Summation Assignment 5: Application and context

 

To start off this assignment I have photographed some everyday items such as food in my cupboards, baking ingredients, spices, tea towels, glasses, cutlery, and décor as a way to catalogue relevant parts of a kitchen. The things like tins and fruit I grouped or set a side on the island to get a better shot of the variety, colours and shapes as well as items in their natural places.

 

 Step one- OBSERVED DRAWINGS

This step I observed some food in the kitchen environment and played around illustrating them in pencil, pen, watercolour, coloured pencil, coffee and juice and I also collected some labels and packaging to collage on a page. Fruit nets are also attached to the page just from some colour and texture. Collecting these labels, I can see what fonts and how the information is displayed, whether a picture is on it or the type of colours depending on the food. Of course, I used coffee and juice just to experiment, but I love using coffee as an alternative medium. I like how the intensity and darkness of the image can be changed depending on how many granules or water is used. It also brings a vintage traditional type feel to a picture, like you’re illustrating the kitchen as if it were back in the day but the concept of it remains the same. It is a staple in any household.

 

 

 

Also, I tried out some coloured pencils and tested out the tones, shadows and textures I could create as well as bright colours. I don’t often use coloured pencils, but I like the rough look and sketchiness of the drawings, there’s something pleasant and soft about not having outlines or using dark colours like black. 

 Finally, the watercolour drawings of the bananas and tins is very fitting for an article I a magazine, its playful and there is a nice balances between realism and having some character. It gives a personal touch to the words as if you were reading a handwritten recipe and illustrating it too.

 

Step two- SEQUENCE

“Think about the process of preparation for a real or imagined recipe for the spread. Explore making a sequence of sketches based on one or more of the items you initially experimented with”

Peeling and chopping a banana was the first process that came to mind, cracking and egg and cooking it, making a cup of tea, making a cake, or chopping an onion.

I chose to cook the egg as well as peeling and cutting the banana. I wanted a process in which I could use clear illustrations that would represent the steps but also not have to add to much detail. I sued a little mark making for the egg process with some cross hatching, dots, and lines to look like cracks and some shadows. As for the banana I kept that illustrations quite simple just focusing the shapes, colours and clearly showing the separation of each chopped piece. The colours are light and quite appetizing as there no dark colours.

 Quick sketch for a verision of cooking an egg and putting it on a chicke sandwich. ^

 Experimenting with medias I found my pens and sharpies and made some brightly coloured and not so perfect drawings of more food items and cutlery

 

So for the weekly recipe spread, I chose a few recipes that are well known and fairly easy to illustrate. I drew some final images thumbnail sketches just as a tester for ingredient lists and recipes for the food I picked before only persuing three.

 

 thumbnails and quick cutlery sketches

  

 

 I chose to focus on chicken vegetable soup, pancakes and pizza.

 This one is of the ingredients for a ham and mushroom pizza, I didnt draw a full recipe to go along with this but I did with the other two. I drew them all in coloured pencil and becasue my pencils are quite fair I thought of outlining them which I really like. I can see them next to the ingredient list or accompinying the recipe as it's is being told.

 

 Chicken Vegetable soup

This next one chicken vegetable soup and the pancakes underneath I went into more depth to show an example fo a recipe and what my drawings would be according to the steps. I think ive captures the 'sketchbook feel' and the drawings are all quite soft even with the outlines.

Pancakes

 

As for reference I used my cutlery, glass bowls, jug, flour, vanilla, egg ect more or less every ingredient i used was from my own kitchen besides the raw chicken and the pizza and pancake stack. These images I uploaded onyo my ipad and manipulated the sizes and compostion to get them all in a good quailty.

Personally I think I demonstrated a consistent visual language, my style was consistent and the sketches I did especially in the pencil and fine liner were clear and obvious, the use of colour is simple and the cartoon/ realistic look is what give these drawings a sketchbook feel.

  After FEEDBACK

After recieving my feedback I thought to make my work the best I could I should give the illustrations a bit more brightness and character as well as playing with the words, I do see now that these illsutrations all though light and pleasant they can be a bit boring as appose to producing an illustration to make cooking exciting and fun which my coloured pen experiementation communicate a lot more. So I had a go with two fo the recipes just to see the difference as well as handwriting the recipe so it does have more of that sketchbook feel.

I think there is a visible difference between by final illustrations compared to these modified ones, To get an idea of the type of drawings I would think would look a lot warmer and bright with the colours and the outlines being minimal. I used a mixture of sharpies, regular felt tips and white pen as well as thin fineliners. 

As for text handwritten could feel a lot more personal to a reader, theres a bit of character to go along with the colourful sketchbook type illustrations. The digital text can take some of the sincerity and homemade feeling away from the drawings. So a nice clear title and maybe some realistic handwritting whether it be cursive or simple could also set the tone of the recipes.

I think the closeness of the letters or the angle can reflect a sort of personality. It could look like its been written in a hurry or that the recipe has really be thought about.

 

Step Three- Illustration

Choosing to do the mural For abit of inspiration I researched a few artists who do murals and have done for cafes, restaurants, and stores to see if I could include any of their techniques into my own version and figure out a scale.

 John Machen

 https://jonathanmachen.com/

 I like Johnathans style with the use of neautralcolours and there having no black or harsh lines its quite elegant and the pictures within backgrounds is a unique Idea, looks classic. His style is also more tradtional then the other two artists below. Theres a hint of realism but its kept in an ovbious art style like you can tell its been painted.

 

struthless 

https://www.instagram.com/struthless69/

 I follow this artist who does funny and weird carttons/animations/clothing and just about naything creative includign a few murals and I really enjoy his style. It kind of resonates with my own as I too cretae weird and quirky cartoons and pictures. I think maybe a nice mixture of cartoon and traditonal may give that 'sketchbook' and approachable feel to the final mural design/ article illustration.

 

https://www.instagram.com/gingertaylorartist/

 https://gingertaylor.net/

Finally, I found another artist who dabbles in murals for resturaunts and cafe's who also has a fun and cartoonish style. She gives features to the food for exaple like faces an limbs aswell as adapting nicely to a theme the places she does.

In addtion to these mural artists I had a look at some artists who draw food just to see if I could also add to my own ideas.

https://www.enyasartofpatisserie.com/

I like the use of colours and realism but theres still a drawn look to them. them being in watercolour with no appearance of black it is more appealing. The compostion is also nice, the layouts are neat and theres no chaotic scenes just the soft splashes of paint around each drawing.

https://clairerollet.com/

Claire's food drawing are easy and simple to recreate, its aclear visual of the food with a mixture of sketch and limited colour palette which is satisfying. The fact the colour doesn't stay inside the lines perfectly is a nice stylistic choice.

 https://www.visbii.com/projects

I like the intensity of these pictures, the images are clear but there is also so much going on in each and the patterns and mark making is bold and fun.

Victory https://www.seasonofvictory.com/

 This is just an example of an artist I seen do a cartoon food van design which I love the bright colours and approachable design.

 

 http://www.tomhovey.co.uk/food-illustration

For my magazine illustration and mural another food illustrator I found was Tom Hovey. I love the harshness created by the black lines for texture and the intense colours they're really unique.

 

 

 

 

 

So deciding on creating a mural for a restuarant I went round the city centre and took pictures of some murals outside resturaunts aswell as googled a few too that I didnt physically go in arrund town too.

 

 

My own pictures

 

 

 

 

Walking throughtown center I noticed none of these murals were really showcasing food to much but rather themed around the culture and animals or a asthetic image with maybe flowerws and good colours with teh odd face, it was good to get the gist of what resturaunts wanted to visually communicate but I couldn't find much inspiration considering none involved pictures of food besides 'pedros pizza'. The take away however is got a feel for the styles, colours, size and compositions.

I think this foundation and research can deffinately help coming up with ideas of my own, taking colours, scale, compostion, techniques and style into consideration I continued sketching and trying out some designs that I also think would have that sketchbook vibe for the article surrounding 'everyday food around the world. 'Enyaartofpatisseri' is a great example of the mixture of sketchbook feel and something you can see a but more tradtionally styled on a resturaunt wall. I had a go of mixing my style with hers and draw/painted random food and items from the kitchen as an experiement to get me closer to starting actual designs. When out and about I dint bring my sketchbook because there wasnt much more to add or contribute as the pictrues where reference enough and I was not really stopping to sit and draw just walking around finding the murals.

I really struggled with figuring out what food and kitchen elements I wanted to include for it to relate to the brief and I mistintepretated the first part as I ended up only coming up with the idea straight away for a mural instead of a recipe and comfortable apporach to cooking and thinking of 'around the world' to, I thought of soup and vegetables and a spoon anywayad I took pics of tins and drew them and considering they have multiple ingredients and are relatively easy to make and are a well known dish I though it was a great choice. I also tried playing around with styles and lines. I done themin my sketchbook as little ideas and then did them digitally just for the ease of having brushes and tools handy.

I wanted some warm colours and tasty looking so kept the picture light and tried out using black lines to emphasis bu I think I like the no lines better. I thing these would be a nice compostion for adding text of the restaurant. As for reference I used one of my bowels and spoon and then cartoonised the vegetables I also had took a picture of.

I then had a go at making a sketchier version where i didnt want it to look perfect but kepy the concept and colours comfy. The background is inspired by a teatowel. I can kind of see this being in an article with maybe a recipe somewhere that readers can follow. But I didnt think it reflected the whole world or foods I had took pictures of or staples youd expect most to from around the world. I think because of the many possibilites of what I could draw it was hard to narrow it down. I took it back to the sketching and just using those staple foods such as eggs, bread, spices, milk, tins, fruit and veg.

All through this research and planning I was thinnking about what the scale would be, what connections I could make and the materials or canvas I would use. Because I did step 3 before the original magazine illustrations I did have to go back to do the recipe images. 

I also did another mural the concept was to simply just make up an environment made out of only things found in the kitchen like rice and spice mountains, bowl hills, teatowel ground, broccoli trees, cutlery flowers, potato clouds, egg sun, mushrooms and other things. I did this digtally casue i could easily manipulate and move things around before trying it out on paper

I did three versions of murals digitally pasting them over walls of pictures I took. I didn't really know what text to use but the picture is what I wanted to communicate.

Detail wise teh food enivronment mural is the most exciting and full but the rougher sketchier bowl of soup fits the spray painted 'graffiti' wall art vibe youd typically see.

To help you to achieve this think about:

 • What scale did you originally draw at?

I orgianlly drew in a slightly bigger then a3 sketchbook in and then transfered it digitalyl and recreated it digitally also. The good thing about digital is that I can change the scale anyway I want and paste it over a real image to show how it would look. 

 • What aspects of the SCAMPER process can you use to expand or build upon your earlier sketches? 

I could use 'combine' which I have for the food scene with loads of foods and bowls to make a landscape or even styles like realism mixed with a cartoon such as a face or giving a piece of food limbs. I could aslo try reverse a recipe to give a strange and confusing outcome. 'modifying' I could do for any, I can give them more detail, a different medium, style. I also think putting some drawings to another use would be good like replacing the real life food/item with the drawing.

• Which materials and surfaces did you work on?

I worked on food labels, ipad, and my sketchbook really. I used coffee, pen, pencils, sharpies.