Wall Hanging

For my exam i had to create something inspired from the palm house that would be appropriate to display around the palm house, for this i created a wall hanging. I started off by making multiple designs in my sketchbook. I was also partly inspired the french artist Henri Rousseau. I created three different designs and used different shapes for each design to see how it I could work with other shapes.

This is my first design (sorry it is upside down, i could find a way to flip it, just tilt your head), I used a rectangular shape as it is basic but can look good. I put a flower bush that flows down the left side of the piece and on the right side is part of the palm house architecture hidden behind wines and a large plant that almost looks like it is made of feather dusters. I like this design because it gives the palm house a secret garden feeling as if it is a magical hidden away place.












This was my second design (Yes, this also isn't upright, sorry, just tilt your head again, build those neck muscles), this time I used a different shape but I don't know if there is a name for it so I'm going to call it a rectriangle; it reminds me of older wall hangings for house banners in castles. I incorporated the whole palm house in this one with plant life around it. I used the pictures i had taken from the palm house to create more accurate looking plants. I also used Henri Rousseau's 'Tiger in a Tropical Storm' for some inspiration. I wasn't to happy with how this design looked at first but now I like it because it doesn't just focus on one part of the palm house but shows off all of it.

This is the third design I created (Oh look its still not upright, guess you're use to it be now). For this design I used circles as my shape, I done this because when looking up to the roof of the palm house from the inside you can see a circular shape ( Its actually an octagon but they don't look too nice and are hard to get a perfect symmetrical one). For the bigger circle i focused purely on the plant life of the palm house with the star-ish shaped flower bush running on the side of it and a smaller flower bush on the other side, I then chose two more unique plants to fill in the gaps; this shows off the range and variety of plants that can be found at the palm house. For the smaller circle i focused on the architecture of the palm house with the design above the doors being the central focus as I like this design compared to other designed featured in the palm house. I then added some plants around this to fill space so it wasn't just the design on its own. I liked this design the most out of all three because it is different with each circle focusing on its own thing instead of it all in one design like the previous designs. Due to this I chose the design for my end goal but because of it consisting of two different designs I chose the smaller circle as my main focus but I didn't just forget about the larger circle design.


I made a painting of the larger circle pattern to see what it would look like in colour. I created this by first putting a layer of lighter green ink down where the bushes are, I then went over it with darker greens and yellow to shows the different leaves as they aren't all the same colour, then i used a fine liner and darker blue ink to draw the outlines of each leaf. For the other plants I used different inks so make them, and added fine liner around the edges of them to add that little extra detail and so they look neater.

With this design being my main focus I made a smaller maquette of with straw-board being the main material and using string to make a 3D shape of the palm house structure, I then placed a layer of tissue paper where the leaves are for the texture and added vines over that using string. I then painted it all using ink with lighter greens first then going darker around the outside of leaves to show their shape. This is what i aimed for my end design to look like.

This was my final outcome I used cotton for the material to put it on but i had considered other material which include cardboard, other fabrics and straw-board. I then used batik to put the outlines of the shapes on it as i was planning on using ink for the colours. After getting all the outlines done i done a wash of light green ink across the whole piece, then I continued to go darker, putting the darkest colour on the right leaf and then bottom left of the piece. It also became black on the top middle as during the wash it was on the table ans for some reason it went black so I then put paper under it for the rest of the time however I feel like the black adds to the piece and improves the look of it. After doing all the dark colours i went to the lighter parts of it and added some yellow to create a slight diversity in colours but i wanted the main colour focus to be green as that is the colour I associate with the palm house due to the vast amount of plants. I'm happy with the outcome of this as it clearly depicts the palm house and the plants around it and is pretty accurate when i look back at the original design and I feel as though it can be enjoyed by everyone even if they haven't seen the palm house as it is just a nice piece.