Maria Costume and Textiles

Costume With Textiles Student at the University of Huddersfield. Photographic log of my work. All images are my own unless stated otherwise in description.

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Fionnuala Character Roughs, created with hand drawn work assembled on PS.

This is the character: Fionnuala. She is the only female child in the Children of Lir and is the second oldest. Fionnuala means ‘fair’. She is often depicted as a strong character- the only one who stands up to the women who turns them into swans and she is also very caring.

When working on my character roughs I have had to make all my children for the story a little older as I will be working with adult performerns and not children ( this is a health and safety aspect of my degree, all performeers must be 18 or over). Therefore I have worked to bring softness and immuturity into Fionnualas costume.

Staring with the silhouette of Irish dance dresses I have combined this with the medieval origions of the myth to bring about a soft but fit for purpose costume. I am depicting Fionnuala as a swan, however, I do not want to just recreate a full on swan costume!

Therefore I have brought in elements throughout- she will have wings in the form of a shawl or cape- that look as though the swan is surrounding her being  to mimic the idea in the myth that the swans still retain their human voice and soul. I would also like her headpiece to tell a sotry through the embellisment- from child who is loved to a swan. This will be done through embroidery and using celtic symbols and knots. The same idea will come through in the embroidery on the costume- it is very common for Irish dance dresses to have a decorative embroidery that hails to a story or myth. 

I will also be using softer colours for Fionnuala. I have my first fitting with my performer on thursday 17th! So I will be posting the final designs for Fionnuala and the images from my fitting in the next couple of weeks!

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Aodh Character Roughs- created with hand drawn work that is assembled on CAD.

Aodh- the oldest of Lir’s children, strong male, endures a battering as a swan, name means fire. 

For Aodh I wanted to depict him as a full on swan character. I want the costume to look as though all these things have been thrown at him and stuck. HIs posture is strong and commanding, with a softness to his harsh movements. I drew a lot for this character from the textural components in my textiles drawings. 

I will be posting all the character roughs before posting the design developments for each character over the next couple of weeks. I am currently working to render the characters I will be making (2 out the 6 I design for) and I am currently focusing more on them. I will not be making for Aodh as the costume is relativley easy and I would not have enough to get graded for construction in my degree. However, I think I will make the headgear of each of my characters as it is an interesting element I have included. 

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Further textile Drawing for the Swan Characters.

I have created these images by cutting away sections of my landscapes and colour imagery, in the celtic shapes I have been working with, and placing the cut areas on top of other images. I am so happy with the look of these textiles drawings and think they translate beautifully to the swan characters.

My aim is to bring in the pagan symbols with a mix of christian symbols as this is eventually the world they will end up in after the 900 years of the spell. I think the above drawings achieve this in a very natural and aesthetically pleasing way.

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More abstract PS work. Again I have used scanned in drawings and manipulated them on PS to explore colour and texture. Im thinking this will influence my silhouette for Lir- God of the Sea.

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Working on making repeat patterns in CAD. Combining celtic spirals and pagan symbols. 

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Again I have been using my primary research drawings to create repeat patterns and explore texture and movement on PS.

I really want to convey the texture of all the travelling the swans go through in their costume.

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Working in PS with my landscape imagery to create patterns playing with scale and using step patterns form Celtic Art.

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Sketches produced in textile drawing sessions. 

In textile drawing we were challenged to produce a textile drawing from our own imagery in a different style. Numerous image bundles were passed around that focused on different areas/ mediums/ ways of drawing-  colour, pattern, monochrome etc.

Above is an image of the pattern work in progress and a final image of what I produced for the colour challenge.

I took my image of Tullymore Forest park and  took the colour from my blood moon sketches. This design took around 40 minutes and is all done in pastel. I love the way it turned out and the colours are perfect for the character of Aoife (evil stepmother, who turns the children into swans).

I plan to go into my character development and breakdowns a little bit later when I have more art work to share for them. 

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Sketches at Valley Park, Co.Antrim

Again I have been sketching from the landscape for colour and texture to influence my textiles.

I have also been looking a lot at Celtic Knots and shapes for this project (more imagery to follow). So I though I would start working my landscapes from my textile drawings into some of these key shapes. I concentrated on focused ares from my imagery of the valley park and worked them into circles. I love the overall look and I know these shapes of colour will be integral to my final textiles. Need to start getting them worked out on fabric!

I have been extremely inspired by Ireland and the landscapes as an artist and I am proud to live somewhere so beautiful. I really want this to come through in my textiles.

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Primary Sketches from Narin, PortNoo Beach, Co.Donegal.

This is one of my favourite places on earth. Again I am trying to pull all the colours out from the landscapes around the north of the country where the myth of the Children of Lir originated from.

I love how these have turned out and plan to develop them further with CAD work.

When textile drawing I like to work in a quick sketch style, where I can pull all the colours from my reference imagery and get a good feel for the overall palette I want to achieve in my final textiles. Later I put these into CAD, or pull the colours for other imagery that will more influence the design of the textile.

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Primary textile drawing.

Sketches from my research images of Donegal. The first sketch is in watercolour and the second in pro marker.