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We were tasked to design a comic for a Sweeney Todd scene. This is my comic.

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This is a physical copy of the Sweeney Todd style Barbers chair I had previously traced, accompanied by the two reference images that I had found to decide between for my work. I created this piece in photoshop.

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Researching fast food

We were tasked with researching McDonald's Happy Meals, and how they have changed over the years.

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Today we made and baked our pies. We started with with a tin foil dish, which we then placed a scrunched up piece of tin foil in, to fill our pies out as if they had a filling. We then took our ball of Super Sculpey and rolled it out with a wooden rolling pin. To get our circular shape of the pie crust lid, we had to cut a circle out of our rolled out Super Sculpey. We made the circle slightly bigger than needed and, once placed over the top of our pie, we used a scalpel to cut off the excess.

Once we had our circular pie lid in place, we used a tool to make the indents around the edge of the pie crust. I then placed my larger wing, which I had made the day before, on my pie. I also added a decorative wing, which I felt made it seem more like a pie design. I just cut out a wing shape, out of some of the excess Super Sculpey which was left over from rolling out my crust.

Once our pies were ready, we put them on a tray in the oven to bake. I am not sure what the temperature was, so I have included a link on 'How to bake Polymer clay', which I found interesting. The page advises to read the package instructions, but the general recommendation I found on line was 135 degrees C, 275 degrees F.

The pies were baked for 5 minutes, then taken out and left to cool.

I was really pleased with how my pie turned out, it didn't break, or crumble and the wing stayed in shape.

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Artist research

Simpsons Couch Gag - “What to Expect When Bart’s Expecting”.mp4 on Vimeo.

Chomet Couch Gag from Diggs THE SIMPSONS ANIMATION on FOX.

Robot Chicken Couch Gag THE SIMPSONS.

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This is my rotoscoping animation. I created it on photoshop. To do this I drew over consecutive photographs of myself walking, I opened the image of me in photoshop, used the pen tool in slides in photoshop to draw over the outline of myself in each photograph.

Once we had each slide we set a time between each slide, so that they would run as an animation in sequence.

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Today I built up the wing using layers of sculpey I had rolled out, using the roller and worked it around the edges to attach it and create a more muscular shape for the wing instead of it just being a flat surface. It gave the wing more definition and it looked stronger, healthier... more appetising.

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Here are some wing designs I found, that I could get colour ideas from for my pie.

I even looked at the idea of chicken wings, to see what they looked like once cooked. These images of wings are from Google.

The above is the image I used at first to base the wings off for my pie, the design of my pie's wing later deviated from being an exact copy of this design, however the overall shape still remained. I liked the way the feathers spread on the outside edges, but I gave my wings more of a layered look with the feathers.

Photos of normal pies to show what one would generally look like. We used the same edge design on our pies.

Some pies with designs on them like what I did with my pie, adding a smaller wing design as a decorative item like the added pattern on the first of the images above.

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Label design research for our pies

We were tasked with researching labels, looking at Victorian label ideas on this website:

I liked this Lemonade label, it has a very fresh look to it and I liked the idea of having 'Delicious Home Made' on the label, I think it would appeal to the consumer:

I also really like this penguin design too, as my pie ingredient is a bird, it goes with my theme.

I have noticed that both of the label designs I have chosen are quite bright, unlike a lot of the other labels, which are quite plain and boring, although some had quite fancy writing. It makes me think that maybe my starling wing design could be included in my logo, or at least bright colours, to attract my intended customer.

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We were given a sheet, to create five scenes from Sweeney Todd in cartoon form on Photoshop.

Firstly I searched online for 19th Century barbers chairs and selected this chair because I thought it looked the closest to what I wanted.

I then edited the image using photoshop.

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Wing for pie design

I really liked the idea of having a wing on my pie, so I first had a look on line for some wing designs. I really liked this Starling wing and enjoyed using my favourite Uni-ball eye, fine liner pens. I really like the contrast of the orange and black.

I also sketched out a few 'flying pie' ideas, again, with my Uni-ball eye fine liner pen, which I thought were fun. But my bird is not going to be so mythical that it stays alive, so I won't be going with that this time. I also did a couple of 'birds eye' views of how I thought my pie would look, the wing I am sculpting is quite large, so I think it will hang over the edge of the pie.

Once I decided upon my wing design, I worked on it with the Super Sculpey. I first rolled out some Super Sculpey, with a rolling pin, I then cut it into a general shape of a wing with a scalpel, and cut out individual feather shapes, to build up my wing, from a different piece of Super Sculpey. I did two layers of feathers in this lesson. I think I will stop there, and shape the other part of the wing in some way.

Here is my wing, for my pie design.

I have decided my pie filling is an exotic bird, which can only be found in mythical lands. The birds are cared for by fairies, and their main food source is a plant, called the Mallow Husk. The bird is captured by using fairy lights to draw it near, capturing it in a net, gently, as it's wings are so delicate. This can only be done on one day of the year, when they are able to enter the human lands. When cooking, you leave the feathers on the wings, as they taste like marshmallows, the pastry of the pie crust creates a biscuit like flavour, to make the whole pie together taste like a s'more.

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Darwin - On the Origin of Species

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Rotoscoping.

We started out taking a series of photos of each other in pairs, we were then given our photos and had to transfer them onto our computers and put them onto photoshop to animate them to be a gif. We then had to draw over them and change them into a character of our choice. I am undecided on my character.

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Gemma Goodridge

We were asked to look at the techniques and art work of Gemma Goodridge, on her website:

I liked Gemma's work, her Bug Race Car was really well made, and I liked seeing how she made it in her portfolio section. The final piece is of really high quality, with great detail on the whole thing, from the wings, to the painted detail on the body of the car, to make it look like a cocoon, and the little pins for controls, on the bugs felt seat. The wooden frame for the canopy, fixed with twine, makes it feel natural, like a bug could have made it themselves.

I also really like her Frog Merchant, Eractus, it was a really high standard. Again, the portfolio section was really well done for this project, giving so much information, including photos on the process of making him a little story about him, which was endearing and his height, at 4ft tall... that is a big sculpture! The little barrow he pulls along, carrying his wares has a great deal of detail, with all the named bottles and even drips from the various potions running down the barrow.

I really liked this video, it was a decent speed, a decent amount of time, the artist didn't spend too long on one aspect and there were words on the screen as the video went along to assist with what was happening, or what they were using. The model was a really high quality, with a tinfoil base, covered in polymer clay and painted, with a lot of detail added using various tools. They made a nice base for it to stand on and I felt the finished piece was of a very high standard. I really enjoyed watching the video.

This video was a little too long for me, I found myself getting easily distracted and had to fast forward on some parts due to the artist just showing it at different angles. Having said that, it was good that the artist showed the whole process, which would be helpful to someone just learning. It would be helpful if the artist had listed all the items when showing them, at the beginning of the video, as some people may not know what they were. The model itself was really well made, using polymer clay for the body of the model, painting it with acrylic paint in neutral, earthy colours and I liked the addition of the coral type material. I felt the finished, shiny effect let the design down, it looked much more natural before the artist added the epoxy resin.

This video was very professionally made, there was lots of explanation and it went along at a good pace. The artist started with a tin foils base, covering it in polymer clay and adding absolutely loads of detail with various tools like a small pearlising tool, and created black toenails from primo sculpey because it is a stronger version, using a medium ball stylus to make the dent to place them in. He covers the clay with a translucent liquid clay and a clay softener to fill in the gaps between the scales instead of him having to poke holes in it, so it looks more natural. He used wire, as a base, to form the arms. legs and fingers. He used tin foil, again, for the head base, creating a face and using a wedge firm detail tool to create indents for the teeth. He made the horns out of the primo sculpey he used for the claws. He used a wooden stick to connect the head to the body, sculping round it, to make a neck. He then used acrylic paints to give his monster colour. I felt I learnt a lot from this video, it was very inspiring and the finished piece was amazing!

This video, helpfully, had different sections, so the watcher could go to the character they wanted to see made without having to scroll though the whole video. This one is more for artistic detail, for learning how to make the individual characters, more than learning about model making in detail. The first character he made was King Boo, the ghost. He started with translucent Cos Clay, making the mouth, he added pre baked teeth, made from the translucent clay. He uses various tools, including a ball stylus. Then he creates a body and shows clips from a Marion show to see where he got the inspiration from. He mounted the body on a rod, to enable him to work on the model without damaging it. When making the Piranah Plant he uses wire as a base for the stalk and a wire frame for the head/mouth section. He used a roller for 'gnarly texture' and a silicone shaper to create creases and lines on the outside of the plants head/mouth. He uses some plastic to lay the clay on when he makes the leaves, so they are easier to remove, once shaped. He used a metallic base coat to paint, followed by black wash and green wash. He uses a high gloss varnish on the mouth section and used some UHU glue to create some slobber, which was really effective. Later, when making the mushrooms, he uses an Umber wash, made from a mixture of Umber Ink, flower improver and a dab of water, making it think enough to coat the clay without filling up all the cracks. This video moved at a faster pace than the others, I enjoyed watching it as I like Mario.

Jim McKenzie:

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Aliens and HR Giger

HR Giger, or Hans Ruedi Giger, was a Swiss artist known for his iconic horror and sci-fi art. Born on 5th February 1940, he was best known for his airbrushed images which blended human forms with machines. This art style was called biomechanical. Giger was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, he was responsible for creating the Alien itself.

His work is on permanent display at the HR Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. Here is a link to his website: HR Giger - The Official Website

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Creature armature and refinement before sculpt

Our home study for today was to look at logo designs for the big fast food companies, I found the logos for McDonald's, the very famous 'Golden Arches':

Basic red, with white writing, with a large, yellow M for McDonald's. Everyone knows this logo, even if you don't eat there.

KFC:

Again, red and white, but the writing is in black, with a black line drawing of 'The Colonel', who is the face of KFC. Here is a clip I found on the history of their logo.

Coca Cola Logo:

Again, a red background, with white writing.

Burger King logo:

This is logo has two primary colours, red and blue. Again, it has a white background and red writing. The addition of a bun still keeps the logo simple and not too busy.

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Rotoscoping.

Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over movie footage frame by frame, producing realistic movement for their characters.

Rotoscoping was invented in 1915 by the animator Max Fleicher to improve the movement of his characters, making them seem more realistic. The image here is from the movie 'The Matrix'.

Here is a clip from the movie, as a result of the rotoscoping for a fight scene: https://youtu.be/ggFKLxAQBbc?feature=shared