Secondary Imagery: Wedding Dress

This sketchbook page looks primarily at the idea of fashion as concealment. The pictures are taken from my grandparents wedding and therefore combine with the aspect of concealed memories. At this stage, I was very interested in the symbolism of the veil being a sign of purity and concealment before marriage and later on in my sketchbook I use a wedding dress in my final piece to represent the motherly figure.

Cocoon Sculpture

Reverting back to the idea of metamorphosis, I made a cocoon sculpture that is based more on a moth cocoon than a butterfly cocoon. I like the rough textures and bland colours in moth cocoons and I tried to replicate this using hessian, cotton wool and fine string. I have also looked at many butterfly cocoons in my sketchbook and will be making one to identify the best for my final piece.

Oil Painting

This is an unfinished oil painting looking at the initial thoughts of conceal. It is based on Alyssa Monk's underwater series which I think works well with 'conceal' by only only revealing sections of the face. Although this piece is unfinished, I wanted to include it because it shows another media I am fond of which allows me to get great detail and beautiful colour. It also shows another initial aspect of my project. 

Life Drawing

These are a couple of my life drawings, which are two completely different styles. The left drawing was a thirty-minute drawing, produced with graphite powder, charcoal and a rubber to create the tones. The drawing on the right was a quick sketchy drawing using graphite pencil on brown paper. Life drawing enhanced my skills incredibly and gave me more of an insight to drawing the human figure, which I believe to be very beneficial to fashion as the human figure is the basis of all garments and illustration.

Lino Printing

 

I created a lino print of my mother in the style of the artist 'Kathe Kollwitz' to show development from the idea of the protection of the mother through life. I experimented on different materials as I wanted to lead from printing to the idea of garment material and textiles.

Development: Symbols of Protection

After looking at Louise Bourgeois, who uses symbols to represent memories, I decided to use the symbol of metamorphosis of a butterfly to represent the development of a child in the womb and eventually throughout life. I then reverted back to 'concealed memories' and linked this with the idea of the protection our family provides us when we grow and develop. It also associates back to my initial drawings of wrapped objects because of the similarity in a wrapped creature or human.

Development: Layering and Henry Moore Exhibition

This sketchbook page shows a visit to the Henry Moore Exhibition where the themes of mother and child and the foetal sculptures play a big role in influencing my final piece. I also looked at the anatomical structure as it is concealed through layering and this idea relates to my final piece because I am looking at the layers of a wedding dress and how dresses can be symbolic of a mother figure.