Structure and Attachment | Digital Printing

The Basics:

Following the pictures left to right;

To create a basic pattern you started by drawing the pattern on a scale of choice, ours was 2cm by 2cm, then making the square into a pattern by clicking 'Define Pattern'. You would then open up a new page, A4 size on the International Paper, then transferring the Pattern into the A4, or paper size of choice. Finally you decided on the scale of the pattern.

Main Workshop:

A few of the patterns designed that day

I started off really uninspired by digital printing. As I have relatively strong previous Photoshop knowledge I felt the workshop moved quite slowly at times, not to say I didn't learn new skills, as I definitely did I just felt tutorials weren't always at a pace that allowed me to maintain steady focus. However saying this, at the end of today I began to enjoy designing the digital prints as we were allowed to design our own. I’ve learnt my techniques and interests lie in ‘hands on’ work, so as soon as we were able to design our own, and start to manipulate our own images I really got into the workshop. I’d say I got on pretty well, initially my designers were uninspired by my own research and these didn’t look great. But once I went through my research and book, ideas flooded in and my designs became much more structured and exciting.

My favourite prints came from a photocopy of glue dried out, the original glue piece attached itself to the paint in the tray it was removed from and these colours were transferred to the glue in this process. It had a very abstract structure which made it easy to work with; I could pick out and repeat sections without it looking mirrored or similar to other people’s designs.

A tool I had never learnt to use on Photoshop previously was designing my own brush print; this was an interesting development to a few of our original practice designs. This can be seen in the middle print in the image above, the rose used as part of the pattern was transferred into a brush, and in a larger scale printed all over the top of the pattern. After getting the hang of this tool I started to think about how it could be used in garments. For example, as opposed to using an accent colour, I could use an accent pattern with this tool and pre-plan to place it throughout the design and then printing it in the correct place on the digital programme. Through practice, I’m sure this could be self-taught, a technique I hope to try out.

In feedback from peers and Dan, the teacher, it was all relatively positive, in particular the geometric shapes and the tonal matching of my chosen colour red. As well as learning to use the brush tool, I developed my knowledge in new ways of using the basic Photoshop tools and improved my speed and therefore time management through learning more of the keyboard shortcuts. Something I could definitely work on with digital printing that I will try to bring into Fridays workshop is to be more brave with my patterns. To step away from ‘pretty shapes’ and colours and looking into making the mundane exciting, everyday objects zoomed into, microscopic levels. I felt I got a good grasp on scale, and the scales that suited which patterns best.  

For Friday I am aware we are translating our patterns onto a mannequin, to prep for this I will sketch in advance various ways my designs could be used, this should improve Fridays work as my scales and patterns will be ready to work with.