Michelle Jones Project Report

This project started with research into three different categories: trompe l’oeil, toile de jouy and hortus botanicus. In the first week I researched into them all, as I did not know much about trompe l’oeil or toile de jouy. I thought that toile de jouy was not something I particularly liked, and I could not envisage myself knowing what to do. I also thought that the trompe l’oeil option would need good drawing skills. I enjoy drawing, but mine do not have the most realistic likeness to things.

I chose to work on the hortus botanicus theme, as I had seen some examples of wall coverings with fruit in the design. It seemed a lot of people were doing florals, so I wanted to do something a bit different, but which I could easily find some subjects to do observations.

During reading week, I went to my local supermarket, which has an excellent range of fresh fruit and vegetables. I bought fruit which I think is interesting, and individual, such as pomegranates, passion fruits and mangos. I had not decided on a sketchbook at this time, and so while I was home I drew onto A4 paper which I could then arrange later in Leeds. I mainly used watercolours and fine liners for outlines. My mango drawing was in watercolour pencils. I did not like this drawing as I felt it was too messy.

We went on a trip to the Whitworth gallery in Manchester, on our first week back at college, where we were able to go down to look in the wallpaper Archives. We did not get as much time as I’d hoped, and the examples we could look through in our own time were mostly floral and toile de l’oeil. The talk was really interesting though. There was a really nice trompe l’oeil which depicted hanging drapes. It had parts which were flocked, and I thought it was interesting to further emphasise the realistic two-dimensional to three-dimensional effect, which is what trompe l’oeil is about.

There was one piece hung on the wall, which I believe was a William Morris. It had lemons amongst leaves. I am not the biggest fan of William Morris. I find his work too traditional, a bit busy and he used quite deep, dull colours. In the main wall paper exhibition room, I found a piece by designer Takashi Ueda. It has a teal background with golden plants and fruits embossed and foiled gold over. I really loved this example. Parts of the fruit had been coloured red and white too. The whole piece was so eye-catching. It was still too traditional though. It looked old fashioned, with the vine-style leaves with fruit.

Wallpaper can be dated back as far as the Chinese in 200BC, when paper was invented, though the earliest, papyrus, paper was used by the Egyptians around 4000BC. The art of paper making did not get to Great Britain until the twelfth century. The earliest designs were hand painted or block printed, which required hundreds of separate blocks for one design. Wallpapers and wall coverings have been popular since then. They do move in and out of fashion, but they always return. Wallpapers are a real fashion statement, creating a mood in a room. Most people today favour modern commercial papers and not the more traditional designs. Specialist papers are available for different purposes, for instance, Muraspec create wall coverings mainly for industrial use, it is thick and hard wearing, for interiors such as hotels and offices. Wallpaper is available in low to high price ranges, from many designers and companies, to suit many different tastes and budgets.

I continued to draw different fruits. I used a few different mediums, including collage, watercolours, pen, pencil and ink. I really like some of my drawings, but I like adding a black outline. I feel it makes the image stand off the page. I think it also adds a more modern feel to a drawing. As in traditional wallpapers and still life, the pictures are very traditional and tonally accurate. I feel to give my designs a more modern edge, the black outline would be necessary.

I then decided to create a screen and do some flocking. I exposed my pomegranate images. It is a fairly simple design and a good size. My first few attempts at flocking did not work well at all, so I washed the screen and found it worked a lot better. I think the end result is quite interesting, but I was not sure I would use it in my final designs. I used black flock, and I could use a different colour, but I thought the end result was too thick and bulky.

I had a chat with Karen in the fourth week of the project. It really helped me think more openly about my designs. I tend to think very 2D, and it might help me in the future to consider layers. Not necessarily making a 3D design, but using layers and collage in order to create something quite diverse. I wanted to try a few of techniques including foiling and different styles of drawing.

I looked at Lauren Child’s work. She writes and illustrates the Charlie and Lola books. She begins by drawing her characters in pencil, and then scans them into the computer to tidy them up and make them bolder by adding solid black lines over her pencil lines. She creates collages from patterned fabrics and papers then adds her characters over the top. The result is a 2D page which becomes quite 3D in appearance. I want to explore the collage idea, as it is not something I have done in the past.

After this I began to use CAD. I enjoy using Photoshop and Illustrator more than I enjoy printing. The result is more accurate, and you can tweak anything you do until you like it. I like the idea behind Lauren Child’s work, but I also think if it were to be collage, and made up of different elements, that it might look better with those elements in 3D. So instead of scanning in fabric, and arranging it, I would use the fabric as the background.

I had already decided to take the fruit theme to another level, something I had not done previously either. I felt that to have just fruit and or plants as a wall covering design would be very traditional kitchen style. Because I wanted something modern, I felt I needed to look into something with more depth. I thought about the ways in which fruit is eaten. The first thing that came into my mind was picnics. On one of my searches for fruit photographs, I came across some cute photos of picnics, and these were my original inspiration. I thought it could create quite a nice wall covering, to have a summery scene including the fruit I had already drawn and observed.

I thought my wall covering could be for children or for people into Kitsch style things. It could make quite a nice wallpaper or canvas. The Kitsch style is girly and cute, and a little eccentric, a bit like me. So I decided to go with the picnic idea, and having traditional baskets and plastic plates. It gave me a much wider subject to develop, which helped me a lot.

I visited in the fabric shop in town, and there was plenty of choice, but I couldn’t find anything which I really liked. So I used some fabric pieces that I already had, and experimented on Photoshop with different effects, to try and make the fabric look 3D.

I experimented with different styles and techniques on Photoshop to try and give the layers a depth. I used tools which gave a drop shadow to the layers in some of my work. I also

I cut some lino ready to do some printing. It is something I had to really think about though, as I didn’t see the point of printing if all I did was scan it in. But I also did not like the idea of printing straight on to my other designs, or sticking it on, with everything else being 2D.

I tried different techniques to solve this. One idea I had was to print off the backgrounds created on Photoshop and then make collages on top. This way the odd 2D and 3D effect worked. I backed the collage pieces onto thick paper first, to give them a depth rather than having a completely flat looking surface. Another technique I tried was to print the backgrounds and then lino print onto this. The lino prints, however, did not stand out, and so I decided to outline them with black fine liner, which is much more effective.

At college, I experimented with foils. I photocopied some of my drawings and photos so the foil would stick to the photocopy toner. I found that I preferred the after effect on the foil rather than on the photocopied paper. I also found the photocopy transferred onto the newsprint under the heat press, and I liked this effect too. It left a really nice fuzzy print. Almost like an old black and white photo. I actually decided to use this effect in one of my designs.

Most of my final pieces are 2D print outs from Photoshop, but I also have my lino prints and collage examples. All the images I used were from the getty images website, and I only used copyright free photos.

As I got more into this project, I started to really enjoy it. I also think I have started to think about my work a lot more. I decided to leave my sketchbook fairly empty. I like that it has all my drawings in, but no fuss.