There is something interesting about mixing mediums. Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away, I was involved with a children’s Carnival Band, The Trinity Carnival Foundation. A band designed by my secondary school art teacher, Patrick Roberts. For the most part I was the graphic designer for the band, doing the typical graphic design stuff. One year though, something interesting happened. As was the norm, I was tasked with designing the logo for the presentation for that year which was “Aquarium.” He said he wanted it to be based on a Discus fish, which I had to research because yuh boy only knew about guppies and mollies. The twist came when Patrick said he wanted us to take my designs and hand paint them on fabric then use the painted fabric to create the costumes. So apart from the discus I also created graphics for other fish including, guppies, swordtails and angels.
The process then became, projecting the one colour designs on to paper so the image could be inked, then the pattern was traced on to fabric squares. Then, using paint and paint brushes, apply colour to the fabric before hanging them to dry. These painted fabric squares were then taken to be sewn into costumes for the children. A few of them were also used in the construction of bigger costumes for the individuals.
At that time I did my designs by hand before scanning them and applying colour digitally. So the journey from traditional media to digital and back to traditional as well as moving from 2D to 3D was interesting and exciting. The end result was an amazing and surreal experience.
