Textile Research

This week i've been reading Sheila Paine's Embroidered Textiles. This is a large collection of stitch, pattern and other media depicting various eras of history and culture. It provides a wide array of images and technical explanations, often providing the history and function of each item. Traditional outfits like the Japanese Kimono and Native American dress are covered as well as Turkish robes, Chinese dress and more. This book has provided a useful insight into the different designs and purposes of historical wear, as well as specific guides on pattern and colours for each time period.

Above: Front cover of newest reference book!

I used this book as reference to paint some pattern studies. I found these useful not only for practice but to later use as texture overlays in concepts. To create these, I used a variety of photoshop brushes to try and replicate the traditional patters.

I used the textures as overlays to add detail and motif's to base character silhouettes. This created an interesting layer of depth and provided strong inspiration for clothing details and colour pallettes. 

To create these, I placed each texture in a variety of ways and played with Photoshop's layer settings until I felt the image felt right. After this I painted additional details using these as a template. These designs were mostly Indian inspired, with some Scandinavian geometry thrown in.

I am very happy with these results. I feel that the addition of the patterned textures have greatly added depth to the silhouettes, and from this point I can take the forms further, using light and form to further build on the characters. These were sketched with Jack the Giant Killer in mind, as I tried to incorporate different Asian cultures whilst keeping with a "lone hero giant killer" idea.