I did these drawings based on colours I saw around me in my apartment and my visit to the Columbia Road Flower Market. I really like the layering collage effect I created in the first drawing by using tissue paper. I also think using the nectarine as a medium as well as drawing it was really interesting. I think I could have used more mediums, used more collage and maybe worked in 3D to create more interest within the drawings.

My inspiration came from a trip in East London. I went to flower markets, farms, and streets and took a lot of photos. I carefully observe the photo by zooming in and rotating. Discovered different color combinations and surprising textures. Before painting, I was thinking about what I want to paint and what points I want to focus on. I choose colors, textures and patterns as my focus. I used watercolor, oil pastel and acrylic. The color changes of watercolor are used to express the color of the bouquet, and the oil pastel is used to express the details of the petals. My favorite is the third painting. First draw the outline of the hydrangea in purple and green. Then use blue and yellow to paint details. I think the colors of nature are the most exciting. Merchants match different varieties of flowers together to produce many magical combinations.

During the brief, Talking Colors- I rediscovered how much I enjoyed drawing. I was inspired by my surroundings such as the nature on the street where I live – trees, leaves, and other plants. Nearby is a children’s playground and the liveliness of the color choices was very appealing. I also learned how attracted I am to rough, peeling, old, worn, layered, decaying, and grungy textures. Graffitti art that I would find on walls of buildings and tube stations was also another source of inspiration. Something I would like to explore further is how I can create layers and textures within my embroidery work. Not just with thread and yarn but also implementing other unorthodox materials such as plastic, metal, ceramic, or batting. Overall, this task allowed me to realize the importance of colors and how dynamic they are in the world around us as well as in what we create.

For task one ，I am inspired by the mushroom in Yun Nan China. This summer holiday ，i went to Yun Nan province and ate many avirulent mushrooms! They tasted great that there are thousands of people are  infatuated with that taste！As we all know，Yunnan is a place for many mushrooms to eat in summer. But there are plenty of people were poisoned by eating poisonous mushrooms by accident. So, that occasion is normal for local people and it is used to say ：If a man eat poisonous mushroom ，he will see many people dancing in his mind！Something that inspires me most is the illusion of being poisoned  . The scene is full of crazy thing in mind and many color make people dizzy ，so the crayon is good to express .Apart from that ，i like the texture of mushroom，mushroom is really soft and smooth to grow.I used watercolor to reveal the  mystery of it. Overall, i am excited to do this task with color, the thing that I created makes
me feel satisfied!

The aim of this task ‘Talking colours’ is to introduce myself to colour and primary research through the use of practical and critical observations and drawings. I believe that I have demonstrated this successfully in my work in which I will analyse in the following points.

To start off my research, I went out and explored the areas of West and Central London with my group mates to find inspiration. Being somewhat new to the city of London, I was overwhelmed by the lively community, especially in Portobello Market with all of the diverse cultures that I saw there. As I come from a small quiet town near Manchester, I found it very exciting to be in this environment; it was effortless finding inspiring pieces of art and objects that I saw on the streets. Many of my inspiration stemmed from plant life around the markets, tile art in tube stations, the TFL underground map and a mural that was created to commemorate the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.

I enjoyed playing and experimenting with different styles of art that I wouldn’t normally do. I’ve learnt to be more open minded in my drawings in order to be up to date on my tasks. My usual style of art features more intricate details that are quite time-consuming, however I decided to let go of this mindset of being ‘perfect’ and really challenged myself at taking different approaches and looking from different perspectives. An example of this can be evidenced in image 2 where I painted on a brown paper bag and held it backwards against the light. This revealed the grainy sandy texture of the paper along with each brush stroke inside the hearts. It was interesting to see how the light emphasised the texture and how it affected the colour of the hearts, making it appear quite dull, which contrasts to how it really looks on the other side where the colour of the acrylic paint is quite bright and bold.

Surprisingly, a medium that I have never worked with before is oil pastel. I think this medium lays colour down really generously if you want to achieve bold colours depending on how hard you press down. In my oil pastel drawing of the flowers (image 7), I’ve noticed that the texture gets quite grainy with lighter pressure on the paper. This triggered my thinking of how this would look like in textiles in terms of what different kinds of material that I could potentially use to imitate that grainy texture.

I continued to explore colour through my other drawings – take image 3 as an example. I based this off my own drawing of the London underground tube map (image 4) where I drew part of the map over a background of receipts. I chose to use receipts because it was quite a unique way to add texture but also the faded monochrome colour will emphasise and contrast from whatever bright colours that I add on top. I started to emulate each tube line in their own colour; instead of drawing one straight line, I drew them in lots of little vertical lines going up and down across the paper which then form an irregular line with different thickness to it. I repeated this process, wrapping each line into and around each other which gives an abstract feeling to the drawing as the original map begins to become a blur of colours.

In conclusion, I think this first task went really well; I am really proud that I was able to come out of my comfort zone and experiment with different media and techniques. To develop my work further, I think it would be quite valuable if I experiment more on different surfaces, maybe even working on unorthodox materials rather than just paper. As a result, I truly do believe that I have gained more confidence and experience with drawing, experimenting, observing, and above all, just having fun with creating!

For this task, I have been to the East London, where has lots of amazing places to visit. I was really into the flowers and graffiti walls in Brick Lane, so I drew them into my sketches. Besides, I was inspired by the marine organism, such as jellyfish, starfish, shell and so on. Mainly because the colour of the marine organism are really beautiful and dramatic. 

In these sketches, I tried to use crayon, water colour, colour pencil and marks. I have to say, I really enjoyed the process of drawing. My favorite one of those sketches is the ear one, which is colorful. However, the weakness of my sketches is that spent my too much time, that’s why most of them looks realistic. I wish I could draw quickly.

For the development plan, I want to focus on the pattern of these sketches. I will consider how to incorporate them into embroidery design.

This is research

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