Chinese Brush Set

Calligraphy Brushes- by Shao Zhi Yan

Id love a set of chinese brushes like this one by Shao Zhi Yan, China. I'm going to have to buy some decent brushes soon. I've found a really good Chinese Arts suppliers recently called sidewinderstudio.co.uk which sell  good quality paints and papers. I think this is where I'll purchase my silks from for painting onto in a few weeks.

Chinese Painting Classes

Chinese Painting - New Technique!

Dry Brush Painting

It was the first lesson back at the Chinese painting class the other day where we used a technique called dry brush painting. We painted squirrels. ( I know squirrels are not in my brief but i can now apply this new technique to my University work). Heres my squirrel...

The dry brush technique was effective in creating a coarse texture for the squirrel, which i could use on my bird developments in the next few weeks. i found the leaves rather fun to paint, using repeat marks with the paintbrush to create their shapes.

Inspiration for develpoment

Artist Inspiration - Kelly Allen

Kelly Allen is an freelance illustrator and writer from San Francisco, America. I love her idea of placement and colour, this has been really inspiring to my work, impacting on my developmental ideas for my wallpaper collection. 

Squint limited- Japanese Storks

Squint Limited are a design company for interior products in the UK. They have just recently created a new wallpaper collection. The stalk wallpaper above was nominated for the Elle Decoration British Design Awards this year. 
Squint are a really inspirational company to me because they are contemporary fresh and i love the colours in the collection...here are a few others that i liked...

I love the stylish peacocks and their feathers!!! this piece has definitely been an inspiration to my work!!

Paradise Flower and Birds Development

Blue Plumage - Tropical bird Collection

Toucan - with wing texture and flowers

Inspiration

 My inspiration for these designs began from looking in the Zoological collection both at Manchester Museum and Bolton Museum. To create a tropical feel to my designs i used bold exotic colours and decoration.
To develop my drawings i explored different styles of painting. I used black ink and a stick to draw the 'Blue Plumage' bird for my collection. I then painted the feathers in with Chinese paints.
 I'm enjoying the freedom of this practice and I'm going to be using it in the near future, hopefully using Sgraffito techniques!! 

Blue Ruff Bird Development

Paridise Birds - Development with Chinese Paints

Bird Developments using Chinese Paints

I used traditional Chinese painting techniques to create these birds, using the traditional paper, paints, and pearlesant paints. I wanted to create strong colour and depth to my bird designs to create the feel of a tropical paridise. To develop my work further im going to sample different texture techniques like scratch-back and sgraffito. In my development I want to use the texture of the feathers, to create flower designs and backgrounds for my work.

Griffin and Wong Inspiration

 Inspriation for FMP-Griffin & Wong Chinoiserie Collection

The wallpaper company, Griffin & Wong, have been a primary inspiration to my work for my final year at University. It has inspired me in quite a few ways, from the placement of the birds, to the textures in the birds plumage.

Chinoiserie Card Designs - Hallmark Brief

Card Designs For Hallmark Brief

Here are 3 of my 6 'Eastern Brights' designs from the Hallmark brief at University. 

I wanted to create a vibrant collection of cards that screamed 'Oriental'.

I wanted my designs to feel tropical and warm. for this i used chinese paints, and coloured inks for the vivid tones.

Hallmark Wrap

Hallmark Brief

This wrapping paper design has been created using hand painted techniques, that were then digitally manipulated.

 My inspiration was Eastern Brights. 
I also put my designs onto gift bags cards and other furnishings.

 To create my background I painted a  parasol I bought in China Town in Manchester. I used Chinese paints to do this.

 It was a tiring process but I finally got it done!!

The birds were the most fun to paint, and I like the way they all seem to have their own personalities.

This wrapping paper is one of  a collection of 6 I designed for the Hallmark brief  at University.