With 2 director/ designer meeting out of the way it has been an intense week getting the designs for Tender ready for a meeting with the Director on Friday 25th. The intended style for this production was ‘photorealistic’. Developing on from the concept boards which were created for the first meeting I continued to use collage as a main type for rendering technique. In my personal experience Photoshop is a really good tool for creating digital collaged pieces. Editing, rescaling and forming the image are key functions of the programme. My intention however was not to just to create a collage which looked like a photo but to add an artistic, stylistic quality to the designs. I also looked at designers work such as Paul Brown and Claire Lyth for inspiration. They use detailed face which add realism to the image but do not pull focus. Reading the directors personality traits, I observed in the first meeting that he required his designers to put in ‘the work’ for his production. Though a modern piece he made it quite clear that it would still require just as much work as a period piece. Though this may be the case during the design process the gathering of the actual costumes should be much less labour intensive. My feeling is that this attitude stems from the arrangements that one costume designer (myself) is working on 3 shows for the same company. He wants reassurance that he is getting his fair share of me. From this observation I formed the opinion that I would need to demonstrate artistically that I had put the ‘work’ in. One of my early observations I encountered from talking to an experienced costume maker is that if a designer has slaved over a design that there is a sense that the design has more passion emotion and work gone into the design development process. I have been aware of this and keen not to let the computer to be seen as the easy option.
With all this in mind I wanted to create a collage look which looked stylistic, creative and ‘worked’ and not as collage can often look like a real photo. For this I looked at designers work such as Paul Brown and Claire Lyth for inspiration. They use detailed face which adds realism to the image without pulling focus always from the costume but almost highlighting the costume more. To create the images I used magazines and clothing catalogues. Being a contemporary production my research into the characters and their clothing evolved around modern fashion. Looking at magazines and clothing catalogues became a key source of inspiration and using collage allowed me to dress the characters as if I were shopping. I chose to put a effect on the face which involves a number of steps using filter and channels in Photoshop.
Evaluation the work produced this week I am confident to say the techniques has been effective and productive. The collage technique did not consume a large deal of time however this process benefited from the fact that the ‘design development’ process had taken place and most of the images were pre collected. My studio practice which formed almost a rhythmic pattern followed a process of selecting an image, extracting it and putting th costume together in a collage. A real advantage which I used on several occasions was the process of turning off layers and adding an alternative item of clothing for the next scene while retaining the face, trousers or shoes from the image before. This process almost echo’s my practice on from the rendering style used for La Ronde, where the same image can look different with a few simple changes. I created a temple for the final design layout and chose to put the costume changes for each character on the same page. What I learnt for my studio practice is how much can be achieved by using the same process and almost getting a systematic rhythm to rendering. In 15 hours I was able to produce 20 designs ready for discussion. Perhaps I achieved this just because it had to be done. However at the beginning of the week I had decided I would get done what I could in the time frame but was please I was able to produce all that I did. I think as a negative that using this system you get into a ‘zone’ which almost reflects a factory production line and in that instance a sense of artistry goes from your work.
What does it all mean?
Well I suppose this week I have continued to learn that the computer aids my time managements and I have benefited from this by being able to produce a great deal of work. Time does seem to be a key pro of using a computer but I also see artistic developments which I have made.
The technique and style of the renderings has been artistically successful from my view point. Though collage is essentially the gathering of images from other sources collated together to make a new image I feel I have added a unique and creative look to the final renderings. The use of solid flat images of the clothes next to the stylized pencil effect of the body not only pulls focus on the essential component (the costume) but gives the image a creative quality which I hope give it artistic merit. The most rewarding element of this method of working is the realistic representation of the clothes which you are trying to communicate. A designer who struggles to draw well could use this technique as it requires no drawing. It does however require a high level of knowledge into the computer programme as the technique though simple in results required a variety of applications.
With all this in mind I wanted to create a collage look which looked stylistic, creative and ‘worked’ and not as collage can often look like a real photo. For this I looked at designers work such as Paul Brown and Claire Lyth for inspiration. They use detailed face which adds realism to the image without pulling focus always from the costume but almost highlighting the costume more. To create the images I used magazines and clothing catalogues. Being a contemporary production my research into the characters and their clothing evolved around modern fashion. Looking at magazines and clothing catalogues became a key source of inspiration and using collage allowed me to dress the characters as if I were shopping. I chose to put a effect on the face which involves a number of steps using filter and channels in Photoshop.
Evaluation the work produced this week I am confident to say the techniques has been effective and productive. The collage technique did not consume a large deal of time however this process benefited from the fact that the ‘design development’ process had taken place and most of the images were pre collected. My studio practice which formed almost a rhythmic pattern followed a process of selecting an image, extracting it and putting th costume together in a collage. A real advantage which I used on several occasions was the process of turning off layers and adding an alternative item of clothing for the next scene while retaining the face, trousers or shoes from the image before. This process almost echo’s my practice on from the rendering style used for La Ronde, where the same image can look different with a few simple changes. I created a temple for the final design layout and chose to put the costume changes for each character on the same page. What I learnt for my studio practice is how much can be achieved by using the same process and almost getting a systematic rhythm to rendering. In 15 hours I was able to produce 20 designs ready for discussion. Perhaps I achieved this just because it had to be done. However at the beginning of the week I had decided I would get done what I could in the time frame but was please I was able to produce all that I did. I think as a negative that using this system you get into a ‘zone’ which almost reflects a factory production line and in that instance a sense of artistry goes from your work.
What does it all mean?
Well I suppose this week I have continued to learn that the computer aids my time managements and I have benefited from this by being able to produce a great deal of work. Time does seem to be a key pro of using a computer but I also see artistic developments which I have made.
The technique and style of the renderings has been artistically successful from my view point. Though collage is essentially the gathering of images from other sources collated together to make a new image I feel I have added a unique and creative look to the final renderings. The use of solid flat images of the clothes next to the stylized pencil effect of the body not only pulls focus on the essential component (the costume) but gives the image a creative quality which I hope give it artistic merit. The most rewarding element of this method of working is the realistic representation of the clothes which you are trying to communicate. A designer who struggles to draw well could use this technique as it requires no drawing. It does however require a high level of knowledge into the computer programme as the technique though simple in results required a variety of applications.
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