Sunga Park and Batik response

SUNGA PARK RESPONSE

Being inspired by Sunga Park's work, I decided to create a further response using different materials and techniques.

As I stated in my research to Park's artwork, I liked the way he faded out the imagery, which created an unfinished, yet interesting outcome.

To develop his work further, I used a wax technique called Batik. This is something that's done on fabric to stop other materials/liquids to run in places you don't want. 

The process of this is very simple. You heat up a small pot on a chosen temperature, which can be altered by a switch on the side, after adding a fair amount of wax called Paraffin. This type of material is applied to the fabric using a Batik pen, shown below.

I  found that using this to apply the wax to be quite difficult. If you want to create a very clean and defined piece of work, you'd have to learn the techniques within the tools. Picking up a large amount of the wax can cause it to come out a lot quicker, which gives you unwanted negative sections. I got the hang of this more towards the end of the process.

Batik basically eliminates the sections from any ink or substance you apply to the base, this creates negative and positive spaces. I find it to be like a stencil, you exclude the areas you want to leave blank with only the positive sections visible.

I started by finding architectural images I wanted to work with, I went with photos and designs that are quite detailed, I wanted to add shading and tones through using fabric ink.

I applied wax to the areas I wanted to leave blank and highlighted, I looked at my images chosen and worked with the way the light had hit the building.

 Once I had done this stage I then went on to adding colour. With the ink I was working with I was able to mix the colours, and add water to create different tones. This was the beginning stages of adding colour my work

To begin with when adding shading i started by using the lightest colour and building up on the detail to define the imagery. To do this i used Concentrated batik ink. 

With the ink I was working with I was able to mix the colours, and add water to create different tones. 

I repeated this step around 4-5 times in the areas I felt needed more detail.

Once happy with the overall painted piece I then placed my dry fabric between grease proof paper and ironed over the top. Placing this over the material worked as a protective cover when adding heat to the surface. If you wasn't to do this stage, this would cause the wax to melt and go on to your iron, which isn't ideal if you don't want to ruin your equipment.

Here is the final outcome:

 

 

As you can see, the lines aren't very defined, I don't think the outcome looked neat enough to be produced as a piece of artwork, although this has a negative effect on it, I like the way the shading has turned out, I think it adds enough detail to make the overall piece look original. To clean up the line work, I thought of ways in which I could neaten it up and add detail, for this I chose to work with stitch.
I used a sewing machine to cover the areas I think needed to be worked on, i didn't want to cover too much of the detail with stitch as I think it would take away the aspect of using different materials to develop Park's work further.

 

I started by choosing the main colours i wanted to work with, for the image on the right i chose 3 different shades of thread, all being grey tones.

I used a freehand footer for this, which gave me the ability to move the stitch in a circular motion, which will build up the thread and be opaque. 

I varied the 3 colours in areas to give it a shaded effect.


The limitations when working with stitch illustration would be  thread build up, if you're layering over one area to add more texture or colour be careful with the loose tread at the back of your fabric. This can begin to tangle together and stop your machine from running smoothly.

 

Once happy with the definition and detail  added into my work I then cut off any loose threads ti neaten up the final outcome,

 

 Im happy with how my illustarions have turned out, I think my use of colour and embroidery has worked well together.
My second illustruration was the top of guildhall, I like the amount of detail that the embroidery has captured, its worked well with the use of ink and created an original outcome.
Here's an image of the two finished:

 

To develop this further I could think about adding a series of different architectural stitch illustrations, on a long piece of fabric, I think working with stitch and intaglio to create this would work well.