Stage 2 focussing on your theme book

Looking at everything I have in my theme book so far, the images that keep me hooked are these ones: - the moths eye that i explored above,

 he felt with holes, the wing pattern and the sound waves in the shape of a cicada. I also like the Brillo pad scribble but there isn't really much to it. The blue colour scheme appeals more strongly, although the green sand yellow one is more evocative of the insects I think. And the sharpness of the sound they make.









I also love these insect eyes but don't know how or if I could incorporate the combination of colour shape and iridescence into a textile piece.

The coursefile suggests making at least 2 large drawings based on this source material. I have already done some, including the moth's eye study above.

I started with a shape and then colour study of the combination of sound waves and wing structure.

Shapes of sound waves within the wing

The colour didn't come out right. I was using inks which are not as straightforward as designers gouache to mix. And I was pressed for time.

My attempt at a colour study of sound waves in the wing
using water-soluble inks

The pattern of the sound waves giving the
structure of the wing did appeal to me a great
deal, though.

I wondered if I could achieve this effect, of the waves at the edges of the wing sections, using the tapestry-weaving technique I learned the last section of this course.








Then I did a collage to reflect and explore the textures of the felt image. I liked trying out new variations on the shapes of the holes and I learned how it is less the individual holes but more the relative sizes and the columns of them that gave the overall pattern. At the end of this I wanted to try out a similar thing using a stiffer material to reflect the stiff exoskeleton.

I drew wiggly lines on the crumpled tissue paper underneath to see how this reflected the sound waves rising up behind me when I hear cicadas.


This was not particularly successful, although the light fragile qualities of the tissue paper itself were good for this image.


I think this one needs to be developed further, using the particular patterns of veins on the wing, perhaps, and making the wiggly sound waves either more complex, or more mechanical-looking.