Talking Colour / Talking Pattern – Dayna Parkes

A group college from an off-site outing in Central London combined with our collective class drawing session.

This layered collage represents the environment of the streets of Soho: alternative with pops of colour. Some key words that stuck out were: diverse, layered, modern and merge. Something that I found really interesting and picked up on was the idea that there were so many stories lying around that we incorporated a story element into our collage through the fun m&m imagery.

TALKING COLOUR

(1)This quick watercolour pencil sketch is of the ‘Empire Casino’ building in Leicester Square. Sitting opposite on a bench with my coursemates, I was enticed by the sculptural and refined architecture, yet the environment around me was worn in with a sense of amate exhaustion. The stunning buildwork was distracted by colourful advertisements and the business of the London rush. These surroundings led me to layer with bold inks and linework using fineliners to build up the feel of it being ‘worn in’ like graffiti.

(2)This drawing has an ink and gouache background with a motif of an abstract flower made of clay to enhance a 3-dimensional effect. This again surfaces the idea that graffiti is complementing and combining with the natural elements of this world. This was seen during my commute to the LCF Stratford campus.

(3)I visited the Watts Gallery in Guilford, near where I live, and I got to appreciate the motifs of shape around the grounds. I etched this design using a graphite stick from a statue, using Celtic symbolism to represent the theme of the crucifixion. Brightly coloured inks of pink and green, combined with fineliner work, helped to bring in modern imagery to something historical. To encapsulate the in-between of London and further away.

(4)This piece follows along the same process as my drawing above, using a graphite stick on paper to use the pre-existing design on the statue, incorporating colour and inks to modernise something historical and old. You can see bright inks refine and highlight the story being told without making the subject figurative and literal. Impressions of a man riding a horse from the medieval period are taken into an abstract graffiti response.

(5)When in central London, sketching on a bench, this little bird wouldn’t leave me alone. I sketched this little bird with watercolour pencil in a repeated motif, layering primary and strong colour.

(6)In an alley of Soho, I really enjoyed a glazed repeated print of this green Irish flower on the inner building work of the entrance to a shop. I sat in a cafe and drew with oil crayon from memory of the imagery and composition of the design. Once the layout was complete, I played with colour using marker and acrylic.

(7)As I was commuting to the LCF Stratford campus at the train station, I noticed this jagged repeated pattern on the edge of the protective roof. I wanted to sketch it close up with a simple shape design to layer and focus on colour more using oil and water-activated crayons, brush marker, and acrylic. The sharp edges were not all cleaned, so using greens and browns to enhance its worn-in look was a subconscious intention.

(8)This building is the gallery house in Watts Gallery in Guilford. I sketched this with a fineliner without taking my pen off the page and without looking at my page, which gave it a scruffy, grungy look. When I got home, I layered bright coloured inks and brush markers in shapes, casting shadows to influence the idea of the rich colour of stories inside the building that is not seen on the outside.

(9)Continuing to play with the graffiti impact and styling, this was a rod-like shape holding up the roofing at my nearest train station. I liked the circular and sharp shape, so I sketched in brush marker and oil crayon as I was sitting and observing this structure. I later on merged and layered more exaggerated shapes and patterns to again express the old, worn-in feel that this had with the environment around it.

(10)This quick observational drawing is of Reigate Hill, a viewpoint close to my home. I drew using water-activated crayons without taking my tool off the page. I wanted to explore colour as such by using warm bright prinks and browns of the built-up lived-in areas in comparison to the cool spacious areas and tones of this view.

REFLECTION:

For the ‘Talking Colour’ project, I have collected personal sketches and drawings in various mediums from primary research, including visits to locations in and around London. My aim was to capture how rural and natural elements of society are often complemented, distracted, and worn by street style art colours and mediums. One of my first research points was a group outing to Central London, specifically focusing on Soho. I believe that initial mark-making helped encapsulate the rush of the environment. I worked with oil and water-based crayons, which I had not used before, as well as gouache. I liked how they offered multiple options for use and portrayal, giving a sense of diversity. Another way I implemented my choice of colour was by using a graphite stick on the patterns and motifs that portrayed history and stories from the medieval period, and a range of coloured inks and brush markers on highlighted areas to bring a sense of modernism, personal identity within a collective one, and emphasise the worn-in feel that London has for me. As someone who lives in-between the countryside and London, I have intended to combine the contrast of both of these locations using watercolour pencils and sharp fine liner, merging them into one identity.  For one of my outcomes, I used air-dry clay with acrylic paint. This was fun to add three dimensions onto the page and to expand mediums that I typically wouldn’t go for, despite the discomfort. This task helped me get out of my mind when drawing and let the environment shape my natural instinct on what goes on the page. Going forward, I will use this technique and mindset in my future projects and artworks. 

TALKING PATTERN

Firstly, I zoomed into one of my drawings from talking colour, as I was really interested by the shape the ink lines made of the building in Leicester Square. I cut and reshaped these block patterns to form an interesting repeat print. I really like how when assembling the pattern frames together, it created a line that follows through the whole page. I also took what I had learned in talking colour to play around with colour inversion and palettes, transforming something that was a worn in style giving it more vibrancy and visual appeal.

This editorial outcome is also a collage, manipulation and cut out of my drawings from talking colour – exploring both the urban city of London and where a live, creating a personal identity of place. I wanted to continue the idea of ‘juxtaposition’ not only between the environments of London and my Home but leading this into colour, layering and visual motifs.

This pattern was inspired by the clay outcome I did in talking colour. I used my past pattern ideas to create a graffiti style pattern inside of the motif shape that was created by the clay. I really liked the movement of this shape and wanted to further change the scale and direction of this shape. I used procreate, cut out, crayons and collaging for this outcome.

I had a lot of fun with this outcome, I produced a graffiti style drawing using ink, crayons, oils and acrylics where I painted without expectation and thought which ended up being more of a response from my body to the environment of London and Soho. I then thought of it being used as a block print or motif, so I experimented with scale and block patterns on procreate still keeping the colour palette in mind.

I sliced and cut up previous mark making drawings and placed them in a way that thought about linear and adjacent direction which created overlaps and manipulation of colour and pattern. I really enjoyed combining the sliced photocopy of my drawings with oil crayons to bring in a vibrancy of colour and texture. I think these outcomes could be used as a motif and when thinking about taking it to the print room in a screen print, I think it could transfer well as a block print using transparent binder to get a interesting overlap of colour and pattern.

This outcome uses inks, crayons and brush markers, thinking about a floral motif pattern. I still wanted to use the colours that reflect the sense of identity that felt fitting for my personal view of the locations I was zooming in on but also taking it further and making the scale much smaller and layering the print over it in the original scale, experimenting with colour layering within a small repeat pattern.

I really enjoyed manipulating and playing with digital platforms to further develop my physical drawings. This outcome was zooming in on the singular motif of the floral within the graffiti – alike the natural side that is found within the busy urban environment. I do like this outcome but I have realised that my outcomes are beginning to appear repetitive therefore, I will now start to experiment with variety to expand my ‘range’ as a designer.

As I was walking my dog down my local common, I was interested in this pattern of apples fallen on the floor. Instead of zooming in, I wanted to zoom out as I really liked the dotted style. I also wanted to strip back my mark making technique, only using watercolour and fine-liner. Using a dry brush helped to convey texture which I think was successful and enhanced the outcome of this response. I really like this simple response conveying the simple and stripped back environment of my home. I wanted to take it further by blocking the shape of the apples, representing what a screen print of this design might look like.

These outcomes started off with zooming in to the apples that I saw on a walk in the previous image. I used watercolour in this mark marking. I then layered the block pattern that was an outcome from looking at the apples from a zoomed out perspective. I enjoyed merging both of these perspectives and wanted to continue the block print pattern by arranging them side by side in inverted and different colour palettes.

REFLECTION:

During this ‘talking pattern’ task, I have explored different online and physical mediums and resources to develop and explore both the urban city of London and my home consisting of natural life, creating a personal identity of place through colour and pattern. My aim was to convey the idea of ‘juxtaposition’ not only between the environments of London and my Home but leading this into colour, layering and visual motifs. I enjoyed using digital mediums to help develop repeated prints that could be developed further into screen prints. I did come to a stage in this project where I thought my inspiration and outcomes were starting to get repetitive in which I started to look and at new and different imagery and mediums, new colour palettes which provided more range. I think that this thought process is evident through the growth and journey of my work This project has taught me to value a wide range of imagery to be able to explore different textures and outcomes which I will take into my further upcoming projects.