Art through the eyes of Dean McDowell

Above I have photographed two research pages looking at the Artist Dean Mcdowell. Dean Mcdowell is a well known artist for painting facial expression and in particular he focuses on depression. I have used his work to produce to large paintings of my model using his painting techniques.

Figure Drawings

In college recently I have been looking at different artists who produce illustrations of the figure in extrodinary ways. We have been discussing the movement and posture of the figure and what that could represent. Above to the right is an example of a piece of work I produced looking at a the artist Amelie Hegardt. The way she expresses the figure is very freehand and simplicity of the designs show so much thought throughout each illustration

A coat of many colours sketch ideas

Above is simple sketches of my basic Design ideas of how I could produce my coat of many colours. This page is not so much focused on the detailing of the coat but looking more towards the shapes and sizes I could use as a basis to get the structure of the garment.

American Quilt Mood Board Research

Photographed above is my Americian Quilt inspired mood board. The design brief I am currently working on is "A coat of many colours." To get inspiration to design a coat I looked at American Quilt designs. As i particulary liked the differnt techniques used to make an American Quilt I decided to use my research along with spare material to design my own American Quilt.

Sketch book design ideas

Above I have photographed a variety of Design ideas from various sketch books, some of which are dress sketches and some are watch design ideas. Each design has been analysed to a high standard. As a designer I realise that there are ways to improve a design to succeed maximum potential of what could be produced. Some of my annotation includes materials I could use to make the garment, techniques, cost, target audience etc. I have also photographed a sample of some CAD watch designs i produced using Google Sketchup. 

Theatre costume sketch book ideas

Here I have chosen six sketch book pages created from my brief "Theatre Costume combined with animation costume." As I wasnt given a specific brief I thought it would be interesting to look at how Theatre Costumes differ from the animated film costumes. I visited Theatre Clwyd as they held open a exhibition of all the Theatre costumes produced and used over the last 50 years. I was able to speak to one of the costume designers and ask for advice on how I could go about making my own garment look more theatrical.

Lady Gaga inspired final garment

Photographed above is my final garment being worn by my model Emily Beech. I wanted to show outrage all through the outfit, as it seems Lady Gaga shows no limits when it comes to fashion. I did this by creating a main focus on the exagerated clown sleeves aswell as broadening the width of the tutu skirt. Although it is barely visible on the photograph I have tried to show the lighting i have sewn into the bottom of the skirt. This garment is something I am extrememly proud of as it took alot of testing to get it just as i visualised. 

Lady Gaga/60's Project-design ideas/mood board/ final design/testing

The basis of my project was to look into a fashion era, designer or icon. I came to the conclusion that I would research into 1960's fashion and Lady Gaga who is considered a modern day fashion icon. Researching my chosen areas I produced a mood board, collating images of various fashion designs. A testing page, this provides a variety of different textures which I could use on the final garment. As shown above is also my Final Designs of the garment i chose to make.

Fashion Meets Technology Bag

Photographed is the fashion accessory I produced as my final design.

I designed and produced a tartan patchwork handbag using different materials. I incorporated technology into my design through the inclusion of a stripped keyboard sewn onto the face of the bag. I re-arranged the keys onto the keyboard to read 'Technology meets fashion'.

Fashion Meets Technology Final Design

This is a sample taken from my final design page.

My final design was inspired by the research carried out in the early stages of my project. I was able to use my research to help design and develop ideas based around technology.

Fashion Meets Technology Design Ideas

With reference to my technology mood board I produced various designs inspired by the imagery I had collected on a variety of technologies.

My designs incorporate a variety of techniques; from simple sketches to textured designs using different media. This enables me to gain a visual representation of how my designs will look if I were to produce them.

Fashion Meets Technology Mood Board

Given a list of design briefs, I chose to look at 'Fashion meets technology'.

I carried out in-depth research and decided to focus my project on old technology.

The above page shows the results of my research and gives a stark contrast of  the various technologies and designs that I could incorporate into my final design.

About Me

My name is Simone Leah Botfield, Im 19 years of age and currently live with my family in Ewloe, Flintshire, North Wales. I attended Hawarden High school where I obtained ten GCSE's and A Levels. Throughout the two years in sixth form i studied Design and Technology Textiles which I gained a Grade B, Information Communication Technology Grade B, Art and Design Grade C and also I studied the Welsh Baccalaureate Grade A Pass. I throughly enjoyed school and when I began studying textiles in sixth form I saw my enthusiam for fashion design expanding. During Textiles Technology I produced a Lady Gaga inspired garment, alot of thought process, testing and making went into my project which was successfully paid off as I was awarded a certificate and had my garment displayed at the Manchester Technology Awards Center.
I feel I am a very creative minded person, this is not something that I can just show through pen and paper but through every piece of work I produce. I can be considered as a perfectionist and show this through the effort and passion I make sure I put into every piece of work I create. I am now studying a one year foundation course in Art and Design at West Cheshire College, in December I specialised in Fashion Design and I am sincerely thankful and appreciative of how much I have learned and how studying fashion will never introduce a barrier. The reason I would like to study at Manchester Metropolitan University is because I admire the reviews and sheer level of enthusiam from the Fashion faculty aswell as the fantastic grades previous pupil have graduated with. The course has so much interest and detail I would like to explore to help me open up another pathway to my dream career. The situation of the University is also another reason why I would like to study at Manchester, the area seems a very pleasant place to live in as I would hopefully be able to move away to get the full experience. I hope you enoy reading through my blog and thankyou so much for allowing me to show you my work.