Developing ideas on screen.

Once i started actually thinking through composition for the illustration as a whole i managed to come up with a logical solution to the problem i had earlier, though it took a good few attempts to get it right.

When i thought it through i realised i had been discounting that the kettle would still need to boil water. This was a major turning point in my composition experiments, i instead moved all the components down to the bottom of the kettle and kept the top clear. One issue i found, once i was happy with the layout, was that because the various drawings combined all look very different side by side, i would have to unify them all in some way. Therefore the next step would be to redraw the entire thing with the composition above intact, and also any changes to the design made.

Changes: 

1. add space for boiling water
2. remove certain imperfections
3. decide whether to shade everything or shade nothing to keep light consistencies.

Experimentation with Livetrace

I have used Livetrace on Illustrator prior to this project, however i wasnt sure if it would be an appropriate option for working with this drawing, this being because my main influence (le munch) used mostly scribbly looking drawings, and live trace tended to produce either too washed or too crisp a line. I therefore did a few tests using the different live trace settings in order to evaluate whether i could use it in conjunction with my drawings. The main reason for using Livetrace in the first place, was as a viable method of quickly cleaning up and professionalising an illustrated piece, which as it is eventually to form part of a magazine spread, is a neccesity.

Live trace allows objects to be rendered specifically depending on their purpose, with options such as comic art and technical drawings which, being polar opposites, need different kinds of digital attention to be most effective.

Developing the ideas on paper

I ran into some trouble whilst trying to finalise my concept sketch. I chose the kettle as my object of focus, as i thought its use was simple enough that i would be able to complicate its process enough. However i had trouble establishing a realistic component structure for the centre of the kettle, as although i had drawn quite a few components, i still couldn't put together a somewhat logical machine. Although it is not the biggest of deals i wanted the finished kettle to at least be logical for its new complicated process. To get around this i drew some more components to help fill in the gaps in the drawing, and from here on it was mostly trial and error, whilst i tried to accomplish a design that fitted my vision.

I used various image references when sketching, i tried to choose engine components that would immediately fit.

Heath Robinson

After a meeting with one of my tutors i was directed towards an inventor by the name of Heath Robinson, his eccentric ideas and crazy inventions meant he was widely accepted as being mad. It so happens that his style of inventing, aided in the development of my illustrations.

His general concept for inventions appear to promote laziness and ease of living, however the thing i find most interesting is the round-about way in which the inventions go about achieving the task they were invented to perform. Although strictly speaking my kettle for example will still be for boiling water, it has been downgraded to run using a combustion engine rather than electricity which is evidently far more efficient in almost every way.

I can across a few other good sources of inspiration through my development process, namely the machine in "the breakfast machine" which is simply brilliant. This inspired to expand my idea to instead address, much like Robinson, making like easier. I decided however to not pursue this ideas as part of my main project as time would not permit me to deviate this late on in the process.

Renault's New Electric Car Advertising Campaign

I realised where alot of the inpiration for this idea came from, i stumbled across this advert on youtube and its perfectly demonstates the base idea behind my illustration came from. Basically the advert consists of people going about their daily lives, using normal appliances that we have come to expect in modern day households. However, all of these appliances are run by fuel from a small engine or a large engine depending on the appliance. Tasteful modification have been made to the appliances to show this, for example extra exhausts, visible cam belts and cable start up motors.

shavers
hairdryers
card readers
vending machines
electric whisks

these are the items used in the video.

The advert i feel is very effective at putting the point that electric cars are as viable as any other electric appliance. specifically it allowed me to take some hints as to presentation and composition for my own ideas, despite the fact that the appliances i have picked were not in the video. 

Research Evaluation

Through my research i have been able to gather idea on topic, composition and style, all of the elements i need to compose to achieve the result i am after.

When deciding upon a topic i wanted to work with something challenging and interesting, the sheer complexity of an actual engine is what first drew me to focus on that particular topic. Although it is unlikely that i will be able to replicate such complexity in my designs whilst still communicating well.

The style influence i felt was most useful was the discovery of the sketchy grain of Le Munch, the bold colouring with minimalist composition strikes me as unique and attractive. Though his topics of focus were far more technical drawing based i think i can employ some similar styles in my illustration and double page spread, specifically the colour blocks and grey scale.

For composition i found that looking at cutaways of cars, weapons and other complex objects i was able to grasp the basics of engine layout, enough to create a feasible illustration. Furthermore the discovery of the Renault Electric Car advert was one of my most useful finds as it grasped in clear terms and effective presentation, my exact idea, though the end justifications will be entirely different, the basic purpose is roughly the same.

Choosing and Drawing an idea

At this point in the illustration process i evaluated how much time i had left against how much that still needed to be done, including the actual presentation of the finished product. Whereas originally i would of liked to have included 4-5 illustrations, that time consuming nature of my subject meant that i decided to reduce that number to 2 or 3 ideas only, embedded within a spread and perhaps a poster.

At this point i also decided which household appliances i most wanted to focus on, i decided it was best to decide based on the simplicity of the appliances purpose. Therefore i chose the kettle, the toaster and the toilet. This decision came about because each object serves on a single purpose whereas the smartphone or the cooker could serve several and would therefore over complicate the actual process of illustrating several designs.

I used a variety of graded pencils in the developed drawings and took multiple photocopies in order to experiment with component compostion

Le Munch

In a brainstorming session i was aided in the discovery of the work of Le Munch, specifically his work with engineering drawing type illustrations. The images below luckily very specifically display what i hope to achieve with my illustrations. The use of minimal but block colour i think works very well in emphasising the rough sketches.

Furthermore i like the way that Le Munch has including his scrawls along the sides of the images, this allows the work to feel rugged and natural, its rough presentation adds a charm to the composition.

Note the sparse use of colour and the strong black of the lines, i think if i was to illustrate like this, as well as incorporating some of the imperfections evident in these sketches such as rough lines and scrawls across the page. Not only would this make for an interesting illustration, i think that this kind of style would lend itself well to a double page spread.

Experimentation

Layering my illustration i feel is going to allow me to create a level of detail without having distracting intricacies. To layer my image i need to have my components seperate from my desired object illustration.

I took components that through my research, i felt would most easily fit with an engine transformation. Here, the objects are quite generic to allow them to be used within any product, however more specific pieces of illustration my be required once i decide upon the product to create.

as a rough mock up i produced this (below) i say "rough" because i basically through the components into the design. Retrospectively at this point i had not yet entirely decided that i wanted to focus on the kettle idea.

New subject!

In a session of sketching i decided upon a combination of two of my previous topics
namely making the inanimate animate and engine art. I found i was somewhat limited by each of these topics in both my imagination, scope and time constraints so i decided to experiment with some idea using both topics.

figure 1

figure 2

figure 3

In figure 1 the household product i have drawn are: a smartphone, a toaster, a kettle and a cooker. Out of them all i think that my favourite is the kettle as i find the concept of something incredibly mechanical happening in a device as simple as a kettle ammusing. Such a conept works with the toaster too however i think the design of kettles, especially contemporary ones are more suited to my interests.

In figure 2 i have drawn a henry hoover, an iron and a toilet. The henry hoover i felt was easiest to "customize" with engine parts, perhaps due to its size and complexity compared to the iron and the toilet. i immediately had some idea of what i could add to make it a combustion machine.

Figure 3 contains the sketches of a printer a computer and a microwave. The printer is my favoured design as i think its interesting to consider what happens within a printer as its almost always concealed by its casing.

Deciding upon a solid direction

I played with a few ideas all at early stages with most of my focus being on inanimate objects and engine art. During my research i decided to experiment instead with a combination of the two, which in turn lead me to the decision to create a final based on highly mechanical household objects. I decided to use household objects as they were easy subjects to draw, engines however were not so easy and Google images instead provided me with some inspirations.

I looked into mechanical drawings and exploded drawings to get an idea on components and style.

Also i looked into blue prints as a source of inspiration, in the blue print below its the batcar from the early Batman movies, however its the sketchy style with the information surrounding it that i think i could employ in my illustration.

However i found that my primary source of inspiration was cutaway diagrams of various machinery

I found these to be most useful as the thoughts i had concerning my illustration often end up looking like something similar to these diagrams, although on a smaller scale the idea is similar.

The Illustration Cupboard

Upon visiting a small art gallery in the east end of London, i discovered that there are a lot of interesting illustrations to be found even amongst popular children's books. Specifically illustrations of childhood classics i recall such as Wallace and Gromit, Tintin and Elmer all with interesting art styles in the books/shows but also when viewed still on paper.

Tintin by Georges Remi uses a bold outline to create a striking cartoon style, images jump from the page and washed out colours are used with give the whole series a vintage feel. This style in particular i find interesting, not only because i read some of the books as a child but also because I've always used dark outlines in my work and Remi uses this technique to its potential in his work.

Nick Park and Wallace and Gromit i also find uses a very influential styling. I find the expressions particularly good and the characters appear very alive, a prospect that i think is important in any illustration trying to give off character.

The style used in Elmer books is one which is rarely seen outside of the genre of children's books, i think it work so very well when it comes to appealing to young children. The colours are bold and exciting without being overbearing, the illustrations simplistic but charming, although i would not illustrate in this style myself i think its an effective option nonetheless. 

Polar Opposites

The idea of polar opposites struck me when i was drawing in spare time creating some destruction scenes as ive always found the transformation interesting.

A quick sketch below sums up the idea behind this theme.

As there are so many opposites i have many varying options to explore should i decide to pursue this idea.

The Breakdown

At the end of the day i have chosen to do this brief illustratively, and despite the fact that i have my own illustrative style that varies depending on the subject matter, it is wise to look to others for advice and direction. I have therefore decided to look into the illustrative styles of a few notable illustrators.

Although there is alot of range in illustration styles, i will be limited to the ones that are suitable for my topics, regardless of which one i choose.

The intricate yet cartoonish style of Hokusai, i particularly like the grain on the image, i think that to draw my illustration like this could provide it with the grit that i enjoy employing in my own illustrations. It of course has limitations in that cartoons often lack the ability to achieve hyper realism, thankfully i had never planned to attempt to achieve such a thing.

The comic realistic style employed here in this postcard for Margaret Thatcher is one that i have always found to an effective way of interesting older audiences, its cartoony enough to remain comical but realistic and gritty enough  that a serious message isn't lost within its colours and lines.

Illustration such as this, where there has been no physical drawing, but instead photgraphs have been digitally altered, are effective at creating adstract pieces. Often images with colour splash are mostly black and white with the colour added on top making this type of illustration one of the most likely to catch someones eye. Its this particular feature that i find most interesting with this type of illustration, as the ability to catch an eye is paramount in graphic design

Objects of today-Tomorrow

Perhaps the most difficult strain of thought to take because of the sheer scale of possibility. However with the large scope of the entire future to explore, i think some truly exciting ideas could emerge. I new from this ideas conception that i wanted to transform objects or places that were easily recognizable to a large amount of people. To do this i would have to pick objects or places that lots of people see every day, some that i came accross that i felt could work.

Postbox
phonebox
bus stop
traffic light

landmarks: Big ben, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Sydney Opera House
Trafalgar square
Time Square

Making the in-animate animate

The idea of transforming inanimate daily household objects by changing the metal and circuitry into flesh and bone or plant matter, is vast in its execution, because of a large pool of reference

I imagine something like a television with the screen being a large eye rather than a screen. Or blender being a the inside of a mouth with a large tongue. It has the possibility to be rather grotesque in its presentation but also therefore striking. To be most effective i really need to choose the objects carefully thinking of the what i could change before picking them and ultimately making sure that the objects picked are particularly interesting.

Bare in mind that its difficult to visualize my idea outside of my mind before i have drawn some sketches.

As i mentioned above i think making the big screen is just asking to be an eye, would be quite an interesting transformation.

It seems to be quite easy to allocate each appliance to a specific part of the human anatomy, perhaps sticking to human anatomy keeps it simpler. Blender seems to me that it would work well as a mouth as they are similar in application.

The oven i feel could turn into a stomach, i chose an Arger cooker because i think they look more bulking and intimidating

Toaster, would in application be quite difficult to transform without exploring inappropriateness 

The whisk immediately jumped out at me as a skeletal appliances, they have always reminded me of a ribcage.

Engine art

looking at the bare bones engines of our common vehicles i think truly shows them in there mechanically and beautiful "natural" state. The first thoughts that i had on the subject would be to include engines as social intractable 'art' in other words being places in public spaces for the public to interact with, whether that means seating for example or for the larger variants porta loos.

The larger of the engines, such as boats, planes and rockers , i feel make lovely sculptures, and would make for interesting public displays, say in parks for the nature vs mechanical contrast or in busy shopping centers to emphasize the man made essence of an engine.

Below are some of my intial ideas based on quick mental constructions.

In this sketch i had the idea of taking a section out of a plane and transforming it into a cafe or seating area, i imagine it could have something to do with council recycling. Given not strictly speaking engine related but something that sprung to mind.

This is a visualisation of the idea i mentioned earlier regarding aeroplane engines being converted into porta loos, i could see such a thing being erected in parks or busy city centres.

Using smaller engines i imaged that parts of parks, perhaps the edges of a childrens playgrounds could be segregated using the jet engines.

I focused on aviation on these sketches as i find jet engines to be most fascinating and also the most versitile.