A Fish Out of Water
This assignment was to reupholster a used chair the design was to be based off of the history of the chair's design and its current status. The chair I selected was a 1920's William & Mary reproduction painted a brilliant orange.
Original upholstery.
Bare chair frame.
Chinoiserie was a common aesthetic of William & Mary, which often featured koi fish in the designs. However, this chair -- which includes an upside down, misplaced bannister and rich, rubbed orange paint -- is less than true to the formal traditions. Therefore, after exploring koi designs, I quickly switched to the far less graceful goldfish. I finally settled on the completely awkward celestial eye goldfish.
Original koi sketch
Transitioning to goldfish
Finally, just awkward enough.
The colors I chose were a dark orange and gold, creating a bright orange overprint. Because the material is a gray linen, I first layed down a layer of opaque white extender. I then printed several layers of red and yellow in order to achieve the right depth of color.
Chair reupholstered.
I used film marbled with ink within the color separations in order to create texture in the scales and face of the fish. In order to maximize the sense of misplacement, the fish, though curled, is too large to fit comfortably on the seat of the chair.
Textural closeup.
