Pattern

Definition:

An artistic or decorative design

or

A design of natural or accidental origin: patterns of bird formations

Pottery of ancient Greece

Geometric art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_art accessed 03/03/2014

  This was a movement when the pottery would be covered in decorative geometric shapes such as triangles, zigzags, meander and swastika with linear patterns around the neck and base of the vase.

Black figure pottery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amasis_Painter#Decorative_Elements accessed 03/03/2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery_of_ancient_Greece#Protogeometric_styles accessed 03/03/2014

     This was a technique that came along in 480 BC where the artist would paint detailed silhouetted figures onto the pottery. They painted scenes of warriors and animals mainly and in these you can see even though very decorative they contain a feeling of structured and narrative.  One vase painter who was well known for his black figured pottery was known as Amasis painter, he painted narrative tales about mythology. But he was also known for his non narrative painting of the gods and human interacting but when looked at know seem to have an unknown narrative made up by the viewer. His work was very symmetrical and was painted with care using shapes to create decorative images. Another strong decorative part of Amasis painters work is his use of floral patterns or bands of zigzags or lines to separate the panel that contained the figures. This made the panels stand out and gave a clean finish.

   The use of pattern in black figure pottery breaks up the strong areas of black and makes it more interesting to look at. I also think the pattern add more form to the figures as well especially when used on the beards or clothing. There is also the use of decorative pattern around the panel; these patterns are sometimes simple or as bit more complex like in figure 1 with the flower pattern around the top. This helps break the image up and adds to the fact its attractive decorative piece that richer people would have in their homes as sometimes telling a story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herakles_Olympos_Louvre_F30_full.jpg

Herakles entering Olympus, location Louvre museum, origin Athens accessed 03/03/2014

Persian rugs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_carpet   accessed 03/03/2014

http://www.william-morris.co.uk/ accessed 03/03/2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003vdc5 -William Morris and the Muslims duration 25 minutes first broadcast Monday 10 august 2009 produced by Ian chambers accessed 03/03/2014

  Persian rugs are decorative items made of wool, silk and cotton; they are highly regarded in Persian arts. They contain a variety of pattern that is planned out before the making will begin. The main thing Persian rugs will contain is a motif, which will vary depending on where the rug was made but they contain only one and all have different meanings.

  William Morris was an English designer from the 19^th century who was inspired by Turkish ceramics and Persian carpets. His patterns were heavily inspired by carpets that were imported and was taken by the natural aspects of the world and thought it was romantic and at the time Victorian homes had too much things in them.  He liked simple patterns and proceeded to merge Islamic ideas into his patterns that were very symmetrical and repetition. He wanted his work to have meaning and beauty.

http://seamsandstitches.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/william-morris-2/  (image) accessed 03/03/2014

Artists

Paul Berthan

   Paul Berthan was a graphic artist who's work was hight decorative. He was well known for his interpretations of art nouveau. A lot of his work was created using lithographs, and was heavily inspired by Japanese woodcuts. 

  Berthan's work is defined by his use of striking pattern and lines. His images stand out due to there vibrant colours he uses. A lot of Berthans patterns are continuous and flow around the female form, his use of pattern can range from subtle as in figure 2 to loud in figure 1. Figure 2 portrays a delicate female and this is shown by his use of quieter pattern with subdued colours. I will try and use pattern as Berthan dose to help make my subject more detailed and make them look harder at the image as it wont have words so ill need to draw the viewer in another way and I feel pattern might help. 

Figure 1
Two girls with a printing press, 1896, Located The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

Figure 2
Poster for L'Ermitage 1897, medium lithograph, Located The Bridgeman Art Library 

Gustav Klimt

    Klimts work uses pattern to create form without lines, his patterns stand out and without knowing we understand the form that is being created because of the limbs and heads added onto the forms. This makes the forms solid but have no defining line so at the same time feel more natural. Klimts work always seem to have a select colour pallet as in the two example underneath he uses rich colours like golden yellows, purples and brown, these colours work well together and compliment each other. He is also well known for using gold leaf within his work. Pattern makes his work stand out and catches the eye because they are his own created patterns and this means its you wont have seen them before. 

- Art nouveau, by Rosalind Ormiston and Michael Robinson, edited by Sara Robson, 2013, published by Flame Tree publishing limited London

-Paul Berthan pg 26-27, pg114-115

-Gustav Klimt pg186-187

Other ways to use pattern

  Pattern can be applied to a multiple of different things such as clothing and buildings. Here are a few examples I looked at to see what I could apply pattern to to enhance telling my story without words.

C.Neeon Autumn/Winter 07/08 collection 'Sharing Secrets'

Barkow Leibinger Architeken, Gatehouse of Trimpf Gmbtl, 2007

Chris Bosse, Digital Origami,2007

Annette Schroter, Blickins Land 2, 2003, Papercut 250x190cm

Sun Young Byun, The house in the painting the painting in the house, 2007, Acrylic on canvas 120x85cm

- Patterns 2 Design, Art and Architecture, Published by the German National Libary, Printed in Germany, 2008

Experiments

  I first looked creating my own patterns that I could transfer into my work and created a sample image in a workshop witch helped me understand that continuous patterns work better as you wont get gaps with no pattern. It also helped me realise pattern is best of only being used for sections not the whole image as it is in my workshop piece. I find my workshop piece a bit to much and you don't really appreciate the pattern like in Klimt's work, mine was just to crowed. 

Pattern workshop

  After I decided that I would create two patterns that could be used to create the form of the sea and another to be used on the female so she wasn't lost in the pattern of the sea, and so she stood out as an important part of the narrative.

 With these I created a short scene from an animation, using these patterns to create the form of the sea and the girls body like Berthan and Klimt. I have created 3 versions to see what works best, A silent animation, a version with a musical score and one with sound. I did this to see what works best after looking a animations like paperman and rain town.

Music: Raindrops by Stanislav Bunin from the game Eternal Sonata

Sound: recorded of youtube stock sea sounds.

  Overall I feel the animation that uses the sound works best as the version with the music will take away from the viewer relating the video to the nursery rhyme unlike the sound version witch just adds a levels of the real world into it enhancing the surrealism of the animation. I feel the pattern works well as the sea as its a large form that the pattern allows it to move fluently without large movements. Also the pattern highlights the importance of the sea. Though I do find using such a solid pattern for the sea can be distracting and I think using a simpler pattern may translate the form better.
  This pattern is more freer and is similar to how I draw hair relating to my nursery rhyme line 'life is like a dream'. Using pattern will help communicate my nursery rhyme as it will make my outcome more interesting and decorative meaning the viewer will look into my pieces more to reveal the narrative.