New Edinburgh drawings

This week I am home from university as it's Easter week and all the workshops aren't open anyway! I am also doing some work experience which I will post about separately! 

I went to the range - love that place - and bought some lovely papers and inks and paints and brushes and all sorts! Spend about £40! Why to easy. Here are some of my new drawings. I enjoy doing a base layer in a watercolour basic detail and then waiting for it to dry, and going over areas in pen or ink. I enjoy going outside the lines and different ways of drawing, for example blind drawing or continuous line.

This is a drawing I made from my own photograph of the scot monument, from the ground. The composition isn't quite right, the colour isn't there either and you can just see way to much emphasis on the interior detailing which is essentially the underneath of the monument, but I still love the technique.

Here is part of the piece close up. You can see the texture of the paper in the brush strokes and also the pen lines.. I used a continuous line method which simply means I didn't take my pen off the paper for the whole drawing. My wrist ached so much! And some lines are thicker and more saturated than others.. Lines meet, which shouldn't, but it gives it a bit more life :) 

A blind drawing of a small part of the scot monument, I love blind drawing because you can't fake them really!

I love blind drawing! Here is a gravestone which was beautifully adorned with concrete curves and William Morris style vines kind of..! 

Birds, Statue colour palettes, Polkadots & Visualisation

Colour has always been an issue within my work. I can never settle, and i need to graduate with a distinctive palette. I have alot of research from edinburgh but i am looking in the general direction of architecture and tourist hotspots for my concret colour, then ill let each location determine some other colours which i will weave within my concrete palette. This palette here, shown in the bird print,

Statue Palette.

Polka dot sections of a print! This would make an interesting screen-print.

The start of my visualisations. this is how i play with the surface image to create the sections i need :)

Lanterns Recreated

Well i created a lovely lantern repeat print today, from a drawing, and i skipped into uni to show my tutor.. oh.. she didnt like it!! not at all. Thats annoying i was really happy with it. So this evening i have been playing around with it some more to make it more loose. I also tried some new colours. and im really happy with these!! We will see how they print in fabric before any decisions are made :)

Blue :)

A nice strong green! Not summery - more royal

Another blue. Can you tell what my favourite colour is?

Love the pink - a bit different for me!

Greeeeeeny teal :)

Updates! New business card templates and a few repeats

My business plan (disseration) is SUBMITTED! 30% of my degree is officially out of my hands! strange feeling.. but a good one. i can get on with some 3d work and not ever have to go in NTU library every again!! 

Here are some business card ideas i submitted. The idea is im going back to edinburgh to photograph my products in situ and those images will replace these current images.. I kinda like the lifestyle shot idea.

Im playing around in photoshop alot lately. my prints are based on my drawings, and they're usually kinda simple. my repeats aren't exactly complex either but i really like them this way!

Copyright Louise Richardson 2014 (c)

a little play :)

not sure why this has a greying background - the copy i made has lovely blue cups and a crisp white background

First digital fabric samples are out!!

The first eight prints of my collection! I say collection - I havnt decided quite what's in and what's out yet.. And I get a feeling I'm going to be using about 25 different prints!! 

I have so far printed onto cotton sheeting, cotton canvas, bamboo fibre and also a beautiful linen. All suit different purposes and products, of course, and I'm so happy that the cotton canvas has turned out okay because that's the main one for all the bags etc! The sheeting is too thin, and the bamboo is only for products which won't see a while bunch of wear, as it's super soft. The linen is perfect for smaller accessory items, as Long as it's interfaced with heavy vilene, which it will be :) 

I have included here two of my fave prints as well as the stack of eight. Eight more next week after some lino printing hopefully this week!! 

:D

Drawing, Drawing, Drawing

I am trying to draw everyday. a sketch, a bag idea, or a technical drawing, perhaps some colour.. but drawing anyway i can! then im trying to create repeat prints.. which is hard with new drawings coming everyday, but hard in a good way i suppose! Just thought i would share some of my most recent drawings :)

Edinburgh Chimneytops

Technical drawings on dot paper to get an idea of size and pocket placement! They dont include fabric placement, but tartan and harris tweed will feature :)

another chimney sketch

some repeats ive got going on!

Digital Fabric Printing

Having my first tutorial this year tomorrow! Im quite nervous because they either send me on a motivational high where i work work work or bring me down to a state of depression which means i just want to sleep, eat chocolate muffins and watch big bang theory everyday for about 4 days.. soo.. yeah, nervous haha! Ive missed the last two weeks because ive been visiting London, including a trip to Top Drawer which was really great, i saw some great designers, and it gave me an insight into smaller trade shows which i could more than possibly exhibit at this time next year! Also good to see layouts as im thinking forward to my degree show, and trade prices was interesting to see too!

The shop featured in the next few photographs is called 'Miss Katie Cupcake' - an adorable little shop absolutely filled to the brim with handmade and vintage-esque goodies, my mum and i stumbled accross this little shop when we were wondering up to the royal mile. its no bigger than my bedroom and we probably spent an hour in there! Anyway - i fell in love with a little linotype tray filled with goodies, got a good photo, bought a brooch and then went home to draw up from my photograph! And it features in my print below :)

Miss Katie Cupcake - Shop in Edinburgh - Photo by MacLean Photography :)

 Visiting Top Drawer in London was a great eye opener! We turned a corner to see some lovely scarves, my flatmate nudged me and said 'Hey! you can make scarves.. they would sell so well, definately get on that!' anyway.. 55 stands and about 1200 scarves later we decided its er.. its already been done. ive never seen so many scarves at a show!! maybe i wont bother with those then!!

Top Drawer London!

Oh and the fabric design - im getting somewhere - but SO slowly... I have to work at it for hours and hours and then just before i quit photoshop i have this idea.. and it comes from there! Also i havnt got illustrator so i cant make vector files, which means i cant reeeeally use these as theyre not good enough quality. when means all the work im producing, is infact, a waste of time.. but i figure ill go through like this, and then when i know my final designs ill re do them in high quality! A decision im sure ill live to regret! 

This is my latest design featuring picknmix bags from the christmas fair, in my colour palette blue tone, with drawings from miss katie cupcakes shop over the top. a continuous line drawing created in pen. Its a little different i think i quite like it.. and it does feel more surface design than fabric design.. i can see it on notebooks etc.. we will see! the white is a layer inbetween just the break up the colour and line.. but i quite like it. hmmm.. i havnt slept on this yet though! 

Edinburgh Project Progress

hey buddy! a deer in a scarf, from the menu at the Carlton Hotel, EH1. Drew this when i was there for afternoon tea last year :)

working through slowly.. i do feel like im making prints for the fun of it. havnt really found anything which i love yet, which is a worry!

I have, however, decide to primarily digitally print my fabrics, and screen-print on top.. even saying this out loud makes me feel alot more relieved because to be honest, im pretty rubbish at screenprinting and im sure with time and practice i would be awesome (haha) but the thought of learning something all over again stresses me out.. especially the whole repeat thing. So im going to be printing gold tones on top of digital prints to enhance the prints in certain places. stress free, and a sustainable method of working for my future!

Lots more experimenting to do, and also considering creating some A1 drawings and using them. but hey.. who needs sleep? :D

Back to Edinburgh

I went back to Edinburgh last week for some more primary research. Now that i know some of the aspects i want to concentrate on, it was a no brainer to go back. We stayed with family in Longniddry and caught the train in each day. We walked alot, and drunk a hell of alot of tea in hotels and starbucks on the upper floors above shops on princes street. We walked the royal mile about five million times and i got loads of photographs. i even managed to fill a small A5 sketchbook whilst i was there which was great!

I also got pretty christmassy as it was the christmas fair and everything around the city was slowly becoming very chistmassy too!

Here is some of my research from the week.

My gran used to walk this close everyday to work in the 60s :)

;

my muma 

Surface Design Competition

This month i am taking part in a surface design competition for a famous ceramics company. There are only a handful of people from my university who have put ourselves forward but i know there is so much talent and i would be proud if one of us won!! Of course i would love to win - but it would just be awesome to have this in my portfolio.

We are currently in the photoshop stage. The competition only requires you to submit a jpeg, but we are going to create ceramic transfers and create our own actual plates/bowls/mugs which i think is awesome. You can also create complimentary accessories, so thankyou to everyone who took my recent survey, as i have chosen the three top accessories. These will be printed and made. Again, not to be submitted but looking great in the portfolio, and the tutors are happy to mark it as park of our practical degree work.

Here are my initial designs. you must stay true to your design values so of course im using ink lines that arnt quite straight,and offset colour! I havnt included the entire design as we havnt submitted them yet - you never know who is googling!

Mug & Small plate from my favourite collection so far.

colours!

Gold Lanterns

One of the things i loved the most about Edinburgh is their use of little lanterns. These could be modernised streetlamps, with solar panals and LED bulbs, but no, they keep it old school with these lovely little lamps. they were everywhere and came in all shapes and sizes. The most quirky ones were down alleyways, as the alleys have been extended to include business' over the years, and if you look down a really long one you can see batches of different lantern designs :)

This evenings i have been bondawebbing some basic lantern detail and using this lovely material i found yesterday. Its called Gold Microdot, and the gold and black theme will run throughout this project, as i think it reflects Edinburgh Royal Mile & Castle Hill so well!

using my handwriting again in my work

Gold!

You can really see the gold that well here :(

Some more experiments coming soon! Need to get into the print room!

Samples Samples Samples

This evening i am drawing a few things in my sketchbook and thinking about materials. there is nothing i love more than a fabric delivery, and even though these are just samples, it does get me excited! Though, i spent £10 at Merchant & Mills and got what can only be described as 'scraps'. The fabric itself is good value once youre on there though, so hopefully there's enough there to get some little prints onto.

Drawing inspired by the glass roof of the Edinburgh Waverly Train Station. At a certain time of the evening one side is in darkness and the other reflects the sunset.

This beautiful offcut is actually the selvedge of Harris Tweed fabrics. I love it because im going to be using some Harris Tweed, but this is such a lovely eco-friendly way to re-use what would otherwise be scrap. That is, if i get round to doing something with it!

My samples. they look quite big here but they are about 3cmx10cm

Love the packaging. LOVE the packaging. I have 100 of these bags at home.. Hmmmm might be nice to print up for some up and coming craft fairs hey!


I want to print onto wool this term which i am very excited about. Im looking into the properties of Oilskin. i was sort of hoping my sample would give me a bit of a better feel of the material but perhaps i need to buy a meter. clever that!