Capturing memories is the essence of my felt designs. I collect images by sketching or taking photographs of places that are meaningful to me. However, as my work is mainly abstract, adopting a contemporary, fragmented approach; my computer is proving to be my new best friend.
I decided to take the Creative Computing course at Artybird alongside the final year of my Fellowship course. I discovered that the computer, when used creatively, is a versatile 'tool', which can provide endless ways to generate new design material or to edit an existing design.
By digitally adapting and manipulating my pictorial representations I can select elements that are significant to me and use them to produce unique narratives. Using Photoshop Elements to support my work, enables me to respond to my felt designs and digitally trial a variety of ideas and options. By modifying the colour palette; adding new marks; exploring scale or experimenting with pattern and rhythm, I can completely change the composition or mood of my design. So much more effective and quicker than manually tracing multiple copies, re-colouring, cutting out and re-assembling!
My Fellowship Exhibition pieces will display four main methods where I have experimented and adopted creative computer techniques:
• replacing a white background with my own fragmented creation using digital layering
• identifying balanced, detailed compositions within my paper designs to translate into felt
• adding an additional surface layer by experimenting with options for stitch or print
• creating pattern repeat from design details
Working creatively using the computer has enabled me to push the boundaries in my felt designs by creating images far beyond what I can envisage in my head.
But this is just the beginning – who knows where this will lead me next?
By Andrea Diggle