Creative Drawing - Adobe Illustrator - Part 1

PART 1 -

Adobe software is something i'm quite familiar with as I have had experience with a couple of the programs, Photoshop and In Design, previously during A Levels. However, we were learning how to use Illustrator which i'm not at all familiar with. This workshop was only a couple of hours long which meant we only learnt how to do the basics.

We were looking at the pathfinder tool (unite/add, minus front/subtract, intersect, exclude) as this is very important when drawing garments.

Then we eventually started drawing and making shapes so we could test the pathfinder tools with a shape. This was fun but also quite challenging! 

In our next lesson we are going to be drawing our own garments using this toolbar and learn about more of the tools. 

Creative Drawing - Technical flats

Thursday's are drawing days, tiring but enjoyable. We were back in Passiv Haus (the really cool drawing studio that amazes me everytime) but this time we were drawing technical flats of our own garments so we can get use to drawing them by hand and get use to the shapes of them. I've never had a go at drawing these technical flats before so this was something completely new to me which I enjoyed a lot.

Passiv Haus

Each of us brought in two garments of any kind and we all drew our own garments as well as each others. We had them on hangers or draping over the easels so we could get a full view of the front and back of the clothes so our technical flats were accurate. The detail of the pattern wasn't important, it was more about the construction of the garment and the proportions. It was very fun drawing a variety of different clothes, from skirts to shirts, as every item was shaped and draped differently.

The item of clothing I really enjoyed drawing had to have been a denim jacket as it had a lot of detail compared to a pair of trousers. This took a lot more time too so focusing on all of the construction and lines was quite difficult at times!

Next lesson, we are exploring the Adobe software and looking at Illustrator, so having the experience of drawing by hand and using a computer to create these designs will help me decide which one i'm better at. Also, this task will help me out with my other unit i'm currently doing, digital fashion, as I am in the process of drawing garment designs for my project. 

Creative Drawing - GIF making

'How do you make GIF's?' has been something i've always questioned when I see them on my Tumblr, Twitter and Pinterest newsfeed. Then, in Tuesday's workshop, this was what we did! I've finally been taught how to create them!! I was so excited to explore Photoshop and create layers to make one of these. Inspired by Hattie Stewart, I have created some GIF's like hers and I feel that her style and way of working is the same as mine.

How to make a GIF:

1) Background - find a magazine or an image you want to use that you want to turn into a GIF.

2) Layers - you need to create a variety of layers in order for the GIF to animate and flash.

3) Timeline - open up the 'timeline' window. Click 'create frame animation'. 

4) Speed - adjust the speed to what you prefer, but for mine, i've used 0.1 seconds.

 5) Timeline layers - use a new layer for each animation frame.

6) Loop - how many times do you want it to loop? I've set mine as 'forever'.

7) Saving - save your GIF by clicking on 'export', 'save for web (legacy).

                       

Creative Drawing - A day in the life of a fashion student

Last Thursday at university, my group mates and I spent the whole day in a drawing workshop (a long but very fun day.) To start with, I was dreading the day as six hours of drawing sounds draining, but kid you not it was one of my favourite days at university so far. I haven't spent hours drawing in a very long time, so spending the day doing this really helped me, as one of our units involves drawing and illustration work.

It wasn't just any type of drawing, it was mark making; using different types of pens and lines to create different marks. The first half of the session was trying this out with different pencils and then gradually getting to the stage where you'd explore with different types of media.

Pencil mark making

Watercolour mark making

Eventually, later on in the day, we experimented with line further, by doing continuous line drawing and blind drawing sketches. This way of drawing is my favourite way; the result you get is bizarre but also really cool and arty. I really enjoyed this exercise and hope to use this style of drawing a lot more.

                           

Lastly, for the last hour of the day, we were practising drawing hands, by far the hardest feature to draw on a human body. I've always avoided drawing hands as i'm reaallllyy not good at them. I've only ever drawn them if i've had to as i've never been good at them so this task was beneficial for me!                                                
 
             

Creative Drawing - Exhibition Review

'Lines of Thought - Drawing from Michelangelo to now'

Recently, I took a trip to Poole’s museum to see an exhibition, ‘Lines of Thought'. It consisted of famous artist’s drawings and a variation of drawing styles and techniques. The best thing about the whole trip was that it was a lovely day, the sun was shining (a rare moment in September for England), we went charity shop shopping, not to mention the free fish and chips our university provided us (yay!) and obviously the exhibition itself.

The exhibition within the museum was albeit small but very overwhelming – works from Pablo Picasso’s drawings flowed into Leonardo da Vinci, and then into Michelangelo, to name a few. Seeing drawings right there in front of me from these incredibly famous artists was mesmerising and insane to witness. All of the 70 drawings displayed offered a breath-taking range of styles and techniques, as well as the huge variation in dates, ranging from 400BC to the present day. I didn’t realise that there were so many different ways of drawing, but visiting this exhibition has really opened my eyes to the bigger picture!

The brush drawing in grey and black ink by A. R. Penck especially interested me as soon as I walked in; it caught my attention mainly because it’s such a bold piece and the thickness of the dots has allowed the features to become prominent. Penck has successful here in stealing the limelight from the other pieces. It was made in response to Andy Warhol’s claim that he wanted to paint like a machine, this is a pretty accurate response as it looks like something that has come out of a mechanical typewriter, thus aligning to Warhol's technique.

A.R. Penck - Untitled (Self Portrait), 1975

All of the artwork was inspiring, as every piece showed the artists individuality and characteristics. I could discuss this art exhibition in so much depth but unfortunately that would take up a lot of your time, as I have so much to say about it. However, if you’re in Poole or if you want to take a trip to an exhibition, I’d advise to go there!