Part 3, Project 6 Manipulating Fabric and Developing Ideas

I have a tendency to want each sketch to be perfect. There are many torn pages and balls of paper that seemed to start with such promise but imagined imperfections saw them tossed aside. It's one of the issues I mentioned in my reflective commentary for Assignment 2 and it was great to get some constructive advice about it from my tutor. She told me not to worry about things not turning out as intended as mistakes can often be just as interesting and she is right. She also advised me to do a lot more sketching and work on my images using other materials and mediums such as collage and making more use of colour.

I spent yesterday working on a sketch of a photo that really captured my interest as much for the colour as the subject matter. It's a large cluster of blue butterflies on a tree trunk.

My first sketch was something I gave myself ten minutes to work on, to try to avoid my 'perfection' issues. I tried not to look at the sketch pad too often, instead concentrating on the photograph and letting my hands work.

The next attempt was at collage work, using a mixture of coloured card and tissue paper. I especially liked the bark of the tree and the fern at the bottom left. The tearing of the card gave an edge to the card and added to the effect.

The tissue paper I used for the background was too bright and I tried to mute it by using some watercolour paints on it, a green and an ochre colour. This helped but the best result was achieved by the water making the tissue paper very sensitive and actually rubbing it away in places.


I spent a while going through my fabrics, then putting them together in my sketch book as a reference point for me of colours that connected with the images I had produced.

There is a mixture of cottons, hessian, netting and felt so far.

So, now it is all ready for me to start playing around with the fabrics that I've set to one side. Photos to follow.