After researching trends print had to be included as “Joyful expression” is up and coming.
I first got to grips with my own print style, looking at how I worked and how this fit into the coming trend. I found an article on joyful expression focusing around really bold and fun marks, arratically all over the body. This trend was just me. I work in an extremely expressive way, looking at mark-making with multi media. i created this print book based around this, looking at emotional mark-making in corrolation to how i was feeling, this would prove as a base for my print development.
Print techniques
Actually bringing these expressive marks to life I decided to focus around two techniques, disperse dyes and sublimation printing.
disperse dyes– Using this technique allows me to maintain the painterly feel. using my book I could easily recreate the marks using the dye and easily transfer this onto fabric maintaining the quirky and painterly feel.
When creating the designs I used a range of mark-making tools, to get the painterly feel I used a ruler to drag out the marks, this created a really unique shape with the dye. i also used a dry paintbrush, this gave me almost broken marks. I also introducted a new technique as i picked up heat transfer crayons, this was amazing. he heat transfer crayons allowed me to mimic the wax crayons marks perfectly without compromising this texture. The crayon was what the piece needed to really add the expressive fun feel.
Sublimation printing- sublimation printing is a form of digital printing. Its also extremely enviromentally friendly which is a key aspect to this project! for sublimation printing I decided to go with a recycled fabric as it best suited my project. I used photoshop to create mock prints and experimenting with different placements whilst bearing in mind the calm vs chaotic aura that has been a running theme. By doing this i found it really helped my development for this project and allowed me to experiement with a new technique.
These two prints have been modified on photoshop as a repeat. the expressive and quirky marks really do amplify the auras of this print, as this is mixed media i also want to manipulate the prints. the manipulation of the print i feel also magnifies the calm vs chaotic energy and really brings these prints to life creating a sense of drama.
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