My Sketchbooks: Victoriana

As I mentioned on my very first blog post that I would be sharing my previous work from my college and university sketchbooks, I have finally come around to doing so! I was actually wanting to do this a few months ago now but then I actually opened it up. I was very reluctant towards it but I guess it can help current students with their sketchbooks on what NOT to do and perhaps even inspire?
The below project is called Victoriana, a mixed fusion of Punk and the Victorian era. I remember when creating this sketchbook how much fun I had, my one and only ever complete sketchbook! But now when I look back at it..(I’m a little embarrassed)..in my defence it was my first year in college and hey every artist starts somewhere right? I guess on the bright side I can confirm that the sketchbooks do improve!
I didn’t include ALL the pages, some were just THAT bad..but here’s some that I thought were reasonable

We started off the project by visiting the infamous Victoria and Albert Museum, where we had to collect primary research of wrought iron and then develop them into repeat patterns and experiment various types of embroidery techniques

After trying different methods I also made an attempt to create a sample that was inspired by Viktor and Rolf, using only staples. Although it is important to show your capability of basic techniques it is also good to show that you can think outside the box. As you can see, from the below image, one pattern can look really different according to the materials and techniques used
I used both hand embroidery and an embroidery machine, techniques including: beads, sequins, couch stitching, twin needling as well as staples

 And if its not clear already then yes I had a major love for sequins back then!

Back then I used to think that I needed to have backgrounds to go along with my pages and when I first went to university I hated not being able to do them. But to be honest its much better to not have so much going on in the background. Keeping it crisp and white makes it far more distinctive, bringing more focus to the actual work/samples not to mention all the time you would have saved that could be used more wisely! A problem that I had, that many students can relate to I'm sure, was I was far too precious with my sketchbook trying too hard to keep it beautiful, but really with any project there will be ideas that go wrong but thats ok, its all part of the process. I personally didn't used to like showing my mistakes but looking back now I realise that had I been more free and experimented more then perhaps I would have got more pages done and even landed on better ideas !

 

For this particular project the entire class had to design, pattern cut and sew a skirt made using taffeta, including a corset that was embroidered and a black printed t-shirt. The illustration above with the brown background was my final idea and blue sample was my design for the corset.

I think the best tip I could leave any student with is, any idea you have do it straight away, even if it doesn't go according to plan, produce as many samples as you can, for one idea leads to another and you never know..you might just surprise yourself!