Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Window Display

Myself and a group of classmates helped set up the window display for the L4 collaboration with COW vintage and I am very pleased with the final outcome of the display itself. As I have said before in another post I do believe that a lot of my classmates had not put a lot of thought into how we are going to actually display their final pieces since a lot of framed work and prints ended up being on the floor of the display.
The gumball machine I created its placed near the door so It can be used by people passing by but also still be seen from the outside.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). The Final Outcome.

Since taking these photos I have added more tweets to the gumball machine because you couldn't see them at all. Something I am worried about is the tweets not being heavy enough to fit to filter to the bottom and go through the mechanism. 

Having the gumball machine work is something I am very proud of and pleased with. I have followed the brief and created a body of work to be showcased in the COW Vintage store window and explored the theme of “the state of a nation” and putting a positive twist on it. My research and experimentation can be found on my blog and in my sketchbook where I have annotated it as thoroughly as possible to make it easy to understand and follow. 

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow), HOW TO MAKE A GUMBALL MACHINE

Here is something I made in my sketchbook that I scanned in and planned around with on photoshop. It's a simplified How-To guide on how I made the gumball machine from start to finish.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow), How will it look?

Something important to remember in this project is the importance of how the final piece is going to look. You have to remember that is it’s going into the store window so much look professional and fits the stores aesthetic. This is something I feel like maybe my classmates haven't considered when they created their final pieces.
From this, I decided that the gumball machine MUST be yellow to match the frames of the window.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Positive Tweets

Trying to find the best way to fold the tweets so they fit in the mechanism.

I have used a lot of different tweets that are spreading positive news from all over the world. I have tried to find and add a large variety of different types of positive news, by adding lots of variety in the tweets I believe it will make everyone feel more included. Something I tried to avoid was personal positives tweets about things like "I bought a new house" or "'I'm pregnant" because this might be positive news but I feel like its too personal and unrelated to be included inside the gumball machine.

Here are some examples of the tweets I used.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Finishing the stand.

After adding the back and finishing the stand I needed to paint it, I used Ford Singal Yellow car paint, by using car paint it was successful because it took to the wood very well and I didn't need to prime it. 

Only two layers of the paint wasn't enough and I actually ended up using two cans of the spray until I was happy with the opacity of the paint. 

More images of the stand before I added the gumballs and tweets.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Letter Press Labels

Like I said in the last post creating the small plans really aided my letter pressing progress as it allowed me to go into the print room and find all of the ornamentals I needed and then start making the labels straight away.

Below is a photo of the final lock up and inked.

My final label includes the type modernistic 24pt and my dancing man doing the twist with two lollipops. 
After I have done my lockup I inked it up and printed it on over ten pieces of adhesive paper so I could pick the best for the gumball machine. 

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Planning my letterpress label

After researching Albert Schiller I wanted to create my label using ornamental letterpress so here are some of my plans and ideas I had before I used the print room. It was really important to make some ideas before going to the print so I could spend more time creating the final piece rather than looking around the ornaments for the ideas. I used photos of the ornaments I had on my phone to create the plans with ornaments I knew where available to me in the print room. Like my Albert Schiller research, something I included in all of the experiments was a border and it was something that would make it to the final product.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Albert Schiller Artist research

Artist Research for the Label.

I wanted to create a label on the front of the gumball machine to help attractive people over to use it. Albert Schiller often uses ornamental letterpress to create images like valentines card and Halloween party invitations but also images like dancing men, I was heavily influenced by this to create my label for my gumball machine because I wanted the label to be fun and inviting.

Something I love about the image above and below is the ornamental letterpressed border, by using a border the image I feel is more eye-catching and something I want to add to my own label. 

Photo Credit

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Inside the gumball machine

I needed to find or create something positive to be inside the gumball machine and that will fit in the mechanism.

Pros and cons love heart idea 

Pros

• Love hearts are about sharing the love so it would fit well with the theme of the project. 
• Colourful and nice to look at. 
• Suitable for vegans and vegetarians 

Cons

• Does personalising love hearts count as copying? 
• The love hearts probably won’t fit in the hole I have made for my gum-ball machine. 
• Only the outside would be personalised.. the hearts would still contain things like winky faces and the words “text me” etc 

I have taken inspiration from the phrase “pix n mix” to make sweet or tweet. Sweet or tweet is basically what it says on the tin, in the gumball machine there will be sweet and tweets and when you twist the handle you will receive one or the other (sometimes both).
This is one of the types of sweets I am using to fill my gumball machine due to the size and colours of the sweets (another pro they are suitable for vegetarians, therefore, more inclusive). Adding the tweets with the sweets will help me tie in the positive news already out there in the world. Adding this to the gumball machine is a very important part of the project and the main reasons for making the gumball machine functional. 

I also experimented with making my own sweets for the gumball machine. I used different paper in lots of different colours and textures to see if anything would turn out successful. After trial and error, I have decided that making my own sweets for the gumball machine isn't going to work out. I don't have enough time left this far along in the project to get to a good enough level of making and wrapping my own sweet so they wouldn't look as professional as appropriate for the store window display. I am very glad I took the time to experiment with this and I believe it has been very beneficial for my research.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). The back of the stand

Imitating the holder for the earplug dispenser was very important in the making of the gumball machine and was one of the hardest parts of the project for me. The pencils job is to hold the gumball machine in place and be strong enough for the gumball machine to be fully useable.

It was very important the pencils and line up perfectly so that the earplug dispenser can fit on the stand so it can be fully functioning and used by anyone. The pencils are drilled into the piece of the wood at the made making it as strong as it could possibly be.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). Making the stand and design ideas

To make the stand I used an old gym weight and stairs bannister, by using these and recycling them into the gumball machine I am following my manifesto perfectly and the gumball machine will line up with the store's ethos.

This is the final design for my gumball machine. To create the head that will contain the positives messages I have used an old earplug dispenser. After I have completed the making of the gumball machine I am going to paint it yellow so it will match the window frames at Cow Vintage.

Making the base of the stand was one of the easier parts of the making of the gumball machine. The stairs bannisters were hammered into the gym weight which already had a hole in it. This worked really well and created a strong base to hold the rest of the gumball machine on.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). The Gumball idea and imbue (Artist Research)

After coming up with the idea to make a gumball machine I looked into the things I wanted the machine to include. Since I want the gumball machine to be working and interactive it will need a few things, like positive notes or messages of some sort inside the machine, a "twist" mechanism of some kind so it will be a literal 'positive twist' to receive the positive messages and maybe a logo or label on the machine itself to people can see and understand the idea straight away.

Artist Research; imbue

To help me create the gumball machine I looked into the artist imbue (on Instagram). He often creates lots of working and rather large pieces of art like a vending machine that sells prints and a "drug" vending machine. At first, I thought I was being rather ambitious when I wanted the machine to work but after looking at imbue's website and Instagram it really inspired me the try and make it fully functional as well as aesthetically fitting into the shop.

Both mine and his vending machines were made to create a message.

Drug-Vend

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow) Cow Vintage Manifesto

Cow Vintage is very passionate about sustainably and recycling that’s why I feel like it is very important to incorporate this into my research and final pieces. Having my own project line up with the store's ethos is something I am very aware of achieving because of its high importance.

I am planning on making my final piece using all recycled materials or objects that can be re-used in an appropriate way. I also want to make sure that all ink used in my final pieces is non-toxic ink made from vegetable oil.
By aligning my project with the ethos of cow Vintage it will truly help me make something which will not only belong in the window display due to its ethical making process but also look the part as well.
I want to create something that is well made so that after the sweets and tweets have all gone it can be filled up with other things and re-used by the store over and over again.

The idea behind using tweets comes from “the state of the nation” title. I am re-using tweets already made from people of the nation and the twist on the gum-ball machine is “positive twist” action required to receive the tweets (and sweets).

Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle ♻️

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow). My Childhood Universe

While looking online for space related illustrations and ideas I came across this particular piece and it completely changed my project around. From seeing this illustration I decided not to go down the space theme but rather create my own gumball machine which would help me relate the brief in a more sophisticated way because I could fill the gumball machine with something positive.
I am going to look into cow vintages manifesto to help me create my own and guide my project. I feel like it will be very important to line my final piece with the stores ethos as it will be displayed in the shop window.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Holy Cow), Starting Point.

My starting point for this part of the project actually comes from a very random piece of positive news I thought about while we were discussing news with the class. Pluto gets reclassified as a planet. 

This is a letterpress I created of a rocket off to Pluto, putting a twist on the classic I love you to the moon and back I was thinking of something more like I love you to Pluto and back? 

Still, on the space theme, I gave my hand at dry-point, another type of printing I have never done before. Dry-point is a printing technique from the intaglio family. This dry-point I created of an astronaut fishing for planets was inspired by the illustration "my childhood universe" by ilovedoodle (I will post about this later). This has gone on to help create my idea of "A positive twist" gumball machine.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Self-Portrait). Final Self-Portrait.

My final piece is made from lots of little pieces of my research, combining my love for pattern but also including my large bun and scarf which came from how others see me and finally lino printed glasses taking the focal point of the image and my face.

After deciding not to use my glasses as a background but rather the focal point of my self-portrait. I created the glasses using soft cut lino which I had never used before and found it difficult to print.
Using the glasses as a focal point has been very successful and something I am very pleased with especially having created the glasses in a different media (lino) to the rest of the illustration really makes them stand out.
In the end, I decided to use my original idea of drawings things I love to make my background of my self-portrait and I am very happy with the end result because I feel like its truly very "me" and you cant want anymore more than that for a self portrait.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Self-Portrait). Lino Printed Glasses

Here I have used my lino print glasses to create a repetition style background idea for my self-portrait.  

I have decided not to use this in my final piece because I want to make the glasses more of the central focal point in my self-portrait as they are a very prominent and important part of my face so I need to take this opportunity to incorporate that into my piece.
The lino glasses are made with soft lino-cut with is something I found very hard print at home with.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Self-Portrait). Planning out my Self-Portrait.

Here I have tried to Incorporate all the drawing tools I love to work within my self-portrait making them the background and creating a pattern which was an idea born from my artist research on myself.
As you can see from my research I have decided to add the bun and a scarf since it’s always something I am wearing and something other people think about when asked to draw me.

This is obviously just a mock-up of ideas but I feel like this is a good starting point as it combines lots of elements of my research and feels like my own personal style.

Principles and Practice of Illustration (Self-Portrait). Self Research

Here I have used myself as artist research. I was inspired to using this concept after I looked at the stylist magazine research I did, lots of the art used in that particular issue was created by young girls which influenced me to look at some of the stuff I did when I was younger.
Using myself as artist research not only gave me a great opportunity to look at all my old baby stuff but it helped me realised that even from a young age I had a love for patterns. After this research, I decided that I wanted to incorporate that love for pattern somewhere within my final self-portrait piece.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Self-Portrait). Otter self portrait

Otters are engaging creatures overflowing with positive energy and playfully natured.
After taking an online personality test it was determined that my characters are similar to that of an otter. Therefore I have created myself as an otter using the printing technique of woodcut. Woodcut is a type of relief print which I found very similar to lino but a lot harder due to finding the wood difficult to control and to work with. This is something I am very glad I tried but won't be talking any further.
As using the print room more was in my feedback from the last module I thought it would be very useful to try a type of printing I have never used.

Principles and Practice of Illustration Part Two (Self-Portrait). Self-Portrait Sailor Scout style

While looking into Self-portraits one of the things I was really interested in doing was creating myself in the style of another character or another being. I  believed by doing this it would help you understand my characteristic easily because you will recognise them in my drawing. 

Using my Wacom tablet and photoshop I have created myself in the style of sailor moon. Sailor moon is kind, caring, willful, but also silly and childish which are characteristic I see in myself. 

In photoshop I used textured brushes I had made in the workshop and added them to different layers of my illustration, creating texture and depth easily. 

I chose to use a pink and blue theme throughout the drawing to make the illustration more dreamy and childlike to match my personality.
I don’t think I will be using this for my final piece but I have learnt a lot from playing around with a new style of drawing I am not familiar with!