Task 1 - Pen And Pencil Line And Tonal Drawings

Images:

These two drawings are the example drawings on what my illustrations bugs will looks like, at first I drawn and cut out individual body pieces of the bug then manage put it together and see what it would look like and see if it goes well with the bug that I am looking for, basically a prototype on to start me off on knowing how to create my three mini beast.

This was my third design prototype for my mini beast, I thought about what part of the bug I used and thought would it go well as a whole piece so I stuck with that design I did and hopefully would turn out okay on making the three mini beast. I've also done some example drawings of the insect ants, this also helped me on starting off by creating my three mini beast, also gave me ideas about the shape of my three mini beast and how I would create the body, legs, head etc.

This task were we had to use pen liners and start off drawing the bug in just the line texture and not adding and details and shading, then on the second image below was the same drawing but with some shading and texture detail to show the transformation change within two different images, this task was quite straight forward and simple to do.

We did more of the same drawings of the pen liners on the left image being just line drawings again with no shading or detailed textures, then on the right image I thought I did quite well with this consider I took my time and it turned out really good in my opinion on how I added some dark shading of the body and made some dotted patterns around the dark shaded area. I thought this one the best out of the other pen liner drawings I've done.

We moved on to using pencil, using pencil was quite easier because if you make some mistake drawings it could be easily rubbed out, unlike the pen liner you have to take your time on it by drawing the insect carefully because you might make some slight mistakes. But with pencil you can see on the right image it's just a simple line sketch drawing then with the left image it had some shading texture and light shading on creating this effect I had to tilt the pencil on it's side and gently smudge the pencil and rub the pencil using my thumb to have the smooth light and dark effect.

This was the last pencil drawing of the insect that I did, with this one I found this quite complicated on drawing the body because it had a weird shape, but with the top image I made it simple by just sketching the outlines of the bug then as I started to drawing it again I took my time by drawing the body then adding some shading and light shading which turned out quite well I thought specially the shadings which stood out the most on the insect bug drawing.

These are the stages that I drew of the mini beast I used different drawing techniques with the pencils and fine liner as you can see on most of them you see a quick sketch drawing then the shading detail on the bottom also the fine line, I did a quick drawing then added dark shading by colouring the areas of the bug. Then after that I planned out to make four different mixed media mini beast using different materials of my choice, first I had to decide what would my four mini beast would look like so I printed out some images of bugs/insects then cut out the section like for example wings/legs of the beast then get another picture to cut out the body for the beast and create a different looking mixed media mini beast then that's when I started and knowing what my beast would look like so I drew them on how they look then that's how I got started with my four illustrations of my mini beast. With the other drawings of bugs we did we also used fine liner on the left side to have just a line drawing of the bug then on the right side a shading and line drawing of the bug so its's detailed on using different drawing techniques to make patterns on the bugs.

Task 2 - Alternative Design Ideas For Your Mini Beast

The first mixed media that I used on my mini beast was simple materials I used two materials one being water colour pencils and coloured the outline of the mini beast then got some water and gently stroked the water across the water colour pencils and created that light and bright effect which effected and made it look appropriate for the target audience, I used different colours for the water colour pencils I also tried making it colourful using bright bold colours and for the second material I used was a bit different since I’ve never used that material before, I used tracing paper for the wings and for the wings I drawn the outline for the wings and I used water colour pencils to colour the top layer for the wings, for the first mixed media I did I think I was happy with the outcome on what I got and the results I got in the end considering it was my first attempt but I could have improved on my project by using more mixed media and have texture and detail on my mini beast.

On the second mixed media that I did I got an idea on what other materials I could do and I used two equipment’s one being oil pastel and cocktail sticks I coloured the whole mini beast in oil pastel, again I tried using different bright bold colours for it to be appropriate for the target audience and made patterns along the way using the cocktail sticks and I was really pleased with the outcome I got because of the texture of the lines and patterns I made with the cocktail sticks but with the simplicity and the lack of materials I’m using I could have improved by adding maybe water colours and layering more different oil pastel together to make a really good texture and detail when using the cocktail sticks.

With my third and final attempt on my mini beast I used three different material considering I barely used different materials on my first and second attempt with the body and legs on my mini beast I got a black felt tip pen and drawn out the outline for the insect so it sticks out bold and in the legs and body itself I got some bright water colour pencils and made some light fading effect with that I applied by spreading the water across the water colours then for the head I made it quite dark using water colour pencil to make it quite different, with the wings I did a similar job to the first attempt that I did then I experimented on what I could do different with the mixed media and the task was given to me. First I used water colour pencils and applied water over then waited for it to dry then added another layer of a different mixed media by using felt tip pens to draw patterns then used glue to have that shine on the wings then finally I got a white felt tip pen to redraw the patterns on the wings to make it more stand out.

Overall with the three mixed media that I’ve done I was happy with all of the overall outcome but for me my second attempt was the one that I thought that I did most well on and would like to do better on the mark making and adding more materials and colours like water colours and different oil pastels, both of those materials can go well together and makes a good combination then with the cocktail sticks I could have used more different colours and make the pattern stood out more, with that outcome that I’ve done I would like to improve that by using the same style for my final piece but using more mixed media to the mini beast.

This was my first attempt on my final piece as a test and an example on what it might look like and planned out how it would go well with the backgrounds that I have done exampled behind my final piece example, I did this so I have a brief on what I'm going to do with my final piece and what I would look like for the target audience and would it be appropriate for them. Overall I was pretty happy with outcome that I've done, I could do some improvements when I'm doing the actual final piece but as an example and a start I thought it went quite well.

Task 3 - Colour And Surface Visual Library

We started off with the basics using different materials and tools and we did different patterns and tried using other types of strokes on how to use the materials. We did different uses on pencils on dark and light and did some shading effect, then used ink and with that we created patterns on using the light and dark, we used charcoal to get to know about the basic patterns we could do with it and the type of tone we could do with it as well. We also used quite a few materials like tea, coffee, acrylic paint then with the tools of paint brushes, sponges, toothbrushes, paper, cotton bud. With those equipment we created different type of images on mixing different materials, tried being creative on mixing the tools and materials like the coffee with acrylic paint to make different types of images with different layers on create something new.

We started off using pencils for this with the 2b pencil to make different types of patterns and getting to know the strokes and techniques. 

With this one I used more of a darker pencil tone to have a shading effect also made patterns with it I used to smudge and have that light fading effect.

This one is pretty similar with the other one on how the shading is used but with this one I used a rubber to shade the darker area to make a light effect.

Then we moved on to ink using different types of stroke techniques and did some simple lines till it fades from dark to light, then moved to more of a scribble pattern with the same style on how it fades from dark to light, with the third image I used more ink and did a similar style on fading dark to light, with the last image it was quite different on how we had to get oil pastels and drew a pattern and covered it on top with ink as it turned out with scribble patterns.

Then move to 2b pencils and did more of the patterns but with different strokes and styles on using the 2b pencils and get to know how to be consistent with the pattern making.

We used charcoal afterwards and used different variety of patterns and styles on many different ways to use charcoal, we used equipment like rubber and styles like layering we did four images and used different styles like using lighter background then darker on top.

We moved to using a lot more equipment and tools with the next project we moved to using coffee, tea, acrylic paint, newspaper, cotton bud and more. For the first one I just used a simple back ground with coffee on the whole page.

Then used coffee background again with that I used a layer technique on putting white acrylic paint on top then smudged on using my finger to have a different effect.

I used an equipment tool for this one using a plain sponge and dabbed on white acrylic paint to have a simple white background and as it dried it had a different texture feeling.

With this one I used brown paper that I cut out on then stuck down with glue then finished off using white acrylic paint again using my finger to smudge the whole page to have a different texture feeling.

I mixed a black and white acrylic paints for this one then turned out into a light grey background with  that I finished it off by smudging the two acrylic paints together.

I used the black and white acrylic again to blend it using the glue spreader and to meet in the middle, it was more of a different style technique compare to the other ones.

I used a white acrylic background that's applied using the glue spreader then got the toothbrush and dipped it in black acrylic paint and use the bristles to spray the black acrylic paint as a top layer.

I used a plain coffee background then got some cotton buds and dipped the cotton bud on coffee and dabbed the cotton bud on the coffee background to have different looks and style on the image that is used.

I applied a black acrylic paint as my own background then got a sponge and dabbed it on white acrylic paint then created a hard texture on the page which is different to other textures I made,

I stuck down some newspaper as a background then brushed white acrylic paint as a top coating for a layer to have something new with the background.

I used a simple background for this one when I applied tea using a paint brush it was a lot more different compared to the plain coffee background.

I applied a white acrylic paint background then used a toothbrush and dabbed it on coffee then scrub the bristles on the brushes to spray the coffee on the page to have a different effect on using other equipment.

We used different equipment's for this one when we moved to water colours I started off using the white oil pastel and drew a pattern then painted red and blue water colours on top, then move on using the same colours but used pieces of paper that I stuck down as a top layer, with the third image I used the red and blue as a background and used the glue spread to have a glue on top as a coating to make a different style, and on the last on I cut off some strings and glue on as a straight line then paint the two water colour background.

I used water colours again and used around seven to eight different colours to change then made lines of the colours that was used as a top layer and the lines go straight through. 

We moved from water colours to more different acrylic paint colours and used the acrylic paints to have different tone, blending, texture. Like for example we used glue spreader, cotton bud to blend the colours together.

With this we got light colours from the acrylic paint and mixed the two acrylic paints to make a different colour like orange, dark green and purple this made it more of a different style that's used.

We moved to more tools and equipment's like oil pastels and made more patterns using two different colours then finishing off by getting the toothpick to create line patterns on each image. 

For this final task on using equipment's we finished off using felt tips and colouring pencils and we made different patterns by mixing it around and create something different like using the light colouring pencil from a darker effect and tone, then used a lot of colouring pencils and made a pattern with it. 

Task 4 - Final A3 Colour Mixed Media

Final Piece

I started off with my background, first I did some experiments on what would be a good basic background colour for my mini beast background so I then got some water colours and blended a mixture of light colours. So I got two different types of light colour of green to make a simple blended background to see what it was like, I found that the outcome was not the colour I was trying to achieve so I experimented on one more coloured background. I took a mixture of light colours again with pink, blue and yellow I did a mixture between those three colours as the outcome came out as a faded colour I found that really interesting as it was different to any other backgrounds that I’ve made, and I chose that background hoping it would go well together with my mini beast that I’m going to remake. As I mentioned before with the four mini beasts that I made, I found that my second attempt stood out for me as I wanted to recreate it again and improve on what I could do to make it look better. I started off drawing the outline for the beast that I am going to create then with that I got started with the oil pastel as I created some texture and tried to leave some gaps for the water colours to come in later on, as I used different colours for the oil pastel I made some sketch marks with the cocktail sticks to create random different patterns. Then for the legs section of my beast I did two layers over that with the yellow oil pastel then black oil pastel on top of it, then it made this effect when I sketched with the cocktail sticks it had that texture of two different oil pastel colours sticking out. As I am close to finishing of my final piece I got the water colours like I said before to cover the gaps that I made with the oil pastel, I took some dark blue and painted over the gaps, I thought it was really interesting and new to me as I’ve never tried it before considering it was completely different to my first attempt of it. It had that different texture as it was surprisingly going well together with the two materials that was used, as I did some finishing touches with my project I got a knife then carefully cut around the mini beast at the same time I got some advice to add more detail with the my final piece so with the legs I began to cut into a triangle motion with the knife, trying create that pattern with the legs. It turned out quite well with a zigzag pattern that it created, I did that with all four of the legs and had a really good effect which stood out well as a final piece. Overall with my final piece finished I was really happy with the outcome I got and what I achieved in the end as I stuck down the beast with my background I thought it blended well with the colours that was made, if I had to improve my final piece I wouldn’t have manage to think of anything else on what to do apart from improving the background which would have looked a lot more better using more materials for it. Again with my 2d piece completed I thought that the final piece was successful to me with the overall outcome that was shown.

Task 5 - 3D Material Samples Including Mod Rock, Papier Mache And Wire

 First, I cut out the body which is the main part of my insects on what it would look like and how I would imagine it to look, the hard part was to find the perfect shape for the body of the bug so it would be bulky and have that 3d shape effect that I'm looking for, I took my time on starting off the creating the body first because it was the main part of my 3d bug that will hold and support everything altogether, I was quite happy with the outcome of the shape I got because I was all aligned and the same measurements. 

Once I got the shape of the body that I needed I then got some tape and newspaper to wrap around it to create a shape to mold the body together to have that 3d look to the insect that I am looking for and try to make the shape more bulky, I thought that this was quite simple still because I added some wrapped newspaper to bulk up the 3d shape more and added some light support by adding tape to the top and bottom of my bug, so far I thought this part was quite simple again and would add more support of the 3d bug more using more tape, newspaper.

I continued with that by adding more newspaper and tape to keep the body together and hold it in place, as I began to start molding the head of the insect and shaping it as I tried to make it go well with the body of the insect. It turned out quite well than I thought because I struggled on wrapping more newspaper because the shape of the bug turns into a weird shape, then with the head it was difficult on trying the find the right size and shape that would fit well with the body, as soon as I got the right shape I added a lot more support by using tape everywhere by wrapping it around the body towards the head. 

Again, I carried on making to insect hold more by using more tape then, applied each legs to the side of the body using wire to have control on bending the legs then added more tape to keep it more steady. This was the most annoying part on creating the bug the most, due to creating the legs and trying to support each individual one it always ended up fall off and having to reattach them again, I needed to improve on my support each part of the insect, with the wire the legs turned out quite well because it supported it on bending the legs, once it was all together I applied a lot more support of the bug by applying more tape.

As my insect was looking good and it was holding quite well I started on the paper mache by applying small little pieces of newspaper whilst applying glue on top of that to keep every more steady and firm, I carried on with that around the body, legs and head, all covered with newspaper and glue, this part of the task was really complicated because once I applied the newspaper then added some glue some pieces of the newspaper doesn't stick as much maybe not applying that much, but once I reapplied more glue over that I held quite well and turned out really good.

 

As the glue dried together with the newspaper I started getting some white acrylic paint to paint all around the insect so it is ready to design and applied what colour and what the features of the insect might look like. Overall with this task I thought it went quite well together consider I struggled at first on finding the right shape of the body which attached the legs and head together, but as soon as I found the right shape I was pretty much straight forward on continuing to make the bug hold well by adding more tape for support. If I had to change something about this is probably the legs of the bug because on how its quite thin compare to the body and head, I would improve on that more so it makes the bug more bulky and stand the 3d shape out more, But I was quite happy with the outcome that I got in end of it.

I also started using different materials and creating something new and different as I was using play dough to create my insect/bug into a different material as I thought it was interesting on how it was new and haven't done before. Overall using the materials like paper mache, play dough, card board and wire to make a 3d mini beast and tired to sculpture on what it looks like, I found that really interesting and really different on my point of view as I mostly do my art work in a piece of paper and a pencil, it was more on the creative side on what you could come up with and think would it work and hold together well instead of just drawing it, I also found it challenging and difficult on trying to mold the cardboard and the paper mache together because sometimes a leg or the head might fall apart and things don't go too well, I had to solve that and figure out what to do to fix it, then with the play dough it was straight forward on molding and creative a shape to make the mini beast, I found that a little bit hard due to it not going well as each part always fall and always trying to put the leg or head together, it was all quite challenging in the end.

We moved on to something different and started using a new material again that we haven't used, we started molding out insect into 3d shapes by getting wires together by bending them and creating that shape on what I imagine my mini beast would look like, I started off creating the shape for the body and adding support so it holds well together. This task was difficult on support it only using wire because you have to bend the material but the good part was it goes to any direction so you can re-bend the wires by reshaping them, I had to wrap the wires around as you can see on the image above.

Then once it held in well I started creating the head shape for the bug then again by adding more wires to support the bug so it's stable and hold together well, also added two wires on the body into a straight line to hold the head and the body together in place. Making the head of the 3d wire bug was straight forward in my opinion due to it being made by the same length of wire it's just the case of reshaping the wire into the same shape as my paper mache bug, but the problem for me was support and attaching the head to the body because I started off using less wire at first to support it but turned out needing more so I applied more, with that I bend the wire by wrapping it around once more to the head and body together.

As soon as the head and body holds together, I started manipulating the shape for the bug's legs, making sure it stood straight and held into a straight position, I found this the most difficult part of the task considering it was hard to get the legs into a perfect shape so it would support the body and head, I've also added one more wire to support the body and head because of the lack of support as it didn't held strong enough, I thought that the legs was so frustrating to make because it made me use a lot of wires for it because of constant mistakes that's been happening but once it had the right look and shape to it, I knew I had to apply some more support to it. Overall the outcome turned out well in the end.

With this image I was still manipulating and playing around with the legs trying to get the right shape and looks for it, as my 3d wire bug was almost complete I continued added more support on the legs by bending and wrapping the wires around the body of the bugs as it connects together. Near the end I was just double checking on supporting more by adding more wires in my bug, I found that the body and legs of my bug it needed a lot so I applied a lot more as you can see in the image a lot of wrapping wires near the body and legs section, it turned out quite well and held pretty stronger than I thought.

This was the final result of my 3d wire bug, I tired taking a good angle for the final design I got. I thought I did quite well on that task considering it was my first time making something in 3d using wire, because of the difficulty of controlling the wire by manipulating, bending, folding the wires and trying to keep the bug in place, but  I would improve on some errors that I made by making the bug more bulky specially the legs, I thought I could have added more support to the legs instead of having a simple one wire manipulating it into one leg, but overall I was happy with the outcome I got and if I had to create this again I would make it better by adding more support to the bug and a bulky shape to bring that 3d effect to it more. 

(Updated Wire Bug)

This is the final update that I added to my bug wire as you can see I've made some changes on the body and the head section as I added more wire to bulk up the bug more around the bottom section of the head and body with that it made it into a more 3d shape, with the wires that I've added, I've made some sort of crosshatch pattern to make it stand out to the non-updated bug that I did, I've used some light wire so it would be easier and lighter to navigate around and use for my updated wire bug. I've also added some details on the each individual legs on my bug, by adding some two piece section of wire to each leg. It created that effect with the crosshatch pattern. Overall I thought that this was quite a good updated version of my 3d wire bug, and shown a brief of the stuff that was updated and made changes on and thought that the outcome came out quite well.

Once more we moved on to using another new different material using clay, with clay it was a lot more easier manipulating the shape you want because it works like a play dough, the only problem is once it's set and dried it's more difficult to reshape it again, but with the first shape I made started making a sphere shape first then manipulate from that I created the head of my bug, I also used a small amount of water to have more control and maneuver the shape more. I started off quite well on shaping out the head of the bug it gave me ideas by look at my paper mache design of my 3d bug it had the smooth edges and soft areas.

I then created and manipulate the body of the bug, I found this the hardest part on creating the bug even though it's easy to control. I found it difficult trying to make the right shape for it. Once I finally got the shape that I wanted I got a cocktail stick to draw patterns on top of the body of my bug and smoothed out some edges like the side of the body, back and front by adding some small amounts of water. I did quite well on making the body part of my bug, but would have done a lot more better by taking my time on that by creating and molding textures and patterns of my bug.

As the first lesson commence I mange to attach the body and head together using one strong wire, but it created a crack texture which is typical using clay material but I added some water to smooth out the head and body as it connects by blending it together so the crack texture disappears, I then wrapped the structure around in plastic paper to stop it from drying out and becoming a solid shape. I thought that it was going quite well so far since all I needed to do now was to mold and create each individual legs of my bug, but would have improved on this by adding more patterns to my bug so it would be the same as my 2d drawings of my final piece bug since that one had a lot of textured details.

Next I started creating each individual shape of the legs and by that, trying to get the shape I wanted I found that difficult again because all four legs has different looks and shape to it, I attached them by using strong wire on each leg, again it created a lot of the cracking textures around the leg area but used water again to smooth it out once more. As you can see from the image I had a texture around the neck area of my bug with a small crack, I will try and fix that by adding water and smoothing out so it blends back together. The most annoying part about this once I applied all four legs together was the clay model that I made had some cracking to it, I always had to sort it out by applying water to smooth it out then blending it.

Near the end I took this image to show the last two legs that I created to finish off the bug, as you can see and compare on the two legs is more of a soft texture as it dries. hopefully it would turn out right, as I mention on the previous image I mange to fix the slight error on the neck area of my bug due to having a faulty connection, I added a lot more water to smooth out the head to body area so it hides the bad texture of the bug then left the whole sculpture to dry out. Overall I thought that the design of my bug went well due to having a lot of problem solving because some part didn't work out quite well but tried my best to fix them, probably the main key if I had to remake this was time management by taking my time on it.

This is the finish design of my 3d clay bug, as soon as the clay set and dried it turned out quite well I reckon, I would have done a lot more better considering I used a lot of clay for the body and head and it weighed the front a little bit, and when I stood the bug on it's four legs some of the legs were higher than the other, that's one of the errors that I made, I didn't really notice it when I was making it, I should have been more careful on making the legs more and focus on it so every each individual legs would be the same length also should have added some more texture, pattern details on the bug. If I had the remake this project again I would have started off using less clay so it wouldn't weigh the shape down due to it being heavy and also having to create the legs more straight and aligned together so it would stand straight as a final piece. I found this the hardest out of all the materials that I used to make the bugs in because of it setting as a hard material it's quite difficult to manipulate it again also trying to attach the head, legs to the body was quite complicated on how I have to get the right posture of the bug so the legs wouldn't go in a different direction or the head not facing the right way. Compare to wire, play dough, paper mache, those materials were quite simple to manipulate with the wire bending into any direction you want and sets as a still object, then paper mache went quite well on trying to support the weight and the bug itself, then the play dough was simple also on manipulate and easy to reshape because it works like clay but doesn't set as a solid material. But overall I was happy with the outcome that I got with my 3d clay bug, but would have tried to improved some errors next time and also work on my time management on remaking it by taking my time, so if I redid this project I would know what to do with it and how to process it.