Back to School – Part 6 – Tribal Collage
And…on to the MIID Summer School Advanced Track, Brief 2: Tribal Collage.
Of all the Brief 2 tracks, this was my favorite. It didn’t specify any particular tribe or tribes to draw from, so I went back in time, back to one of my ancestral lands—Scotland—and drew my inspiration from the Picts. The Picts were graphically-oriented in the extreme; the very name “Picti,” (given by outside documenters) means “painted people.” The Picts wore their art as close as they could; they were well-known for ornamenting their bodies with both war paint and tattoos.
Pictish design lives on in recovered artifacts as well as in beautifully-carved stones depicting animals and striking geometric patterns.
After happily exploring Pictish stones, I did some sketching, and ended up with a suite of design elements to draw from.
Tribal collage sketches
Maze sketching
Fish scale sketching
After working up the sketches, I started going digital and creating individual patterns.
Advanced Track, Brief 2, fish scales pattern
Advanced Track, Brief 2, diamonds pattern
Advanced Track, Brief 2, maze pattern
Advanced Track, Brief 2, animal pattern
Then, I started playing with pattern combinations.
Advanced Track, Brief 2, pattern combo
After trial and error, and then more trial and more error, I finalized my tribal collage pattern swatch.
Advanced Track, Brief 2, Tribal Collage pattern submission
Lastly, I mocked up the various patterns into a series of decorative boxes.
Advanced Track, Brief 2, Tribal Collage decorative boxes
So, there it is: the final Brief 2 assignment, completed. Who knows what next Monday will bring, when the new themes for all three tracks arrive in our inboxes? I do know: I can’t wait to find out!