DRAWING BOURNEMOUTH

While continuing to knit from my previous imagery I continued to draw from scenes around bournemouth. Knitting for too long is quite painful and I get finger cramp so having drawing breaks allows me to knit all day. The drawings aren't anything like my previous coloured pencil drawings as their purpose is different. Their quick line drawings more aimed at helping me experiment with composition than intended to be knitted.

PORTFOLIO REVIEW

I found the portfolio review extremely useful. Not only in talking about the display of my own work but hearing how others planned to do theirs also helped inspire ideas for mine. In terms of my website it was suggested that both the front and back of the images be shown. For example you have the front of the knitted piece and you hover/ click on the image and it changes to the back. The back of my pieces are just as interesting as the front if not more so as they allow you to see how it was made (with the intertwining of yarn), I would not have thought to include this digitally and so this suggestion will add a lot to the overall feel of my website.

For a hard portfolio it was suggested that I use a box portfolio and mount the knitted pieces on nice card. Although I like this idea I also feel I need something else to go with it as this takes out the full tactile nature of the pieces. I therefore would also like to create a separate box in which I have either 1 folded large piece or a selection of small knitted patches (possibly A5 as I could use existing work) which would allow people to directly handle the work. This could also be displayed in a similar way to a textile sample book with the small patches being bound together at the edges (via crochet) to make a knitted book.

WELCOME BACK KNIT

To get my hand back into knitting I took the weekend to select my favourite images relating to urban landscapes and translate these into knit. I'm happy to be knitting again as I feel my knitted work got a very good response at the craft exhibition. As there's not much time left I want to get as much done as possible which means I've scaled down my work to knit squares of approximately 10x10cm. I've decided to choose 10 images from both the drawings relating to buildings and 10 from those relating to landscapes. These hopefully will work on their own digitally but also can be arranged together into a larger piece of work for first hand exhibitions.

A selection of the pieces made over the weekend

The issue I'm experiencing now is how to display them. Wether to display them with all the working strands of wool hanging freely (similar to in the above picture), or neaten the up and display them as in the craft exhibition.

GROUP TUTORIAL

Overall the feedback from this tutorial was positive. I was worried about the combination of knit and digital work within my work, and how far my work has come from my initial knit work. However it was mentioned that the transition from hand-made work to digital was coherent and obvious. It was also mentioned that I should have a combination of knitted, drawn and digital work on my website. I'm particularly happy about this bit of feedback as at the moment I feel my website is too clinical. With the digital and drawn work only it looks very clean but boring:

screen shot of my opening page

I now feel I can make it more fun and appealing by putting the emphasis on the knitted work and using the drawn and digital work as what it is- supporting work.

MAKING SOMETHING FINISHED

I'm feeling quite tired of working in this simplistic manner and want to revert back to the earlier brutalist style of drawing. Simple angular images. I do however want to stick to my use of colour, although I'm undecided wether to use pencil colours and edit them digitally for the texture or to stick to the block colour technique. To feel a little bit more finished with the work I have so far, I've made small issuu books containing my favourite images from each area of work,  the original work from London and Oxford, works based on building interiors and landscapes, and natural landscapes.

ISSUU BOOKS

London and Oxford work

Interiors and exteriors

Natural landscapes

Although I've done this I still feel they need refining, for example only having one image per page as I don't feel like some of the images sit right next to each other and also having far fewer images, maybe only 6 for each area. However I do want to have a proper book printed of all the images, more for myself as a momento of my final year work.

CRAFT EXHIBITION

I decided to put knitted work into the craft exhibition. The laptop from my pre-major and a combination of 2D knitted pieces from my major and pre-major. This meant I didn't have to create any new work just make old work presentable (I had to crochet edge all the 2D work and fix the laptop so it stayed open).

Setting up took a lot longer than expected, it took us the whole day. It was interesting to see how long it actually takes to set up an exhibition. From arranging where everything will go to making sure it's all at the right height.

Everything went perfectly on the night, it was packed inside and out. Live music and alcohol was definitely a winner!

On a side note

Some label stickers I printed my details on to give out at the exhibition:

TALK WITH PAUL

I was feeling a bit uneasy about where I currently am in my work and what I want to spend the last month doing. My plan was to create a small series of books combining the work I have so far as a concluding of what I've been doing and then go on to make images of the bournemouth I enjoy to again make into a small book or series of images. I had a chat with Paul and he liked the idea of the small books but said it was important to group things accordingly. For example I showed him the grouping for my website and he said it didn't work grouping things by media and instead to group by theme. I've therefore decided to group by interior and exterior. I think this pretty much sums up what I've been doing and splits the work nicely. He also said that as for taking the work further it could be interesting to focus on the juxtaposition of combining my digital style with the brutalist sketchbook style, and translate this to imagery on Bournemouth. Look at why people come to Bournemouth, but why I like Bournemouth. He also suggested I watch Jonathan Meade's Brutalism  programme on B.O.B. It's in 2 parts. I've watched the first part but I'm not sure how relevant it is to me anymore. I did like some of the descriptions of Brutalism though such as 'concrete monstrosity' and 'practical utopia'.