New Project

Well I'm a couple of weeks into a new project which is wallpaper design for infants or young children using one of four trends from trendbible www.trendbible.com
The choices for a theme were Supergeek, Seastorm, The Longest Day or Pioneer and to be in a style like that of Kate Usher www.kateusher.co.uk

I must admit to not being very enthusiastic initially as I don't like wallpaper, having wasted months of my life scraping other peoples choices from walls of houses I've lived in, but the idea is growing on me especially after seeing some of Kate's designs.

The colour palette of sea storm appealed to me most so I decided to go with that. Kate's briefing advised the group not to be too obvious so I veered away from fish, shipwrecks, pirates etc and decided I wanted some sort of story to tell. I began to think about icebergs and volcanoes and then on to polar bears and where will they go go if the ice-caps melt. The idea of them leaving the planet appealed and extensive market research (well,actually a fellow student ran the idea past her two young children) showed that this could be an idea to run with.

So I've been researching space rockets, Jules Verne, the drawing style of Fornasetti, back copies of National Geographic, icebergs, and planets to get me started.

Here I've laid together a rough collage of drawings,a fabric sample and photographs as an initial ideas board. 

I've also done a a bit of drawing and painting to try to develop a style that will lend itself to the theme and project. Trouble is there's not much in the way of primary source material to draw from so I have to rely heavily on photos from books or magazines.

Soft pastel 

fabric and stitch on painted vilene

graphite and pastel drawings

Early days yet but I'm sure the ideas will eventually start to form further and the drawings will develop and be fine tuned.