Assignment 2 tutor report

	Open College of the Arts
	Tutor report

Student name	Christina Rogers	Student number	510830
Course/Module	Textiles 1: Exploring Ideas	Assignment number	Two

Overall Comments

Well done Christina, you have submitted an interesting and well thought through project.  The work is well laid out in the A4 Sketchbook with supporting work in the smaller ‘Man Made’ sketchbook and ‘my textured world’ blog.  The print work is experimental and full of colour, with evidence that you are willing to test and work through new possibilities.  

Assessment potential

I understand your aim is to go for the Textiles Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, and providing you commit yourself to the course, I suggest that you are likely to be successful in the assessment.

Feedback on assignment

There is evidence that you have explored with some thoroughness screen-printing.   You have made a good start to a new technique, producing work that appears to be looser than assignment 1 work with some dynamic results. The designs have been carried out on a range of fabrics with some interesting results.  There is good use of colour, a variety of shapes and evidence that you have used your sketches to create and think through the design process. 

The scaffold motif is very simple but you have used it well, exploring a wide number of colours and layouts – playing with shape and line.  You have added texture with stitch and weave, thinking about scale and placement.  The work is usefully annotated with reflective ideas and technical information.

Continue to follow the course material with diligence.  When executing the work remain thoughtful about placement and the scale of the design elements.  Be experimental, remembering not all sample pieces can be successful but in trying several ways of forming a design there is the possibility that exciting and energetic results can occur.

Sketchbooks

The drawing for this project consists of mark making and working from life and photography.  You have used a number of different mediums, occasionally on coloured papers.  There is evidence that you have taken your sketches through to the print processes and continued to develop them there.  This assignment shows you to use drawing to generate design ideas, explore a subject matter and to work out design ideas.  

I would suggest you keep pushing your drawing forward, developing and perfecting your skills in using the mediums and capturing what you see.  Look at the way others draw.  There are a number of oca films where students drawing work is shared.  There is one in last week’s oca e-bulletin of a painting student, Jereme Crow.  Look at how many times he paints the lemon until he finds the best way of expressing it. Try Googling sketchbook images and see what you come up with.  

Learning Logs or Blogs 

Your online learning log is straightforward to navigate and is updated regularly.  The blog contains information about the research you have conducted on Constructivism along side your responses to this art movement.  I can see how Constructivism has influenced your own creativity.  You could have possibly written about how this came about for you.  There is also imagery from your sketchbook and the print work you have carried out for this assignment.  Your photos could do with being clearer but I do like the way you have used the grid of images to collate and explore the work to take it forward.  

There is some very personal and relevant self-reflection about the creative process, which shows you to be articulate and self-aware.  There is analysis of the print work and how you have used drawing to solve design problems.  It is nice to see you are looking out for and capturing those serendipitous moments (blue filler and tracing paper).  There is thorough colour work in finding pleasing colour combinations from magazine snipping’s then capturing them in paint ready to use in the print work.  

Continue to write at length your experiences of working through the course material, reflecting on how things are going for you, detailing any design ideas that may occur and the ways your visual research influences your design work.

Suggested viewing/reading

Books you may find useful to enhance your drawing skills.

• Draw to Stitch: line, drawing and mark-making in textile art.  Gwen Hedley 2010. Batsford. London 
• Henry Moore textiles.  Anita Feldmen. 2008. Lund Humphries. Aldershot.
• The encyclopedia of drawing techniques.  Hazel Harrison.  2004.  Search. Tunbridge Wells.

Books you may find useful for the next assignment.

• Folding techniques for designers. From sheet to form.  Paul Jackson. 2011. Laurence King Publishing. London.
• Supersurfaces. Folding as a method of generating forms for architecture, products and fashion.  Sophia Vyzoviti. 2010. BIS Publishing. Amsterdam. 
• Folding Architecture. Spatial, structural and organizational Diagrams. 2010. BIS Publishing. Amsterdam. 

Look at magazines such as Embroidery, Selvedge and Crafts to research methods and design ideas.

Pointers for the next assignment

• Continue to advance your skills in drawing.
• Maintain in supporting your design ideas from a wide range of visual research.
• Continue to develop your reflective and analytical skills
• Retain your good working practices

I look forward to your next assignment.

Tutor name:	Rebecca Fairley
Date	24th March 2014
Next assignment due	26th May 2014