has had a holiday to the seaside in which they would take part in these activities, especially before going abroad became so popular around 25 years ago, when people had more money to do so. Before then British holidays at the seaside were somewhat 'The norm', and so this is what I have decided to be the theme for my print 'memories of the British seaside'.
The images i found which I will use to inspire my print:
Using the 5 images above as a template and a light box, I sketched up outlines of each of my subjects.
Next I moved onto painting each of the sketches with acrylic paints, to try and achieve the Cath Kidston painterly style. Although the painted pieces would not be final edits that would be put straight into the print, I wanted to test out the painterly style.
It was also at this moment that I had to start deciding what colours I would use as the limit on the brief was 12 colours and so I made a list of what colours I would need to use for each illustration.
Beach huts:
- white
- blue
- red
- dark red
- yellow
- light grey
- dark grey
I noticed straight away as soon as I started making the list that I had used 7 of my 12 allowed colours already within one illustration and so for the next 4 sections I began to see whether the same colours above could be used.
Deck chairs:
-white
-blue
- light wood
- dark wood
- light grey
Total amount of colours: 9
Pier:
-black
-blue
-yellow
Total amount of colours: 10
Sandcastle:
- light wood (lighter tones of sand)
- dark wood (darker tones of sand)
- white
- brown
- red
- blue
Total amount of colours: 11
Donkeys:
- red
-dark red
- dark grey
- light grey
- blue
- black
- brown
- white
Total amount of colours: 11
When finishing selecting colours I had used 11 colours out of my 12 that were allowed. Leaving one colour to use for the background. As I had to create the pattern in three different colour ways, I decided that the background colour would be the colour that I would change, as this would influence the overall effect of the piece and cause the largest visual change. The three background colours I want to work with when producing my tile are; white, light blue and light grey. I wanted to inkeep with the the of the british seaside, as when visiting, sometimes the sky can be blue, whilst other times, a pale grey.
I began painting my subjects, I started with the Donkeys.
I used the images I had collected as a guide, as to how I should shade the donkeys, selecting the colours of paints from my pallet that would work in each area. I decided to incorporate a previous Cath Kidston print into this illustration to push the style to evermore be classic Cath Kidston. I did this by painting one of the donkeys coats in a signature Cath Kidston print... The red polka dot.
I was pleased with the way my representation of this subject came out, with the nod to Kidstons previous print, and the tongue in cheek vibe that the brief was looking for, painting the donkeys from the back end instead of the front.
Next I moved on to the pier, this was probably the easiest object to paint, as it was a silouette, therefore mostly black, with accents of yellow for lights. I decided once i had finished painting the very detailed underneath of the pier, I would progress with the rest in illustrator, as I didn't particularly need to work out 'tone and shading' on an almost all black piece.
I then worked on the sandcastle which was the easiest object to paint using to tones to create the castle and the simple union jack colours to re create the flag.
Once I had painted the 3 of these, I decided I was comfortable enough recreating the painted effect and so I moved into illustrator. The first piece I digitalized in illustrator was the sandcastle as I wanted to start of easy, to get the hang of working with the painted style.
This was especially east, as I scanned in and followed the painting I had done for exact reference of where to shade etc.
I didn't however like how the flag of the sandcastle looked so static, and therefore using the beneath image for reference I changed the flag so it would appear as if it were 'blowing in the wind.'
Next I moved onto the donkeys, which again were quite easy to digitalise due to previously painting them. However when I began to recreate them I felt that the shading was not particularly right, and therefore decided to play around with silouettes and shadows in order to make the donkeys seem more 'real' yet still 'painterly'. I increased the ability to make the donkeys look more authentic by employing the use of opacitys. layerind white and black with low opacity in sections which I thought need more highlight or shadow.
First donkey digital illustration according to my original painting:
Second and final improved donkey digital illustration:
Next I moved onto the pier. When I had painted this object I thought ahead, and painted it clearly and with detail so that when It came to recreating it digitally, I would not have to redraw the whole thing but merely image trace it to achieve the desired effect.
However I found that once I had traced this up and filled in the parts that were missing, that the pier may not work within the pattern. The other illustrations were so full of colour and light, and this was lacking both, meaning that it could be entirely inconsistent with the rest of the images.
Next I began filling in the deck chairs following both the photography for colour reference and my pencil drawing scanned in as a stencil. I added accents of light grey to give the chairs some depth and movement.
Next I moved onto the beach huts. From the sketch that I scanned in, I picked 3 of the huts and combined them in a row in order to create the motif.
I decided to do them in a nautical theme of colours, blue and white, yellow, and red wood.
One I had got the simple outline and block colours shown above I began to highlight and shadow sections of the piece using a range of opacities of colours in my 12 colour pallet.
On this piece I also added extra detailing of rocks and sea puddles found commonly on the british seaside. I felt that these extra details gave sections of the print more rythum, placement and context, and so I began to add them to each of the illustrations.
I also made a set of 6 by themselves that I could place inbetween the main motifs in the pattern to prevent it become too 'cluttered' and allow space between each of the main illustrations.
Once I had all the motifs digitally illustrated I began to stagger them in illustrator to create a single tile formation. I had to remember what I had learnt in my research, that any motifs which overlapped the boundary of the tile must connect exactly on the reflective side.
Below is my first tile I have constructed with all of the motifs staggered to create a tile. I have tried to include enough negative space, so that the tile does not look cluttered, a detail that the writers of the Cath Kidston brief wanted to avoid.
Notice that the beach huts on the left hand side disappear off of the top and the bottom edge, when the tile is then stacked into a column, this section connects up seamlessly. I continued to make each section of the pattern overlap seamlessly.
The choice of colours I chose to use for the background is directly related to the hues seen in the sky during a British summer, as these do not have the best weather, the colours I have chosen are a pale grey, powder blue and white.
Grey:
Blue:
Once I had finished the print, I passed the print over to friend of mine, whom used the 3d program sketch up to apply the print to a set of bedding, as the pattern would be applied across a range of products at cath Kidston including home.
Once this had been done, I was able to see exactly how my pattern would work in context.
No comments:
Post a Comment