Developing into Outcomes

The work developed through out my sketch book had a wide focus to fashion illustration, jewelry and stitch. To continue this focus to my project I began to look at illustrations that could work together with a necklace. The illustration I chose to stitch was a simple portrait with detailed hair. With artist influence from Lisolette Watkins I added lines to the lips and segmented the hair into stitch strands. This matches the style of Lisolette Watkins. Many high street shops during Autumn 2013 were introducing the bold, elaborate and vast range of statement necklaces and earrings. With reference to this I researched into brands such as Zara and Topshop to get some inspiration. Although it was helpful to see the way they were extended along the neckline, it proved more effective to improvise the design and work on improvements that way. 

To create the outcome I started by pencil drawing the outline of the portrait and then painting with gouache the skin colour. I added a slight tinge of pink to the cheeks to add a realistic dimension. I then painted the lips a solid pink to stand out. By adding bondaweb to silver material I cut out small areas which would be paced within the hair to add texture and a shine. With black thread I covered each line and curve with a thin stitched line. I did not want to over whelm the illustration with heavy black lines. In the hair there are areas which are bolder than others to represent each section of the curls. The necklace required me to use PVC (plastic), different boldly coloured fabrics, foil and beads. Accordingly I arranged the circles to the calico and started building on top of it. I wanted to keep the bright colourful aspects of the necklace, this is why I chose to use only coloured thread rather than black. The beads were relevant colours too, with some clear and silver ones to match the foil. The same method was used for the hair piece. Overall I am satisfied with my first outcome. If I could change anything it would be to ensure each segment in the hair was exact and not as vague however I do feel this would not relate to Lisolette Watkins work as predominantly.

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