Final Design. 

This is my final design that I created on Photoshop. This was my third colour design and my favourite so I decided to use this colour scheme for my finale design as I thought it looked the best.

Katana Colour Designs.

These are the colour designs I created using Photoshop, I picked these colours and used the colour wheel to pick other colours to use for different designs and then pick my favourite one for my final design. I made the 2 chosen colours completely different so they would contrast ans stand out making the Katana more eye-catching. Some problems I encountered; I wasn't sure about what types of colours to apply to my ideas. To solve this problem I researched katanas on the internet and then this gave me ideas of what sort of colours I could use for my ideas for my model. Some of the choices I had to make for example were, what colours I could use for my ideas, and weather to go for traditional colours or go with my own colour style.

Colour Design #1

Colour Design #2  

Colour Design #3

Katana Research. 

A Katana, or also known as a samurai sword, is a long single edged sword typically used by the Japanese samurai which is where it gets its name from. A Katana can have many different types of wrapping on the handle which has different meanings and patterns to them. The typical handle wraps that are used for Katanas are the Katatemaki wrap which is also known as the battle wrap. Then there is also the Hinerimaki wrap which is also known as the normal wrap as this is the most used wrap for Katanas.

The most common place to see a Katana is a museum as a Katana is classed as illegal in some countries like Japan for example for ordinary citizens, to own a Katana in Japan you need to register with the ‘Nihon Token Kai’ (Japanese Sword Association), and the swords must exhibit historical and or cultural significance.

The Katana started around the 1400’s and was originally called ‘Long swords’ by many people to start off with, then gathered the name Katana later down the line when samurai started wearing their Katanas ‘Katana style’ which is the traditional way of wearing a Katana which is worn with the signature facing away from the wearer.

Katanas are traditionally made curved, but there are other ways of making Katanas. This is because the Katana is a weapon of war and soldiers would use the Katana during the Japanese civil war and Japan’s invasion of Korea, the samurai armies had 3 main weapons, the spear (yari), the matchlock and the bow. The Katana was used but not as popularly as it is seen. Using this ‘weapon of war’ the samurai armies would use them the slash at the enemies causing deep wounds and gashes on the enemy, forcing them to quit battle and retreat, after this they would then need medical help causing other soldiers to help them get to safety therefore resulting in less enemy for the samurai army to fight against, two birds with one stone.

The point of the Katana is called the ‘Kissaki’ and is the hardest part of the sword to polish and forge, to hand create a quality kissaki would require an extremely skilful artisan. In most circumstances, the value of the Katana is determined by the kissaki.  Samurais’ would also give names to their Katanas as they believed that their Katana lived their warrior spirit. The Katana is also the longest type of samurai sword compared to the other 2 measuring in generally around 24 inches, seconds was the Wakizashi measuring in between 12-14 inches, and then last was the Tanto which is basically just a small knife.

Also ‘shotgun’ was the name of the most powerful samurai rank; they would wear 2 samurai swords, a Katana and a Wakizashi. They also had a license to ‘dismember’ anyone who offended them.

MoodBoards and Reference Images

This is my first mood board that I created using Photoshop and gathered images from the internet that I could use to go towards my design and help me create my own Katana design. From these images I got an idea of colours and patterns to use for my own design.

Katana Designs

These are my Katana designs that I drew and designed in my sketchbook, for my final design I had a mix of both designs, for example I had the actual Katana from the first design and the sheath design from the seconds design, so it wasn't just one solid design I took parts from different designs and put them together. Some problems I encountered was that, I want sure about what sort of style of katana I wanted to make, to resolve this problem I sketched out a few ideas I thought of and decided which ones I wanted to use for my project. Some of the choices that I made for this part of the project was; I had to decide what sketches I wanted to use for ideas, I also had to decide  what sort of style I wanted my sketches to be.