Hi there, so I managed to get one Blog done so I will push the boat out and try for a second, wish me luck. (Blummin eck in hindsight? Its taken me hours - apparently Blogsy couldn't upgrade their IOS so doesn't really exist as it did for IPad? They could have told me!!!)
Last time Rosella was on HOCHANDA TV for Claritystamp I had been sent these beautiful stamps but only had a few days to play with them. Well I definately work well under pressure - if I have two weeks to play with my stamps I spend hours and hours in my craft room pondering over how to finish one card!!! Days sometimes!! But then normally in the last few days I get all my best ideas but run out of time to carry them off.
So when my deadline STARTED at the point in which I am normally panicking because I don't feel I have "done my best yet" all those ideas that come at the end of the "fortnight deadline" came flooding in straight away. Of course the fact that I love anything to do with Dressform and Fashion (not wearing it so much as designing it on paper) well that definately helped.
I am often trying to design some Dressform stamps or Stencils but my drawing lets me down so much. So as I was looking at these stamps I thought, well if you can't draw well enough to design the stamp, you could at least make the Stamp look like a drawing???? So this is where I got the idea of my "Fashion Journal". Just like with interior design, in fashion you always do a "Mood Board" first to decide on the feel of the project and the colour scheme etc. Well, I used to really enjoy doing this bit on my Interior Design Course and love Fashion drawings too. I have some great photos of some from the top designers that I saw in a museum.
So when you are working with Gel Prints and cut outs and watercolours, you can decide what the end result is going to look like but, as I got the idea of this Fashion Journal after I had started my pictures I decided to reverse the whole process. Instead of making the "Mood Board" at the top and then completing the picture, I completed all the pictures then made the Mood Boards to match, after all, they aren't REAL Fashion Designs!
But if I am honest with you, I always worked backwards like this when I was doing my Interior Design Course. My Tutor hated that I did it that way so I used to have to hide the fact from her. But seriously, a mood board is a build up of ideas and colours and textures that you want to use in your design, but if you are designing a pattern sheet for instance, you do the doodling and then see what you come up with don't you? You can't pre-plan that can you? So often I used to get my Room Design/Mood in my head, mess about with painting my boards in patterns etc, design my knitted cushions whilst playing with wool AND THEN put it all together for the mood board and put the finishing touches to it from images I liked. Who cares how you get to your end result as long as the end result works??? See you have to show where your ideas came from but I don't really pull inspiration from flowers or trees or the sky or anything really they are just sitting there in a list at the top of my head and when I put a paint brush or Gel Plate in my hand I have no idea what I am about to produce, it just happens? Then I decide how to finish it off. Of course once I have done a design then I CAN plan the next version of it.
So I often get almost to the end of my project before I decide what it is going to be.
I really enjoyed doing a bit of "scruffy" drawing over the top of the stamped image to make it look like a sketch. I then watercoloured from Paint and Ink to make the "Mood Boards" look like the finished projects at the bottom of the Journal. Well I was quite proud of my Drawings in the end, but believe me, if I had done this the right way round I definately wouldn't have got the same results!
Most of the "Finished" pictures are made from my Gel Print Clean Ups and GelPress Mini Prints. I love to position the Fashion Stamps in a particular way over the prints so that you know they will have a certain look when cut out. Like the Boots above and below for instance, I positioned them so you would get the line across the middle giving the effect of a "Stitch" Line. I then coloured bits here and there to make a finished Boot. Then I did the handbag or shoe to match.
I was really proud of the one with the Red Shoe - because the bottom shoe is a Gel Print and the top shoe is me with a paint brush - quite close in the pattern don't you think?? The Hair!!! OK so I thought this was a scarf attached to the Hat to fasten it on, do you remember that fashion?? Then afterwards I kicked myself when I realised it was hair - funny how we all read images differently. Of course its obvious now, but I still feel this hat could definately have had one of those scarf fastenings too - so two hats for the price of one.
So I had done all the pictures on the bottom - and could have carried on for hours, there are so many combinations I could have used. I wanted to use them all but you can't present just a stack of familiar pictures to be shown on HOCHANDA because it would be too monotonous. So I had to decide how to present them. Initially I decided on a Mini Journal Book, but thought it would just look like a bunch of nicely stamped images and a bunch of Not so Nicely stamped images. I needed a way to make it obvious to someone who only gets limited time to look at the Artwork they are sent to understand what they are looking at straight away. So the Mood Board and the finished "Design" needed to be seen together to make it obvious, and that is why I came up with this design - two hours before I had to run to the Post Box! Phew that one was really close to the deadline!
So I will be doing this in some of my Future workshops but I may Modify the Design a little bit!!
Talking of my Workshops!!!!
I still have spaces left for my Claritystamp Mixed Media Workshop this Coming Saturday! A fair few of my regular Crew Members can't make it this month so please let me know if you would like to come along via Private Messaging on FB on my main page, Sam Crowe (Nee Mee) or one of my Pages
Gel Plate Creations
Altered Arts & Crafts
Art On a Gelli Plate
or at the bottom of this blog, leave a comment and a way to get in touch with you.
One of my Next projects for this Workshop is similar to this card and the rest will be a surprise.
This workshop is held at the Wolviston Village WII Hut in Billingham, Teesside.
The workshop is on from 10.30 - 3.30
My next Clarity stampwww.claritystamp.com Workshop at Crafters Companion Aycliffe Store is on 23rd May 2017 and you can book yourself using this link below. 10.30 - 3.30
You can also see the projects for this Workshop on the link above.
Thank you for visiting my Blog - I have more artwork to show you but I will just show a few at a time so that I can give you a little explanation of what went on when I made each card/item - if I can work it out for myself that is????
Please leave a comment below to say Hi if you have time.
Sam Crowe
Love the sketchy idea Sam. Will have to have a go at that. Might be a good way to develop drawing skills.Greatsamples.
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