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