Busy, Timid, Colouful identity of Yanique Moodie

I've completed to first module of my Textiles Design course this year, it's been such an exciting module and has kept me very busy but I feel my more is so much more personal which is good because the title of the module is Identity.
My three focus words for this module were busy, timid and colourful and I've tried to reflect these words through my work in the different specialist areas, Constructed Textiles, Embroidery and Print.

Yanique Moodie Design Boards, 2011
Textiles Design
Module TEX 4001
Birmingham City University 

first rotation: weaving

A few images from my sketchbook, visual documentation of my ideas for weave structures.

who is yanii?

Our first module in Textiles is all about Identity, defining yourself through your work and making your personality shine through your work. It's a great concept for promoting originality in our work but I've never had to define my identity through my drawings, and the drawing exercises weren't your generic pencil, paint detailed drawings. Our tutors wanted us to use three words we use to describe yourselves and draw in the style of the words. The three words I chose were timid, busy and colourful. Here are a few snapshots of my week of drawing.

Day 1:- Signatures

On Monday were were using our signature to generate patterns, by writing
our name repeatedly and overlapping it each time. I actually really enjoyed this
but when we started to use this technique to generate drawings it was a bit hard to find

a comfort zone. But I managed to grasp the concept when I started to layer my signature

on my drawings using different media. The most successful drawing was the parrot, layering with

paint and my signature.

Day 2:- Making textures

Making different textures was something I really enjoyed and I think shows my identity more than the drawings with my signatures. We were given blank pieces of paper and were free to make different textures on the surface of the paper using any media of our choice. For me this was like printmaking so ideas flowed smoothly, especially when I found one technique that I could develop in many ways. I mostly worked with inks, a craft knife and paints. The textured papers also worked well when I started to cut shapes into it. For some reason I wanted to cut them into circles and layer them.

So this is what I've been working on during my first week of university.

something new

This week has been rather hectic for me, I've moved out and started uni. So all the excitement of that have been keeping me busy. But I will do some more blog posts soon when I've done more work on my course.
So far the highlight of week is finally getting this book. Ever since I saw the exhibition I've wanted Atsuko Tanaka's catalogue. Its a great book, I've flicked through the pages and there's a lot about her life, work and inspiration so I can't wait to read it properly.
The low part of my week is getting a cold, but I'm getting over it.

Carolina Herrera Spring 2012 RTW

As the time draws nearer to my Textiles Design course start date, more ideas for projects and flowing in. So Im doing my best to write them down here on my blog so I can refer back to them later. I saw a tweet about Carolina Herrera's Spring 2012 RTW collection so I decided to look it up out of curiosity.
There were a few garments that really stood out to me and sparked some inspiration so here are a few

While clicking through the images in the slideshow the garment above reminded me of a blurry photo I took in Jamaica of a Hummingbird, especially the layers on the bottom of the dress, the fabric is so light and delicate like the wingd of the Hummingbird. There is so much movement in the bottoms layers and the colours are so tropical and similar to the Hummingbird colours. This is definately a garment I would like to draw inspiration from.

This is also another garment from the slideshow that caught my attention.
The prints on silk/chiffon are so simple but works well with the colour and delicate fabric.

I know first hand how beautiful prints on chiffon are and they dye beautiful colour shades.

This dress also made me think of my blurry Hummingbird photograph from Jamaica. Although
the print is of little sparrows. I think if I were to use my blurry photograph as a print I would like to keep the blurred quality of the photograph and print it repeatedly on chiffon or silk like Herrera.

Here is the link to her collection on style.com
http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2012RTW-CHERRERA

Inspiring Sandra Buckland

I'm still being inspired by knitwear and constantly researching knitwear designers. The most engaging designer I've found so far is quite new Sandra Buckland. Her designs have fantasy, sculptural elements.
Buckland's designs are inspiring to me because this is the level I aspire to be at with my work.
Also after seeing the Atsuko Tanaka exhibition at the Ikon last month I've been interested in knitwear, especially knitwear with sculptural elements. I've been working on some illustrations
to try and illustrate my ideas but I'm not completely happy with the shapes.

Here is the link to her website.
http://www.sandrabacklund.com/

CRAIG FELLOWS Rantings and what-nots...: Inspired: Maurizio Bongiovanni

Discovered a textile designer while hunting for some fresh ideas for my degree. Craig Fellows was a beacon of light in my uninspired mind.
In this post he talks about an artist Maurizo Bongiovanni that has inspired him.
Click the link below for the blog post on Craig Fellow's blog and have a look at his collections. He is so talented!

[CRAIG FELLOWS] Rantings and what-nots...: Inspired: Maurizio Bongiovanni: Maurizio Bongiovanni- Painter

fashion illustration

After seeing Atsuko Tanaka's retrospective exhibition at the Ikon Gallery I felt so inspired, and consumed with the need to pay homage to Tanaka's work. That evening I though of practising my illustration skills by using her large paintings as inspiration. In the post I did about the exhibition I spoke about interpreting her work by using wool and wool pom pom balls.

This is the idea I had in mind represented in the first two raw illustrations I did that evening after seeing the exhibition.

Now it's been a few days I'll try and draw more illustrations in this style but perhaps try a few different styles, Im not sure what the results will be...

Drawing

I started this drawing a year ago but got distracted so I didn't finish it. So I finally got round to finishing it today and I'm really pleased with the results. I can't believe that it's a drawing I've actually done. Drawing is not one of my strong points so to really concentrate on such a detailed drawing and execute it well, was such a confidence boost and I certainly want to continue practicing my drawing because I can only get better from now.

Assorted Drawing Pencils

Paint