Fashion and Textiles Pathway

 Photoshop Tutorials Day Two:

On our second day we were asked to use the skills we learnt the previous day to create textile patterns, with a theme or motif taken from or relating to our interests, memories, and other personal items. We were told to consider hobbies, movies, music etc. and so the first image I selected was this:

I grew up watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies (my mother dislikes Disney movies so this was her alternative). Now I am older I enjoy and appreciate their dancing, music and film on another level, while they still hold a comforting familiarity from my childhood. For these reasons I chose this image and others like it of the pair dancing to create a textile pattern using Photoshop.

I took the pictures and traced round the figures using the lasso tool and I cut them out of the backgrounds, which I then coloured red and filled their shapes to create silhouette patterns:

I did this with three different poses I had chosen and then merged them onto one image which I turned into a repeat pattern for textile print: 

Our tutors were advising us to be experimental with our designs and to try layering patterns and using textures to add interest to our designs. With this in mind I cut out a section of Ginger Rogers' skirt from the original image and blew it up and layered the image to create a textured background to the silhouettes. I then added and tint of colour and made the figures slightly transparent:

I liked the effect this created and so added it to the repeat pattern, trying out a few different colour schemes before coming up with a finished pattern design:

After this is was much quicker and easier to create a few more patterns using the same techniques. My starting point for my next design came from my interest in stereoscopy, sparked my granddad's enthusiasm for it and his gift to me of my own stereoscope. I layered a couple off stereo card images with alternate and overlapping repeat patterns. Similarly to my first print, I experiments with tints of colour and transparency until I had an abstract final design. We then saved our textile print designs as defined patterns on Photoshop. 

Once we had finished a couple of textile print designs we were shown how to create look books or mock-up fashion items by transposing them onto figures and items of clothing. This skill can be useful to a designer as they can scan in artwork and add digitally designed patterns and other features into their work. As it was, we just used templates of models and clothing from internet images. 

Template

Drawing round the item of clothing on the model using the magnetic lasso tool we then redefined the edge of the shape and then cut the patterns in. Once they were layered onto the models we could change the format tones so that the creases and shadows of the garments showed through, giving the depth to the images and the impression that our designs were on the garments.

I enjoyed this second day of tutorials far more than the first as it gave us more scope to be creative and independent in our designs. I am pleased with my final pattern designs, and feel that they are varied with the potential to be original and interesting fashion prints. It is exciting to have these new skills to experiment more with in the future. 

Final Print Designs: 

Textile Pattern One

Textile Pattern Two