Week One

Being a print designer and being inspired by colour, texture and pattern I decided to use coral reefs as the inspiration for this project, a subject matter plentiful of all three. After spending a week drawing there are some techniques I’ve found to be better than others in terms of being suited to my chosen theme of coral reefs. Mark making using different line textures has been the most successful to date helping me capture the different patterns and surfaces.

Initial Drawings

To begin with my drawings have been very literal, I have quickly moved on from this after spotting designers Prabal Gurung's 2012 Spring collection. The flowing lines and movement in his prints encouraged me to draw more loosely, I tested blowing up patterns taken from the wild life that live within the coral reefs along with reefs themselves and tracing them. This has proved to be positive giving my drawings more fluidity and something I want to continue experimenting with.

Prabal Gurung Collection

Drawing Inspired by Gurung 

I’ve discovered working with inks to be the best way to achieve the bright vivid colours I’ve initially been inspired by from photographs and in books. Another area I want to continue to investigate is mark making, using the inks and ‘home-made’ tools rather than conventional paint brushes to see what different textures I can create and to try and continue with the movement characteristic.

Inspiration 

Ink Drawings