Stitched Images

Here are a few of my stitched images, although the photograph does not do them justice I think that these are my best pieces. I just wish that I had had more time to stitch into more of my photographs as this was my original idea to create a more 3D effect with my work. Also it is a much more eye catching way to incorporate colour.

I tried to incorporate some of the other girls photographs in order to collaborate with them. I think this was a really good idea as some of the images that the girls shared are really interesting and have been fun to work with.

Maurizio Anzeri

After the last tutorial, the rest of the group and I were really keen to look into stitching into the photographs that we had already taken to create a more textured, 3D feel to the photography. I have been looking further into this over the past week and have found some interesting works by Maurizio Anzeri. He is a Graphic Designer who collects images from flea markets and car boot sales, he never actually knows the subject in his work.

"His embroidered patterns garnish the figures like elaborate costumes, but also suggest a psychological aura, as if revealing the person’s thoughts or feelings." 

The above images have been taken from a piece that Maurizio helped out on for Dazed and Confused magazine. He did not take the photographs, he just contributed the stitch to an already styled shoot. I much prefer this work than his work with vintage photographs, it is sleeker and more contemporary. 

I have found Maurizio's work very inspiring, to me the stitch looks very Spirographic. The geometric stitch is juxtaposed by the vintage photographs used as a back drop. The stitching actually transforms the photographs and almost changed the character of the subject. My group are looking at distorting the face however I like the concept of 'defacing' the face.

Satin Stitch

I have drew a small drawing of a little girl in fine liner, I have then used some embroidery thread to stitch into the image. This was inspired by an artist named Hagar van hu, whom I found on Pinterest. Their way of working has really appealed to me throughout this project as I feel it links to a lot of the criteria that our group is trying to reach. Portraiture, distortion and covering the face. This is just a basic idea at the moment but I would like to discuss this further with the group in our next tutorial, bringing in the ideas of 3D and texture.

To take this idea further, it could be done on a much larger scale, on a number of different materials and textures, and also in many colour ways. This is all down to experimentation which I plan on carrying out in the upcoming days left of the project. However, our group is yet to settle on an idea for a final piece, so I will act quickly on this experimentation in order to settle on a final piece soon.

Continuation of Work

So yesterday I posted about the pastiche I was doing, I have sort of finished the piece, I did not complete the full thing as I felt the idea was translated well already and it was just an initial piece to showcase an idea that I had about creating texture within an image by stitching into it.

I dont think that this is one of the best pieces of work that I have done but it certainly portrays the concept. The concept of expression really stands out to me here. The group and I have spoken about the idea of expression, using more peculiar facial expressions than general model-like poses. We have discussed the idea of covering the face or highlighting certain areas of the face, which I will no explore. Instead of using machine stitch I am going to look into hand embroidery to see if I can create a softer texture.

Making Progress

I really feel like I am starting to make some progress finally within this unit! It has taken a while but slowly but surely it is coming along. I have dug out my sewing machine and made a start on my pastiche of  Nikos Gyftakis' work. It is coming along a lot better than I expected. The only struggle I am having so far is the heaviness of my lines and the contrast between light and dark. The face is quite hard to copy as the skin is stretched into every direction possible, so to keep one fluid line is also quite difficult. This is an image of the progress that I have made so far, I will post an image later when I have completely finished the piece.

I think that the fingers have worked the best throughout this process, however I do need to define these more, as I have only used three of the 5 colours I plan to use. It's not perfect, but it is a start! I really like the texture that this technique creates, however for me, it is not polished enough. I have also been looking into distorting the face, using my scanner at home I scanned a few images of my face to see what the outcome would be like. The final images are slightly strange and I do not think I will be taking this any further.

More Meetings!

My group decided it was important for us to meet today, so we made a last minute decision and all met in the Holden Gallery. Items on our agenda were; what was said in our tutorial? Where to go from here? and what has everyone done so far?

A lot of the group is concerned about the speed we are currently working at. Personally I would like to pick up the pace a little, as there are only three weeks left to do everything, and I am starting to panic. Here is a copy of the feedback sheet we were given.

Most of these points were already on a lot of the groups mind before we had seen this sheet, as only one of our groups members managed to attend the tutorial, as myself and Lizzie both had out CP lectures which conflicted with this. I really like the idea of adding more texture to our work, as I have said in previous posts that this was an idea that I wanted to push forward with. I may experiment with tis tonight, adding words, objects and stitching to distort the objects face, firstly I'll ask my flat mates to let me take a photograph of them!

The final comment on the sheet is 'BE MORE AMBITIOUS!' which I feel is very necessary, we are thinking too literal and not experimenting enough. Personally I feel that the final outcome should not be just one final photograph, it could possibly be a number of things, expressing all of our ideas collaboratively.

Stitch & Photography

So my group have decided to go down more a photography route.. so i have been looking at ways in which I can still incorporate my style into the images and maybe enhance/ distort the images. I found this great images from Hagar Van Hu on Pinterest. The artist has used stitch to distort the image and enhance it. I love the first images of the faces, as our group plans on hiding the face/ exaggerating something that the person in the image does not like about themselves. I just thought this idea was quite different to what we have been currently looking at and slightly more on my level.