Fri 10.05.13

 I have used Photoshop to arrange, repeat and layer my design elements. I started my first design by using some elements which I thought would work well together; the tribal mask and the flower motifs. I wanted to give the image something more of an overall composition, rather than a large area of repetitive pattern. I started building a background using the fill tool and repeating parts of the flower motif, and then added larger elements on top. I also varied the sizes of some of the elements that I did put into repeat, such as the smaller flowers, so that the design was still varied. I made some changes to my painted images using the magic wand and the fill tool to add slightly different colours to some areas.  Using digital media allowed me to manipulate and experiment with my motifs to a huge extent and within in minuets I could completely change the look of the design or change it back instantly. 

Once I was happy with my first design I started another one, this time using the motif of the dancing people. I was intending for this group of designs to hang in the exhibition next to each other and therefore I wanted them to have features in common and look like pieces from the same collection. However it soon became apparent that this motif created a very different look compared to my first design. I’m not sure why this was, I think it had something to do with the fact that the second painting used more muted and harmonious tones and there were less smaller details or darker lines to make it more defined. I preferred my first design to my attempts with the second one and so I decided that for the purposes of the exhibition I would use a group of three design which were slight variables on my first one and I would keep the other motif and what I had done with it for development work and a separate group of designs. 

With the second two designs I used the same elements and motifs, but played around with colour, scale and manipulating what I had to create new design elements, such as deleting the centres of the flowers to make flower outlines or using the centres to make dots. I spent a lot of time trying to develop three designs which were varied but also sat well together and I think that I ultimately succeeded in achieving this.