Find Your Own Visual Language

Before you get stuck into reading some of the other ‘inside stories’, we thought it would help to provide some background on how we approach development of personal imagery.

We define the word ‘imagery’ as meaning “a mark (made by our own hand) that could be used in our work”. This covers a wide spectrum; texture, line or shape; organic or graphic, loose or tight, representational or abstract. Imagery might be used to set up background, create a mood, add specific information or provide strong compositional elements.

Our imagery comes from several sources and is developed through various activities:

Undertaking specific exercises from ‘Finding Your Own Visual Language’. Sometimes we do this in response to a specific idea, theme or work-in-progress. Sometimes we just pick an exercise for the hell of it and see where it takes us. We often (but not always) generate something we respond to, or feel will be useful at some stage in the future.
Exploring a particular surface design process (e.g. printing, scraping, painting, mono-printing etc.) to see where it takes us in terms of texture, line or shape. Image 1 shows an example where Leslie has scribbled all over a piece of cloth with thickened dye paints.

The ‘imagery library’; stuff generated in the past that may not have found a purpose at the time, but has relevance now. It’s not unusual for historic imagery used on past work to come forward and support the new stuff.
Spending time on imagery is – for both of us – a serene, peaceful and pleasant activity, and one that can often yield great results even when we’re feeling a bit brain-dead. We’re aware that not everybody feels this way – many students (generally those who are newer to the world of surface design) get frustrated (and dare we say it – impatient) with the exercises. If something pleasing doesn’t pop up fairly quickly, it’s all too easy to abandon the design work and seek out the dye pot instead. Our advice would be to stay with it. Try to get into the flow and be curious – rather than judgemental – about what you’re producing. Also accept that not everything you produce may be useable in the first instance.

Having generated and selected some imagery, we’d recommend testing it out and playing with it before launching yourself at a 2 metre length of cloth. Here’s why:

Some imagery looks great on paper but doesn’t perform as expected or desired once you get it on to cloth. This is why we often test imagery with acetates and/or temporary screen stencils (the Screen Printing book gives many ways forward on this topic) before committing to permanent screen designs or thermofaxes..

Over-printing an image can help you to understand what it’ll look like en masse or on top of itself – a simple image can be used to create texture if heavily over-printed. You can also test over-printing by using several acetates of the image on top of each other (image 2).

Combining different imagery can help to drive contrast and visual interest. Explore combinations of textures, lines and shapes. Consider the relationships they have with each other and consider how they might create atmosphere, drive energy or be used as strong compositional elements (image 3).
So, if you’ve been procrastinating about doing the exercises (perhaps Visual Language has been gathering dust on your bookshelf), assemble what you need and JUST DO IT! You’ll be rewarded with cloth that is unique and very personal. Here’s a short overview of how a very simple, single image was used in a quilt made by Claire…

‘Convoluted Conversations’

Made in January/February 2003, ‘Conversations’ is an example of the exclusive use of the silkscreen – something I don’t often do – but an earlier work had triggered the idea of layering the dancer image (image 4) over and over on itself.

I chose to work in neutrals as it wasn’t something I’d done before and I wanted to keep things quite serene and simple – on the basis that the multiple layering of a single image would drive complexity and depth. I chose to use fabric paints/screen inks rather than thickened dye paint as it gave me the chance to use white as the base for neutrals (now, I’d work in thickened dye as with more experience, I’ve got to grips with making neutrals with them!).

I also wanted to use fabric that was new to me, and interesting in itself in terms of texture. I ended up by biting the bullet and opting for a piece of very heavy silk – the price per metre still makes me shudder! But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I cut the dancer out of book-cover plastic/cover film and ended up cutting seven stencils; one for each layer of printing. This was a necessary discipline as each layer of printing needed to dry before adding the next, and I wanted time to consider the results of each layer before moving on. Today, I’d use freezer paper to make the stencils or I’d make a washable and re-useable stencil from interfacing, but we all live and learn (again, see the Screen Printing book for ways forward). The dancers were printed in the following order:

  • Opaque white
  • Dark Grey (own mixture)
  • Brown (own mixture)
  • Mid Grey… made by adding sheer white to the dark grey to make it a lighter * * * version of itself…
  • Pale Grey.. I added more sheer white to the mid-grey and printed again…
  • Very Pale Grey… more sheer white into the pale grey mixture…
  • Grey tint.. even more white into the very pale grey and printed again.

After some cogitation and consultation, I added a few more dancers in silver leaf to provide accents (image 5). The piece was then layered on to black acrylic felt and machine quilted in wavy lines, as I felt this would accentuate the sense of movement.

Is it a great piece? No, not really but it is a good piece and after six years, I still enjoy looking at it. And it does clearly show the power of using a single image and the effectiveness of a neutral palette (image 6).