#which made me realise I draw my face shape less squared than what it actually is so I'll be trying to change that a bit

[anglerflsh]

self sunday (on wednesday this time)

[procrastinatorimagines]

Family

Fandom: Chicago PD / One Chicago

Character/s: Antonio Dawson x Reader

Warning/s: kidnapping

Word Count: 4,407

Request:  Hi there, can I get an Antonio Dawson x reader, please? Along the lines of Antonio and reader work together and started dating a while after his divorce and his kids love you (more than their own mum who has been mistreating them esp. since she started dating some guy). Laura's bf is in some shady stuff and Diego gets kidnapped (or hurt) and when they find him, he screams for him mummy and daddy and Laura moves forward but he pushes past her and runs for reader & Antonio. TQ x

Note: this got away from me a little but I never liked Laura, not after the way she treated Sylvie, and I just really miss Antonio, so here you go!

“You can’t move it like that,” Diego told you, watching as you picked up your knight tentatively, glancing up at him before you played each move to see his reaction, usually he just laughed. 

“Can’t I?” You replied, looking back at the board and the piece in your hand, hovering over the square you thought you could put it on. No matter how many times you played against Diego, you never even got close to winning.

“No, you definitely can’t,” he informed you with a smile, shifting in his seat so that he could lean over the chess board and take a better look at what you were doing.

“Huh,” you clicked your tongue, thinking, “well, what if I do this?” You moved your piece back to where it had been, moving it one space to the side and two up. He nodded and you grinned triumphantly, a look which only lasted a few seconds.

“I mean you can, but then I can do this,” he took your piece with ease and added it to his growing pile as you glanced back at the measly two pawns you’d managed to take from him, or, more accurately, that he had sacrificed. “See?” He made a show of it when he plucked the piece from the board and you heard Eva laughing behind you.

“Funny homework?” You asked, looking back to where she sat at the dining table, chewing her pen with books spread around her. 

“Oh yeah, it’s my homework that I’m laughing at,” she joked, earning a small cushion tossed in her general direction. “Hey!” She yelled as it hit her shoulder, throwing it straight back as she laughed, “I’m just saying, how many games has it been now? I’d say quit while you’re ahead, but maybe you should quit before you’re too far behind?” 

“Y/N’s already too far behind,” Diego added and you look between the two of them with fake shock and hurt.

“Antonio!” You called, putting on a whiny voice as you leaned back to look through the kitchen door at your boyfriend who was facing away from you tooking dinner, “Antonio your kids are bullying me!”

“Constructive critism!” Diego yelled back as his dad headed into the main room, wooden spoon in hand as he pointed it at the both of them. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” he started and Diego and Eva tried to suppress their smiles, but instead of even pretending to come to your defense he said, “does she deserve it?” You blinked at him as the siblings burst out laughing and Antonio winked at you.

“Traitor,” you gasped, but soon all of you were laughing as Antonio told you dinner was about to be ready. You and Diego paused your game and you helped the kids set the table. 

You and Antonio had been dating since soon after his divorce, but it had been a while before he introduced you properly to his children. Technically, you’d already met both of them, having been brought into Intelligence around the same time as Adam. After you’d started seeing each other you’d kept it on the down-low, and you’d never dreamed of pushing Antonio about it, he was going through a messy divorce and he had to put his kids first. 

It was a rocky start, but when Antonio had found out that Laura had not only already introduced her new boyfriend to Eva and Diego, but had left them with him on multiple occasions, he didn’t see the point in keeping your relationship a secret anymore. 

They’d warmed up to you pretty quickly, even if Laura never had, and setting the table with them now, as you did whenever you came over for dinner with them, you fell in sync like it’d always been that way. Previously, you’d have left after dinner, but you’d started spending the night with the kids around more and more, often going so far as to spend the weekend with them. 

The kids were happy about, much to yours and Antonio’s delight, especially when you’d started making pancakes for them Saturday mornings, it’d become tradition. When Diego had first mentioned it to Laura, however, it hadn’t gone down well. Apparently, she didn’t like a woman she barely knew watching her kids, and she definitely didn’t like Antonio pointing out that her boyfriend, Todd, had been doing the same thing, and at least he’d introduced you to her first. 

It had put a bit of a strain on your relationship for a while, you remembered as Antonio brought out dinner, but sat here now, you couldn’t have been more glad that you’d both decided to stick it out. 

“It looks amazing,” you told him as he took his seat, the smell of rice and chicken in the air as you all filled up your plates. 

“Yeah, thanks dad,” both children chorused their thanks as they tucked in, Diego bulldozing food into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten all day. Eva rolled her eyes at her younger brother, but you just smiled, appreciating the normalcy of a family dinner like this, with the man you loved. You weren’t their mother, you knew that, but these kinds of nights made you realise just how much you loved them.

“Oh dad after this-” Diego started through a mouth full of food, stopping and swallowing it with a pointed look from Antonio, “sorry, but after this you should watch me finish beating Y/N at chess yet again.” 

Antonio chuckled and you shook your head. “I’d love to, but don’t you have homework to finish first?” Diego shook his head, mouth full of food again.

“Finished it,” he said at last, Antonio glancing at you quickly to check if he was telling the truth, you gave him a slight nod. “Yeah we had less today because it’s the science fair on Monday,” he explained and Antonio did his best to hide the look on his face that showed he’d forgotten.

“Right of course, that came by quickly,” he said, “what time was that again?” Chances were, he’d be stuck on at work. You knew how much Antonio loved his job, but it was things like this that made him miss the steady hours of the State’s Attourney’s office. 

“It’s okay, I know you have to work, mom and Todd said they could make it,” Diego tried to reassure him but you could tell he was disappointed. 

“I’ll try,” Antonio promised anyway, most likely remembering the parent teacher night that Laura had brought Todd to without telling him, causing several of the teachers to think he was, in fact, Diego’s actual dad. 

“Are you going to come Y/N?” Diego turned to you hopefully, “if you can, of course.” God you could never say no to that face, not that you’d want to right now, it warmed your heart that Diego was including you in this, that he actually wanted you there.

“I’ll try my best, wouldn’t want to miss it,” you replied, patting his shoulder as he smiled at you. Eva looked at you with a look of appreciation; no matter what she said, she was protective of her brother, and she’d been at the age where she actually knew what was going on throughout the divorce. 

It had taken her much longer to warm up to you than her younger brother, mostly because of how attached to you he’d seemed to get, and she’d always worried you’d leave and hurt him, and her dad. 

You finished the rest of dinner with relatively unimportant chatter, Eva explained her homework for the night and you offered to help her with it while Antonio asked for Diego’s help tidying up after dinner. You weren’t spending the entire weekend with them, you had to be back at your apartment for some maintenance work on Sunday, but you promised you’d still be making pancakes for them in the morning. Even though Eva protested that she was getting too grown up for funny shaped pancakes, that turned around very quickly when Antonio suggested she not eat them then.

The rest of the night went by happily, Diego beat you at chess, obviously, and by the time you’d helped Eva with her homework the kids had gone up to their respective rooms. 

“I’m glad he wants you there,” Antonio said, unprompted as you snuggled up to him on the sofa to watch some mindless television before bed. You moved your head so that your chin was resting on his shoulder as you looked up at his face. He smiled as he looked back at you.

“Yeah?” You were too, but your mind had kept wandering to the fact that Laura was going to be there, obviously, she was his mother afterall, but you knew she wasn’t going to be happy to see you. It was Diego’s night, and you didn’t want to do anything to ruin it.

“Of course,” he replied, kissing you sweetly, “you’re family now if you hadn’t realised.” The way he was looking at you made you melt, so full of love as he put his arm around you, drawing you closer. 

“I love you,” you told him, the only response you thought worthy of his statement.

“I love you too,” he kissed you on the head as you snuggled back into his side, how had you gotten so lucky?

-

Monday came by quickly, and mercifully you and Antonio had managed to head out early, having done all you could do on the case you were working until the morning. You were still going to be late to the fair, but Laura and Todd would already be there, and you knew Diego wouldn’t be disappointed, he’d just be glad you’d both managed to show. 

While you knew you’d have to deal with Laura tonight, you hadn’t expected her to be waiting in the parking lot, practically marching over to the car before Antonio had even finished putting it into park. She made it to you just as you were climbing out the car, sharing a look of confusion with one another. 

“Where is he?” She demanded, no greeting or politeness as she looked in the car and then back at Antonio.

“Who?” Antonio asked, just as confused as you were.

“What do you mean who? Diego, your son,” Laura snapped, clearly exasperated, concern covering her face. 

“He’s supposed to be inside,” you told her, earning a deadly glare as she focused her attention back on Antonio, clearly not wanting you to have any input in this. 

“Well he isn’t,” she replied. What did she mean? You were both late, and he had volunteered to set up before the parents arrived so he never should have even left the school.

“Okay, Laura, you need to take a breath and explain what the hell is going on,” Antonio said, his calm starting to slip, “why would we know where Diego is? We came straight from the district and as far as we knew, Diego was supposed to be inside.”

Laura swallowed hard, concern turning to fear, but she didn’t reply. You headed around to the other side of the car. “Laura,” you said with force, putting a hand on her shoulder to try and snap her out of it, “from the beginning.”

Antonio ran his hands through his hair, taking a deep breath as Laura explained what she knew. “I got here a little late, about five minutes, but when I got in his stall hadn’t been set up, I asked the teachers and they told me that his dad had picked him up straight after school and he hadn’t come back.”

“What? Laura I swear that wasn’t me, I’ve been at the district all day,” Antonio swore, looking back to the entrance of the school. You reached into the inside coat pocket of your jacket for your badge, having a dreadful feeling you were going to need it before too long. 

“Then who took him?!” Laura practically yelled, earning looks from the other parents as they headed in to the fair. “Not again...” she mumbled as Antonio checked his phone for any missed calls, you and Laura doing the same before you headed inside.

Laura pointed you both in the direction of the teacher she had spoken with. “Mr Wright,” Antonio got his attention, pulling out his badge when he tried to tell him that he was busy talking to other parents at the minute. 

“Is everything okay?” The man asked, excusing himself from the conversation. He was a bit of a younger teacher, you remembered Diego telling you that it was his first year, the old physics teacher retiring before Summer.

“Antonio Dawson,” he introduced himself quickly, “I’m looking for my son,” he told him, Wright looking to you before his eyes went to Laura, apparently clocking something as he looked back at Antonio.

“Your son?” He questioned and Antonio nodded. “No, no, Diego?” 

“Yes, Diego, Diego Dawson,” Antonio said impatiently and the teacher, at least, looked equal parts confused and guilty. 

“But his father picked him up,” Mr Wright tried, “I mean- he said he was his father.”

“And you took his word for it?” Laura demanded and Mr Wright looked to her puzzled.

“Well, yes, I mean I’d seen him with Diego before, and you Ms. Dawson, he came to the parents evening just last month, I had no reason to...” he trailed off, clearly apologetic as Antonio practically whirled on Laura.

“Todd?” You had to put your hand on his arm, reminding him that you were in a very public place and you were already drawing attention to yourselves. 

“Why would he?-” She wondered, “that doesn’t make any sense, Todd wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Isn’t he supposed to be here tonight?” You realised, cutting in to what was clearly about to turn into a heated argument, Antonio already getting angry, and rightfully so, at the whole situation.

“Yeah, he said something came up so he couldn’t make it,” Laura said finally, “but he wouldn’t do anything to Diego,” you knew she was saying that more to herself than anyone else as you let Mr. Wright get back to the fair. 

“’Something’? What is ‘something’ Laura?” Antonio demanded, getting his phone out to try and call Diego, but it told him that the line was disconnected. 

“I don’t- I don’t know, he didn’t say!” She fumbled, trying to call Todd too.

Both their phones had been disconnected.

“This can’t have been him, whatever this is,” she tried to reason but neither you or Antonio looked a little convinced.

“Then how do you explain all of this?” He snapped back, barging past her towards the entrace, you hot on his heels as you dialed the only number that could help you now, Hank Voight’s. 

Laura followed quickly, still trying to wrap her head around the whole situation as Antonio made her get into the back of the car. Laura tried Eva, but she didn’t pick up, so you decided to head back to the house, where she was supposed to be studying. 

“Hey Serg, yeah we have a situation,” you filled him in on what had just happened as Antonio peeled out of the car park, barely acknowledging Laura as he drove, anger and worry making him grip the steering wheel until his knuckles went white. 

Voight said he’d call the rest of the team as you put it on speaker, and you’d all meet at Antonio’s ASAP, this had become top priority now.

Kim and Adam had arrived first, Eva had been plugged into her laptop and missed the call, but she was okay. Antonio breathed a sigh of relief as he ran up the steps to meet his daughter at the door. The tears she had clearly tried to clear from her face told you she’d been at least partially filled in as the rest of Intelligence arrived. 

“Everyone, gather around,” Voight called everyone into the living room as you took Antonio’s hand, giving it a squeeze for support as Voight continued, “Diego Dawson is our priority right now, we need to find him, so far all we know is Todd Richards, Laura’s boyfriend, was seen taking him out of school at around 4 claiming to be his father, so, where would he take Diego?”

“Wait, Todd did this?” Eva interrupted, listening from the other room as she walking.

“We think so,” Antonio told her honestly, “but we’re going to find him sweetie,” Laura went to comfort her daughter but Eva pulled back, barely even looking at her as she leans into Antonio. Laura turns to where they are stood, clearly hurt but not entirely surprised, still looking guilt about the fact that her boyfriend was most likely responsible.

Antonio hugged his daughter as you filled the rest of the unit in about what you knew about Todd, which wasn’t much honestly. “Okay, well what does Todd do for a living? Who are his friends?” Jay asked, mostly looking to Antonio and Laura.

“Er, construction, he runs a construction company, his friends are mostly his workers,” Laura informed you all.

“He working on anything at the moment?” Kev asked and Laura shrugged a little.

“Sort of,” she replied vaguely.

“What does that mean?” Antonio asked, sending a reluctant Eva out the room with a uniform while you all worked.

“He had a project in the works, but something was up with it, I think an investor pulled out, that might have been where he was supposed to be today,” Laura explained the best she could.

“So he didn’t have enough money? Or any?” You guessed as a map was passed to the unit so Laura could point out the spot.

“They were going under,” she admitted, pulling at a thread of her shirt subconsciously. If they were going under... they’d need money.

“Random?” Hailey guessed, saying what you were all thinking.

“But why? Why take my son?” Laura sounded so lost, but you knew why, and it had nothing to do with her. No doubt she’d told Todd all about her divorce, Antonio, the unit, he must have seen an opportunity to make real cash, but it was hardly very premeditated.

“Look, this was all quick, and so far seems pretty unplanned to me, so he won’t be at some unknown location, he’ll do somewhere familiar, somewhere he feels safe,” you voiced your theory as you stared at the map.

“If construction was halted he’s probably holed up there, it’s his home ground, he’ll be comfortable there and his crew are probably in on it too,” Vanessa continued as Laura sobbed. 

Antonio was trying to hold it together Diego, and Eva, but you could tell this who situation was getting to be too much, Diego being snatched by Pulpo was bad enough, but by someone who was supposed to be trustworthy? You didn’t know what he would do to Todd when you found him, so you were going to make sure you were by his side, just in case.

“Well, whatever he was thinking it wasn’t smart, he hasn’t called to make demands yet and he had to know that cops look out for their own, taking a detective’s son is a deadly game,” Voight said.

“He’s desperate,” Antonio added, “might even be hesitating now he’s actually past the point of no return, wondering what’s going to happen to him if he makes that call.” Nothing good, that much you knew.

“So we head to the site, stake it out, if he’s there, we move in carefully, grab Diego, he’s not going to want to hurt him, he’s his only security in this situation,” Voight decided and Laura pointed with a shaky finger to the spot on the map where the construction site was. 

Hailey got a quick call from the district, confirming that both Todd and Diego’s phones had last pinged within a mile or so of that location, it had to be where they were. 

Laura tried to apologise as you all suited up to leave but Antonio didn’t want to hear it right now, they could talk about Todd when their son was safe. You’d been pretty new to the unit when Diego had been taken by Pulpo, but you remembered the grief Laura had given him about it around the divorce, knew how Antonio had blamed himself. Diego had to be okay, you thought, strapping on your vest and double checking your gun, he had to be.

-

You didn’t say much to Antonio during the drive, but you kept your hand in his all the way, reminding him that you were there with him no matter what. Laura and Eva had insisted on coming, so they’d been positioned with some uniforms outside the perimeter what was now being set up.

“Ready?” Voight asked, more to Antonio and even you than anyone else. You were trying to be as there for Antonio as you could be, and that meant staying calm and steady, but damn it if you weren’t scared for Diego, you loved that kid, you loved the family you were making with them, and you were terrified that something might go wrong. 

“Le’ts get my son back,” Antonio addressed the unit, you were more than ready to risk their lives for one of their own, as were you, as you double checked your weapon yet again.

Before long you were moving stealthily into positions along the site, keeping your eyes out for movement, careful not to attract attention to yourselves. You ad Antonio stopped by a window, carefully looking in to assess the situation, signaling to the others when you spotted movement inside. Heat sensors put about 5 men in this building, the offices for the site it seemed, and one of the figures was definitely smaller than the others, Diego.

Hank positioned himself with you and Antonio by the main door, Diego looked to be in the back, but the order was still as few bullets as possible. Hailey and Jay had taken the back entrace and the others were ready to get anyone who managed to get away, but the look on Antonio’s face told you that that wouldn’t be a problem.

Voight signaled a three second countdown on his fingers as you gripped your gun tighter, your heart thumping in your ears as you tried to steady your breathing. Nothing could go wrong. 

Antonio was more than happy to kick the door in when Voight got down to zero, “hit it,” he told the others over comms, and you were in. They’d got speedy approval from a judge before the op, but extenuating circumstances would have to be a good enough explanation as the door came off the hinges in splinters. Either the door wasn’t very strong, Antonio was very angry, or a little of both. 

Needless to say, the men, who had clearly not thought this all the way through, were startled by your sudden entrace, most dropping any weapons they had pretty quickly when they saw your guns and badges. They tried to run, but quickly saw this wasn’t a fight they were going to win.

Todd tried to keep his gun up the longest, and honestly you thought that Antonio was hoping he’d do as much. Antonio disarmed the panicking man with ease, knocking him onto the ground and jamming his gun in his face. 

“You thought you could take my kid!” He yelled, practically spitting on the man in anger. You took a step forward to stop him but Voight grabbed your arm lightly, stopping you. But you the second hit into his face with the back of Antonio’s gun, you were shoving past Voight and grabbing your boyfriend. 

When Antonio tried to resist you said into his ear: “Diego’s here, he’s all that matters, don’t let him see you like this,” you pulled his gun from his hand carefully and he let you, standing up as Jay and Hailey cuffed Todd and the others. 

You and Antonio ran to the back room as Voight was signalling an all clear. Pulling open the door you saw Diego sat on the floor, hands, feet and mouth covered in ducktape. Carefully, Antonio freed his son, who immediately rushed into his arms, shaking as his tears wet his father’s shoulder. 

“Oh my boy, oh I got you, I’m so sorry, you’re okay,” Antonio soothed as you breathed a sigh of relief, not realising how tense you yourself had been at the situation.

“We got him,” you said into your comms, not being able to take your eyes off father and son being reunited. You headed back to drag out the perps as Antonio lifted Diego still in his arms, and carried him outside. 

“Diego!” Eva and Laura were already running to him, Laura not even acknowledging Todd as she ran to her son. Antonio puts Diego down so he can see his family as you hauled the last of the kidnappers into squad cars. 

Just as you shut the door you felt something slam into your back, nearly toppling over as you turned to see Diego wrapping his arms around you. You bent down so that you were at his level, glancing back to see a shocked looking Laura, arms still out slightly to catch him as he’d run past her to you.

Pulling Diego into a hug he let out a sob, Antonio and Eva heading over to where you both were. “You’re okay, I got you,” you whispered to him, trying not to look at Laura as you did. You felt a little guilty, sure, but he’d come to you, and you weren’t about to send him away, not when you loved him this much.

“Hey,” Antonio ruffled Diego’s hair as you stood up, wiping his tears with your thumb. 

The four of you together, after the day you’d just had, made you start to well up a little as you blinked away tears, glad everyone was back together. 

“Can we go home?” Diego asked and Antonio agreed, “you’re coming too right?” 

“Always,” you told him, putting your arm around Eva as you took Antonio’s hand. Antonio put his hand on Diego’s shoulder, keeping him close as he led you all back to the car.

“Let’s go home,” Antonio agreed and despite all the time you’d spend at that house, for the first time, it really was your home, your family.

[tomo-tron]

My experience growing up as an Artist (and trying to get a job)

Buckle up, it’s a long one.

I’ve never really thought about doing an actual written blog entry on here before as I’ve normally not really had much to say and prefer to talk about my work. But I thought it could be helpful to share my personal experiences of trying to get work post-university from the perspective of an illustrator/artist. This could be helpful to you if you’ve just graduated, are thinking of doing a course at uni or are currently freelance and are wondering how to get your first break in a full-time art job. Emphasis on could. 

So for those of you who’ve never met me (which is pretty much 99%+ of my followers), I’ve always drawn characters from games and comics etc. If I saw a character that blew my mind as a kid, I drew them. I had a big, lined, A4 notebook and drew in with biro pen. I drew in class when I wasn’t supposed to. I drew in my weekly planner for lessons (where you were supposed to write homework and deadlines etc) and then got into detentions because of them where I was even made to go through and cover them all up using paper and glue...Art at secondary school DID NOT help me. At all. A lot of schools don’t understand/recognise the games/comic/entertainment industry (or at least seemingly prestigious ones from the north where people make money by farming and/or settling into a mundane plane of conformative existence revolving around having kids way too early and peaking before you’re 25 before forever there after living in a bubble safely tucked away from the rest of the world and society). To be fair, schools have to cover a potentially very broad spectrum and kids don’t always know what’s best for them and where they want to end up. But sometimes kids DO know where they want to end up. To also be fair, my art teachers could see that fine art wasn’t my thing and that I was technically a good artist when it came to drawing, so they sort of gave me a lot of leeway when it came to work guidelines (one of my main teachers also looked and acted like Dean McCoppin from Iron Giant which was pretty much the best thing that could have happened there). 

Anyway, moving onto University. In the UK, 2011 was the year the university fees basically tripled...The work I did at that school didn’t really help me much when applying for places. No one I knew wanted to do anything similar. And there were no adults who had any idea what I needed to do to get to the places I wanted either. So I was on my own. Suffice to say I failed at getting onto a 3 year course (which I’ve always imagined was potentially due to increased demand just before the fees went up). The lecturer doing a portfolio review with me said I had “too many werewolves” and the less said about all of that the better. I think maybe there was two werewolves, done in the same style the point of which being that one was male and one was female and I’d tried to make that visually evident. However, I was offered a place on a 1 year Art and Design course (yay...). Ironically, the foundation course turned out to pretty much help me un-learn EVERYTHING that I had spent the last 7 years being told to do. Crazy right? It annoyed me that I had to spend an extra year there (though not from the social point of view and uni life) and straight after the course, I finally began a 3 year Illustration and Animation course. 

At 20 y/o (a year later than most) I started my 3 year course. I won’t say too much about the course itself as there’s a slight conflict of interest in regards to me potentially going back to lecture there soon. But in those 3 years, I gradually felt more and more comfortable to focus on producing work that I always felt I was supposed to be doing. Nothing great came out of my first year, the second year was arguably better/more professional and then finally in my third year I created a 26 page comic about monsters (which I drafted a good friend in to write the script for, bearing in mind he was on a course at the time too) which I called “Stubble” and it was the pinnacle of my artist achievements. It was a comic, but I had really developed these two characters from fairly in-cohesive and random creatures with rubber tire armour and boring shapes/silhouettes to these very much simplified, strange, stubble-y polar opposites of one another. So I figured that the ability to create characters and demonstrate that, would help get me into the games industry regardless, if I wanted to go that route. 

Then we had the end of year exhibition where we could showcase our final major projects. This got me noticed by a nearby toy design company in the area. It was exactly what I’d always hoped would happen, a job offer fresh out of university. They loved my work and I did a small-ish art test for them before being invited to a job interview that went really well. Their only major concern was my art style and whether I could adapt it appropriately for the sort of work they did. I was 23 y/o at the time, I was still no expert and hadn’t spent a whole lot of time doing product design on my non-product design based course (surprise surprise). I didn’t hear back from them for a while and because I’d never applied to salaried jobs before, I just thought it was the norm. I moved to London with my then gf and pretty much lost all motivation artistically when faced with the real world and trying to make ends meet in the most expensive part of the UK as a poor ass ex-student. Six months later, they got back to me. It was a no. They wanted to stress I was very much in the running along with 2 other applicants and choosing between the 3 of us had been the subject of much debate. So that sucked. And then not long after my long-term relationship fell apart which was a nice addition so I was back to square one at home with mummy and daddy and a seemingly useless degree. 

Thankfully, I had made some good friends who were still studying at my university and staying to live in the area afterwards to get work (they were all car designers). So at 24 y/o I pretty much begged them to let me move in with them so I could regain some independence and start again. I should probably mention that freelance work had been coming in post-uni in dribs and drabs. I was doing the work when I found it, but it was few and far between and not really helping me to create a uniform portfolio. I was applying to concept art and character art jobs where ever I could find them the whole time, despite really not having the portfolio to back them up because it was filled with irrelevant work such as cartoon cats I was doing for a legitimately crazy cat lady who was supposedly running a charity (but years later came to the conclusion she was more of an opportunist perpetually trying to reclaim her lost wealth and the life it had afforded her). I managed to end up working for Marvel and Lego which was weird. Though technically it wasn’t directly with either as the Marvel work was for a company who owned the rights to create licensed trading cards on Marvel’s behalf and the Lego job was outsourced to me through an agency that did media production and stuff for other companies. People always say to me “but the fact is you worked for Marvel and Lego”, and maybe it’s impostor syndrome speaking, but I don’t think they fully understand the way that kind of work...works (which is fine, but also perhaps trust the guy who’s been doing this for a living). I’d say I worked for Lego more legitimately than I did for Marvel.  

24/25 y/o and my confidence was taking a beating. I kept thinking how it was never meant to be this hard (getting a job). I’d been told by pretty much everyone I’d ever met, professional and otherwise, that I was talented and yet I wasn’t getting anywhere. Add to that the fact I was having to watch all my friends find work in their chosen fields easily and I’m honestly surprised I didn’t have/haven’t had a mental break down of some sort (especially after seeing how some people my age reacted to small periods of uncertainty). I DIGRESS, I started getting bolder with my applications and began sending them to places I thought were too good for me anyway and that would need me to be some sort of artistic veteran to even stand a chance at being considered. I’d mostly stuck to companies within the UK at this point, but I was having to move further afield because I’d exhausted what seemed to be every single games company the UK had to offer and felt like my work was more appropriate for what I deemed to be as bolder and more imaginative US companies. At the time, I was obsessed with League of Legends and had begun to learn about the company behind them, Riot Games. So I thought “fuck it” and I sent an application to their studio in Hong Kong despite being terrified by the prospect of moving there. And guess what?

They got back to me. 

Again, I don’t want to go into too much detail. But let’s just say I did another art test for this one. And then another. And then another. And then also another. I didn’t have a job, I was relying on my incredibly unreliable freelance work but pretty much prioritising the application process over everything else going on in my life. I was doing good work in my mind, quantity AND quality, the best of both worlds. I was pushing myself to get into a design frame of mind and applying my extensive knowledge of League of Legends to solve problems that I knew needed addressing in the best way I could. 

You can see where this is going. 

I didn’t get the job. I found out midday as I recall, which meant I had the whole day to wallow in self pity. But hey, I had a heap of new work for my portfolio. I was proud of it all for a few months at least and now I just feel like I have to include it in my portfolio because of how extensive it was and how much I threw myself at it. I realise now that quantity isn’t always the best thing. And I will never ever ever again draw that many iterations of a character in pencil with nice line work. It was a dumb way to work and it was slow as hell. You don’t focus on line work when you’re trying to develop ideas at an early stage, even if you’re trying to impress a big company. Part of the job is narrowing down ideas. But at the time I didn’t feel that it was my place to say what was and wasn’t good as I was trying to get in to a entry-level role and was expecting someone to make those decisions for me. I was the grunt, they were the overlord. Several months is a lot of time to exchange for a fairly simple lesson. Especially when you feel like you’re trying to play catch up in life and are now 2 years behind everyone else your age. But I’ve got to stress that I wasn’t an expert, I was still young and unlike most other people I knew, I literally had no one to advise me/ look to for tips. Which I think is something pretty much most artists go through at some point in their life seeing as we all end up pretty secluded. 

The thing is, I felt obligated to share the work I did from that application because it’s unfair to ask someone to invest so much (UNPAID) time and effort into something without letting them then use that to further their job hunt if you’re to turn them down. Art tests in general are unfair. Apply the idea of an unpaid test to most other areas of employment - marketing, banking (even bar tender jobs will pay you half the standard rate if they’re trailing you for the day) and people generally respond with something like “yeah I wouldn’t do something like that unless I was paid”. Because it comes across like you don’t respect yourself. And yet that is unfortunately the world we live in as artists. 

Moving on. Still 25 y/o going on 26, after posting pretty much all of that work on this very blog and whilst on holiday, I got an email from a guy called Ben saying he was from Riot Games and wondered if I wanted to collaborate on a comic together. I’d become accustomed to the word “collaborate” being synonymous with “free” so I was initially sceptical and didn’t think much of it. Instead turning my attention to the shrimps I was bbqing and jokingly telling my friends that some schmuck wanted to get free work out of me again. However, it began to become more real and eventually I understood that it was going to be a real job. Still freelance, but real. And for one of my favourite companies as well. I became one of 4 artists making web comics for Riot at the time and became pretty good friends with Ben. We made “Olaf Vs Everything” whilst the other horsemen of Ben’s apocalypse made “Crystal Quest”, “Academy Adventures” and “Punches and Plants” with him. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we had fun and did what we could with the limitations of the gig. Season 1 of the comic turned into season 2 and things seemed to be picking up. I was networking and making friends with like-minded artists across the world and suddenly didn’t feel so alone anymore.

I was super lucky to get invited to Riot’s HQ in L.A. along with a bunch of these other artists as part of Riot’s first Art Lab. It was a really crazy time in my life and didn’t quite feel real (sort of still doesn’t). I suddenly felt like I had something to back up my abilities to the friends and family around me and for once wasn’t a huge failure in my chosen field. It was a nice feeling and impostor syndrome definitely went away that week. 

That was over a year ago now, which is nuts. But I still know all these guys (and more). They’re a very talented bunch and for the most part, it seems like we’re all watching each other grow and actively try to get our dream jobs. Unlike the majority of artists I met at university, who seemed to only be in it for the qualification and have long since given up pursuing a career as artists. But don’t get me wrong, there were definitely some talented folks who made it work and some who really deserved to but I don’t think have done. Skip forward a bit and I actually started work as a part-time lecturer at my university in 2018, teaching the students taking the same course I did all those years ago. Working with the lecturer who 6/7 years prior had said my portfolio had too many werewolves in it (it’s some sort of running joke). It’s nice to see that they seem to be slightly more thirsty for knowledge than my year group was. The quality of their work is also a better I’d say. More diverse. And every single one of them has a drawing tablet in their first year (most of my year group didn’t get them until 2nd year, some never did). 

And now...

I spent the last few months actively sending out applications for concept art jobs again with my portfolio now containing my Artstation King Arthur competition entry in it (which has been helping me out more than I thought it would and you can see here: www.artstation.com/artwork/nQLePX). Side note - do an Artstation challenge if you can, they can be fun, push you and look great in your portfolio/cover letter. I found a job I really really really wanted that was nearby. It ticked all the boxes and almost seemed too good to be true. I did the procedural art test (unpaid of course) and had an interview. Everything felt good. Didn’t get the job. This time seemingly because of not being able to start immediately, despite the fact that all commitments I had had lined up for the next 2 months were completely cancellable. You can’t make this stuff up. So from now on, I will habitually write in capital letters on my cover letters “I CAN START IMMEDIATELY, I DON’T EVEN CARE IF I HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE STREETS IN BETWEEN WORK DAYS UNTIL I CAN FIND ACCOMMODATION, I’LL MAKE SURE I CLEAN MY TEETH BEFORE I COME IN AT THE VERY LEAST” as well as potentially screaming the word “IMMEEEEEDIATELYYYY” at any future interviewers upon hearing a “when can you start” related question. I would advise you to do the same. Well maybe not exactly the same, but y’know, just make sure they know you can start immediately. Bums in seats. Being able to start sooner = more important than being a good fit (sometimes anyway, so take that into consideration). 

I’ve mostly spent this past year realising that if I ever want to have a moderately “normal” life (aka having disposable income) then I had to give up doing comics in favour of concept art. I’d already felt that way for a long time, but this year I’ve actively avoided committing to big comic projects because they simply aren’t worth the time and effort in most cases. And to note, I did have a completely separate portfolio of comic page samples I sent out to publishers in an effort to up my game and I got absolutely no where. I’m not trying to dissuade any one else from succeeding where I’ve failed by any means. But you have to be prepared to fail a lot and if you can deal with that then by all means you should try. But for me, I really don’t like the prospect of taking a huge backwards step at this point in life, and by that I mean moving back home where it’s rent-free. Perseverance is an admirable trait. Persevering despite overwhelming odds. And though there is a very big difference between quitting and knowing when to quit, I think artists more so than any other profession don’t really know how to quit. Which is a pretty brave thing in most cases. Meanwhile, with each year that passes I feel like I can relate more and more to episodes of the Simpsons where Bart and Lisa were all grown up and the major difference between the two career-wise. I love (ew grosss) my younger sister, don’t get me wrong (and don’t tell her) but she’s starting to make me look bad ahah. 

Next month I’m going to be doing a crash course at Escape Studios in London learning how to model/sculpt and animate a character of my own design in roughly 4 weeks. I’m hoping that broadening my skill set to 3D will increase my employability. It will at the very least mean I can eventually apply to character art jobs and stand a chance. However, after that course I am potentially going to look for part-time/full-time work in an unrelated field of work because I don’t really have a choice. 

I will keep looking for the concept art/ character art job out there that I know I’ll be good at. Because I’m in this for the long haul. And if you are as well, then I wish you the very best of luck and hope that something I’ve written here may help you out. 

Your hairy neighbourhood friend,

- Tom

[ruinfell]

[DRABBLE] Marksmanship

The void was a dangerous place. It was far from empty, like one may assume, but instead unpredictable; the dark depths held untold horrors that knew exactly how to strike when they were least expected.

Expecting someone did not help ease Tokaku in the slightest, as he waited in the unlit clearing. Why Llyr had not simply extended his influence and made space for them, he did not know, but he assumed that the unease was intended to be instilled. Llyr and his beloved companion – Tokaku's usual tutor – were much of the same ilk.

Men who delved into the darkness and adapted within it, rather than run away from it.

This rabbit did not wait helplessly, as the very nature of their meeting was to be of tutelage. Llyr had spied the moment in which Tokaku's long-forgotten weapon had come to fore, and recognised it, albeit with some disdain, as kindred to his own lost arms.

He clutched more tightly to his rifle, kept it level and readied, as the unease seeped further into his bones. He did not keep still: there was no pacing, but he turned on the spot, looked around, made sure that his back was not facing the same way for too long.

His paranoia served him well when a sudden clamour came from the dark.

The flash of light hit his vision before anything else could, and he tumbled aside, stumbling to his feet and raising his weapon—

"TOO SLOW. Far too slow!"

The sound carried before light reached its speaker, and Tokaku's expression dropped into an all too displeased frown. Llyr had finally arrived, blowing smoke away from the barrel of his pistol, and holding his cutlass at the ready. Its unnatural surface still held the dancing sparks of gunfire, for far longer than it ought to. "I could have shot again already," the rattish man chided, "and you would be dead."

Tokaku had no doubt of that, but it was still a dick move. He just barely restrained his annoyance. "Did you come here to take pot shots at me, or did you come here to teach me something?" He grumbled, firing off a pot shot of his own. He'd feel smug for it, if it weren't a genuine inquiry.

Llyr was not particularly humoured. He was finding it a struggle to deal with his mirror, despite Nero's insistence that he cease indulging his hypocrisy. His blade is sheathed, and he holsters his gun. If Tokaku wanted to be taught, then, he would teach him.

He approached his new student, and began to readjust him without warning. "First off: do not fucking brandish your rifle like a club." His hands are moved about his firearm, repositioned as the smaller of the pair saw fit. Squared his shoulders, angled his arms correctly, straightened out his gun. "It is a vehicle for bullets, but not only that. You must think of it as an extension of your body. And you will treat it with the respect it is owed."

Tokaku kept his protest within, realising that he would get nowhere arguing at this point. He did, after all, ask for instruction. He wanted to remain open, no matter how admonishing Llyr wanted to be towards him. He also had something to prove.

Llyr sidled up, making sure everything was aligned. He stepped away once he was certain everything was how he wanted it, and huffed gently. (It seemed he'd been picking habits up from someone.)

"Perhaps you are not completely hopeless."

Tokaku had to resist rolling his eyes, though it was quite a feat to. Instead, he held his position.

Llyr noticed something. It was he who had to keep his composure then, choosing to frown instead with scrutiny, and narrow his sockets, rather than let himself smirk at all like he almost wanted to. "You at least remember not to put your fucking finger on the trigger if you are not fucking firing. That is something."

He set himself back a few strides, removing himself from Tokaku's view completely, and then casting a hand out before him, as though gesturing ahead.

For a moment, Tokaku was confused… until a few shapes rose from the nothing beneath them. White bones; magic bullets. They arranged themselves at varying distances, and remained stationary in the positions they set themselves in, for now. Llyr was creating a shooting range.

"You apparently remembered well enough how to use the bayonet," Llyr said with no small amount of annoyance, as he believed swords were for swinging, guns were for shooting, and bayonets meant you were doing neither effectively. "Let us see if you remember how to fire it."

It was not something Tokaku remembered consciously. He knew well enough the steps required to fire a rifle, as it was a process of logic having studied the gun and its base mechanisms. He also knew that, logically, guns needed to be loaded. He'd no shot or gunpowder; they were not things he would ever need to possess, he felt, even carrying a firearm. He'd only gotten half way through telling himself that he could not be expected to fire his weapon when he had nothing to feed into the barrel… when the sharp contrast of the bones in the distance distracted him enough from his looping fallacy to remind him of a very simple and helpful truth.

He could just make bullets.

To make that realisation felt like a puzzle piece clicking into place, and all at once the picture made itself obvious. Most firearms of his day had required barrel loading of ammunition; for a musket of this era and design you would expect it to be loaded with a precise amount of gunpowder, then a lead ball as the ammunition. Another, finer gunpowder was loaded into the pan of the rifle, so that it could be struck alight by the flint and frizzen mechanisms. However, all of these mechanisms were completely unnecessary to a monster, because a monster had magic, which could substitute for the gunpowder and the ammunition both. Magic could be a catalyst, or it could be formed into a solid state that could enact purpose, such as inflicting damage when impacting something it is launched at.

Tokaku followed through the steps carefully, writing and then reading through instruction in his head as though he were speaking it aloud to his instructor as explanation. (Llyr could see the cogs moving, even.) A charge of magic was laid within the muzzle of his musket, and a round magic bullet rested up against it, all without Tokaku moving from his carefully adjusted position. He loaded just enough magic into the pan, cocked the hammer back, moved his finger to the trigger, lined his sight up with the nearest white bone, took a deep breath, and—

BANG.

Tokaku's careful positioning had been broken, but not before a flash of light pierced through the empty blackness and right through the nearest white bone, dead center. The bone shattered outward, and its shards dissipated upward. He was stunned, staring at what had once been a bullet in some disbelief that he had been the one to break it.

Llyr let himself smile just a little this time. It disappeared as soon as Tokaku looked back at him, but the void had eyes enough to have bore witness.

"So you do remember how to fire it. We will actually be able to get somewhere. Now shoot the rest down, and do not be so dramatic about the recoil, will you? You built the bloody thing, it is not going to blow your arm off."

Tokaku fixed him with a look. "How do you know I built it?" He didn't know that. He knew the gun was his, he felt it was, but he'd no idea where it came from, other than it evidently having been in his possession upon his death and erasure from reality.

"Because," Llyr answered, "how else would you know how it works? It is exactly as my pistol, which I built. Magic-fed, because it gives the advantage of not having to faff about reloading in the thick of battle. We are fucking alternates, you fool." A fact he at least told himself he was loathe to accept… but maybe he did appreciate it a little more now than he did before, seeing how quickly Tokaku remembered, and how finely his arm worked. And how much easier it made teaching and explaining things, when he could draw on latent experience and knowledge, and had a rough idea of what his student was capable of if he actually put his mind to it.

It also helped that Tokaku was a surprisingly open-minded student, at least now. He had been a very close-minded man before, and Llyr had not forgotten the way he spoke to him, his friends, and his partner. Yet, Nero lended his aid readily, and Tokaku took his lessons on board with little to no resistance. Llyr had seen for himself the horned man's graduation from quivering mess on the floor to, maybe, a passable swordsman.

He kept a close eye on him, now, as the rifle lined up with each target before blasting it into the nothingness. Some targets became a challenge, as Llyr began to move them: in very specific patterns at first, but becoming less like a pathed movement, and more like a dangling carrot with the last few.

Tokaku shot down each one with care in his precision. He took his time with this task, recognising it well enough as opportunity to familiarise himself further with his bonded weapon. With each shot he could feel how the magic flowed through it, and study the mechanisms, not just through sight, but through sensation too. He became quicker with each shot, until the last few were fluid twitches and motions that seemed as natural a motion as turning one's head.

Llyr had gotten lost in the dance of it all, evidently, as, when the final bone shattered and the music ended, he found Tokaku was staring at him in a great manner of confusion.

"Why do you look so pleased with yourself?" He almost sounded offended, but he was a bit past taking offense with the look on Llyr's face. He was often just unreasonably smug, he'd noticed, and it wasn't intentionally provocative. His face was just stuck like that.

This time there was definitely a reason, and Llyr felt a little embarrassed for being caught out.

"... Well," said Llyr, finally managing words, but not liking how his face lit up a bit with the first sound that left him, "maybe I am a little pleased to see a firearm handled properly."

There was another moment of Tokaku being stunned… before he began to laugh. Not a mean or condescending laugh; a sound made by someone who was quite relieved to realise that a rather intimidating person was not nearly as scary as they had tried to make themselves look. It was not the first time he had had this experience, and he was sure it would not be the last. Llyr's embarrassment at his honesty was very much from a place of not understanding his feelings, and, for Tokaku, seeing that was like looking in a mirror.

Llyr truly had not wanted to let go of his distrust and disdain for Tokaku, and, now that he had been forced to, he had been left vulnerable — not to Tokaku, but to himself.

"You said it yourself!" Tokaku barked through his laughter, "We are alternates, you fool!"

Llyr didn't feel any less embarrassed to hear his words parroted back at him… but the humour with which his mirror took such a thing, did make him feel a little less awkward.

He just about regained his composure, albeit notably lacking in threat now. "Enough of that, you tittering twat. One more round of targets and then you can fuck off and eat carrots or whatever it is you do when you're not running away from swords. I am tired of you." The jabs came a bit thicker, but they had noticeably much less sharpness to them now.

Tokaku's laughter tapered off, and he leveled his rifle up to the forming target range once more, with a renewed determination.

[lmfmp2021]

Exterior Origami Packaging

Here, I will now be creating the exterior of my origami packaging. In the previous post, I discovered the layout and where the folds are when opening up the packaging, so I can now use this for measurements. Firstly, I opened up Illustrator, to which I would go onto ‘create new’. This is where I can put in the measurements of the length and width of my piece of paper, that I previously used. When using a ruler, I got it as being 21cm x 21cm. I knew before even doing this, that these two numbers would be the same as I have to use a squared size, as this is what I had to do in the YouTube video. 

After this, I created the page, to which my next step was to measure out where the creases/folds of my bag are. So again to do this, I had to use a ruler to measure how far inwards on the page, they were. I started with the first vertical fold, on the left, where it was 7cm in. So to mark this I used guide lines. At first, I was going to use the ‘line segment tool’ to just draw on the lines, although I realised that this was probably going to make the design process more difficult as I would end up moving these lines instead of my design elements. So I then remembered that I could use guide lines instead as it would be much more easier to work with. 

To do these up, I first had to go to ‘view’, ‘rulers’ and ‘ show rulers’. Showing in this screenshot below is the rulers that would appear both sides of the page. After this, you can then drag from these rulers, to which would reveal a line. I set this place of where I wanted it. I needed my first one to go on the number 7, when looking at the ruler at the top of the page. Next, I had to add another one, as from looking at my paper, there is another fold going this direction too. This new line had to be another 7cm up from the first one, meaning it would go onto 14cm. 

Then, for the lines going horizontally, there needed to be three. Like before the top one had to be 7cm down, the bottom one had to be at 14cm and the middle one had to be exactly in between these two. 

Once I had got my page ready to start, I decided to create a new repeat pattern to use on my exterior packaging. I thought to use all the illustrations and place them into one, so that it will show as one pattern, but has all the elements showing the flavours. Another reason for doing this is because I feel that it will flow better as I will only be having one pattern, meaning it won’t look confusing, like it would if I used all four patterns on this packaging. 

So produce this, I opened up my old file, to which I first created the repeat patterns. Next, I added a new page as this would be where I layout and my elements. I then copied and pasted all the illustrations that I needed, so I took the flavour drawing and added it onto my new design. After this, I played around with the composition, until I found one that I thought could work. Next, I selected all the aspects and went to ‘object’, ‘pattern’ and ‘make’. Doing this brings up a new tab, where I could then change the ‘tile type’ and ‘brick offset’, as well as the ‘copies’. 

When I did this the first time, I realised that the composition in which I arranged these in, was not working at all. I found there was a big gap between some of the elements, which made it look very odd once I had turned it into a pattern. So to solve this, I simply just rearranged the elements and created another repeat pattern. I then came up with this pattern above, to which I feel it had a much more appealing effect as the objects all worked well together. 

After that, I needed to change the scale of the pattern as I found that it was way too close up that hardly any of the pattern was actually showing. So to fix this, I went to ‘object’, ‘transform’ and ‘scale’. This will bring up a new tab, where you will need to untick the box saying ‘transform objects and tick ‘transform pattern’. You can then change the number saying ‘uniform’. I have changed the number down to 25% as found that I wanted enough of the pattern to show, without the elements getting too small. 

After this, I then got started on my actual exterior packaging as I now have all the elements I need. I wanted to include all four colours into this part as I knew that you obviously cant see the content inside the bag, which meant that I needed to clearly show that there was four different flavours. I wanted to show this through the colours that I chose for each chocolate spread. While figuring out where everything needs to go, I had my paper that I have been suing as refence to the side of me as I found this very useful to make sure I knew where everything would go when it gets folded back up into a bag. Additionally, I used my bag that I kept together as reference too as I found this helpful to remind myself what the end shape would look like. 

Once I understood a little more about how this was going to fold up, I started placing some elements onto the page. I thought to get the colours from the logos of each flavour and brought them over to my new file, where I could then use the ‘eyedropper tool’ to sample that specific colour and use it in my design. I firstly used the ‘rectangle tool’ to draw four squares for the front, back and sides of the packaging. I changed the colour to the same as my jars. Next, I placed in my repeat pattern that I had just created, where I chose for it to cover the whole design. After that, I thought to decrease the opacity of the squares as I felt that being able to see little bit of the patter would work better. This is because it would mean that I can have my type and other information on there, where the pattern won’t be too distracting. Lastly, I placed another square in the centre which I chose to be the colour of the orange from the logo. The other reason for this colour is because I used it quite a lot in my jars. This middle section will be the base of the exterior packaging, so it would mean that when the customer picks it up, they wont see this section straight away. 

After doing this, I decided that I wanted to have my logo in the centre instead. Although at this point I realised that my logo colours are either green, yellow, blue or orange, to which I didn't really want to use any of them as this would then only be showing one of the four flavours. I had the idea of having the circle cut up into quarters where each colour could be in each section. So to do this, I draw a circle and changed the colour to the one I wanted. I then had to use two rectangles to cover over the sections of the circle I didn't want. I then selected all these shapes, and went to the ‘quick actions’ bit at the side of the page. I clicked on the third icon, where this will change the shape to only a quarter instead of a whole circle. I did this for each colour and then placed the quarters together to form a circle. I then set it in place behind the orangutans face and type. 

Another adjustment I have made is for the repeat pattern to be in front of the coloured squares. I feel that this has a lot more of a striking effect this way as you can actually see the pattern. Another thing I have done is to have the coloured squares filling all the negatives spaces. For these corner section, I have decided to have it only a colour as it will make the overall design less confusing. Just for reference, these corner sections, where its only a colour, will show on the flaps of the bag when its been put together. 

After doing that, I chose to change the composition again, where I could have the logo on the front of the packaging, with my overall description of the chocolate spreads being on the base. I feel that this makes more sense as it means that the customer can see the logo of the actual product first, where they can then pick it up to see the description. As you can see, I have also added a circle around the logo. I thought to do this as it helps to show a contrast between the patterned background and the busy logo. I chose for it to be the orange again as I feel this made the most sense when thinking about the jar packaging. 

Moving on, I then tried making the description to look a little more exiting as I felt that it seemed very boring when just having one colour. One thing to note, is that at this point in time, I wasn't working on my normal computer, meaning I didn't have any of my old fonts showing. Also, I didn't want to change this new type as I wanted it to be the same as the rest to match. 

So like I just said, I have now added in a new shape with the colour being orange from the logo. This brown that is on the base is also from the logo too as I found that this was probably going to be the only two other colours that would work, with the four colours chosen. When I first added this new shape in over the second small paragraph, I thought it had improved the piece as it looks more appealing with a slightly different colour. Although, not long after, I realised that there was no purpose or reason for only highlighting this second section. So I decided to get rid of it as its almost showing that the second paragraph is more important than the first, to which this is not the case. 

Next, I wanted to think more about the front of the packaging as I haven't really focused much on this part of the design yet. I thought to try and recreate the front label of the jars onto this so they look more unified. So to do this, I have created a rectangle near the bottom, where I can put the names of the flavours and what they are. Next, I place in another rectangle where I positioned it behind the logo and circle. I changed it so that it was slightly transparent like the jars are. Additionally, I placed in the little icon saying that there's no palm oil in it. I chose for this to go in the top left corner as it was here on the jars. 

Lastly this screenshot above is showing two things that I have changed. One being that I have chose to only have the coloured repeat pattern on the sides of the packaging as I felt that it was going to way too much if I had colour of the front and back as well. So instead I replaced these colours with an off-white/cream colour. I thought this worked so much better as it compliments with the brown, orange and green shades. 

Then the other thing I have thought about is adding the ingredients list, as I haven't yet done this. As you can see in this screenshots, I firstly thought about having it on the base where it would wrap around the square shape although, I found this looked a little odd and worked so much better having it in this circle on the back instead. This way, it was readable and you could see it straight away after picking the product up. When at this point, I also added in the calories chart which isn't in this screenshot but I did do this at the same time. 

Now that I’m at a stage where I feel like I’m getting somewhere, I think that if I now move onto the interior leaflet part, I can always come back to this if I think of anything else. I feel that if I do this, I can push forward as I have very little time left to complete this so I need to use my time wisely. 

[laurelsofhighever]

The Falcon and the Rose Ch. 13 - The Sword, part 2

The winter of 9:31 Dragon draws to a bitter close. Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir, hero of the people, has revealed a string of secret letters between King Cailan and Empress Celene of Orlais. The specifics are unclear, but suspicion of Orlesians run deep, and there are always those willing to take advantage of political scandal. Declaring the king unfit to rule, Loghain has retreated to his southern stronghold in Gwaren, with Queen Anora by his side. Fear and greed threaten to tear Ferelden apart. In Denerim, Cailan busies himself with maps and battle plans, hoping to stem the tide of blood before it can start. In the Arling of Edgehall, King Maric’s bastard son fights against the rebels flocking to the traitor’s banner, determined to free himself from the shadow of his royal blood. And in Highever, Rosslyn Cousland, bitter at being left behind, watches as her father and brother ride to war, unaware of the betrayal lurking in the smile of their closest friend.

Words: 4528 Chapter summary: Alistair has a bad day, then Rosslyn challenges him to a duel.

Chapter 1 on AO3 This chapter on AO3 Masterpost here

Alistair had a difficult morning. After a hurried breakfast, he was waylaid by Ser Nevvis, the aide-de-camp in charge of the archers who had arrived two days before from Waking Sea. The man was incorrigible, inflated by the fact that Bann Alfstanna had personally put him in charge, and it took twenty minutes before he could ease the man’s bluster and sort out the problem of billeting. Then, he was forced to deal with a complaint from the quartermaster, and then the head blacksmith – and then the chief of the impromptu merchants’ guild came to see him too.

The only break in the fog was the two minutes where Rosslyn had spoken to him, had actually looked pleased to see him. He had worried for her while she was gone, perhaps more than proper, though he didn’t dare entertain the idea that she might have spared him a thought in return. He was only an officer, and only elevated that high because Teagan had taken pity on him as a child. Still, the bashful smile she had offered as she joked with him, with the star-white flowers in her hair, left a peculiar kind of lightness in his chest, and for a while – though he knew it was ridiculous – the image created a wall between his mood and all the people who seemed to have nothing better to do than shout at him.

And then Teagan found him arguing with a drayman whose horse had come up lame, and in a rough, exhausted voice, told him to find the errant teyrn’s daughter and check on her. He didn’t give details, but Alistair guessed easily enough that it had something to do with Franderel.

He tried her quarters first, but the local woman employed as her new maid shook her head and returned to the arrangement of daffodils in a vase on the windowsill. The dog, evidently returned from breakfast in the kennels, snored fitfully on the bed. As he rand a hand through his hair to work out where to go next, he noticed the sprig of Andraste’s grace that had been woven into her hair stood in a pill bottle on the table, next to the plate of food he had had sent to her. It relieved him more than it should to see it was scraped clean.

“You might try the training grounds,” the maid offered when he still lingered.

“Thank you,” he replied, already marching back into the corridor when the young woman curtseyed prettily at him.

He almost missed Rosslyn in the lists, too. When he finally caught a flash of steel beyond the ranks of training recruits, he hung back, unwilling to interrupt. An area had been cleared for her near the horse paddocks, away from the soldiers drilling under Arms Master Grint, and when he realised what she was doing, Alistair felt a coil of anticipation stir in his gut.

The exercise was known as the Orchard, an advanced technique designed to teach precision and fluidity in battle against multiple opponents. She stood surrounded by twelve thin poles, all set at different heights, topped with cabbages worm-eaten from winter storage. The goal was simple, if difficult to achieve: instead of following a set pattern of steps, the student improvised their movements to glide between the poles and strike each object from its plinth without touching the wood it rested on, in as few steps as possible. The ground was already scattered with the crinkled remains of previous rounds, and whole motley crate of vegetables awaited their turn to be on the receiving end of Rosslyn’s frustrations.

She shifted into a beginning stance, guard up, shield held close to her left side. His own fighting style lacked the finesse to perform such an exercise well, but as she wove through the poles, he started to understand why her army held her in such high regard. Her footwork was impeccable, her grace undeniable. When her sword flicked out, the action opened from her centre rather than her arms, which loaned more power to the stroke, and control enough that she could withdraw and change direction like a leaf turning in the breeze.

He stopped noticing the mechanics of her form when the fourth cabbage dropped in two pieces before the third even hit the ground. The sun flashed on her hair, gathered into a bun at the nape of her neck, the effort of the exercise bringing a pink blush to her cheeks that set her grey eyes dancing. But after the sixth cabbage a frown creased her brows, drawing down over her eyes as a snarl of frustration pulled her lips upwards over her teeth. Her strikes lost their polish. With the instincts of a soldier, he saw the sword gaining momentum independent of her control, swinging wide on the outside edges of her strokes, creating chinks in her defence when she had to overcompensate with her shield arm.

The exercise ended with the dull slam of metal on wood and a hissed curse as the last cabbage bounced off the ground and rolled away, untouched. Alistair let out the breath he had been holding, his mouth dry. Rosslyn yanked the blade from where it was wedged in the pole and stepped away with a growl, pushing hair and sweat carelessly out of her eyes – until then she spotted him. Her face flushed a deeper red even as she rolled her shoulders back.

“Is there something you need?”

He gulped. “Do you, uh, want to talk about what’s bothering you?”

“There’s nothing bothering me.” She stalked away from him towards a low table laden with a water pitcher and a cloth, discarding her shield as she went. The sword she treated with more care, taking the cloth to the flat of the blade so she could wipe away the sting of cabbage juice.

“Clearly.” He dared to step closer. “You know, if you’re planning to do this until the kitchens run out of vegetables completely, you’d probably get on better with a different sword.”

She paused. “Did Teagan send you?”

“Well…”

“Tell him he’s wasting his time. I’ve had enough of being patronised today.”

Alistair frowned. “He’s only trying to help.”

“Feel free to tell him what a marvellous job he’s doing.” She delicately picked a speck of cabbage off the hilt of her sword, her mouth curled with affected disdain.

“There’s no need to get tetchy,” he grumbled. “And just so you know, Teagan’s the only reason we’re not already marching to Denerim, so you might show some gratitude.”

She levelled an incredulous stare at him, and too late he swallowed back his impertinence. He had forgotten protocol, as he so often did in her presence, but realising he should have known better didn’t lessen the cut of that look. He cleared his throat and looked down to the scuffed toes of his boots, a mumbled, formal apology dragging over his tongue. When he glanced up, the haughty glare was gone and she was biting her lip.

The silence between them grew awkward.

“Look…” He sighed. “Whatever Bann Franderel said – he’s very good at getting under other people’s skin, but that doesn’t mean what he says is true.”

Her shoulders stiffened. “Whatever that weasel did or did not say to me,” she snarled, “it’s no concern of yours.” With a shake of her head, she turned away from him again and sheathed her sword, intent now on resetting the poles for another round, but after the first few steps she halted, the cabbage she had failed to cleave before now held loosely in her palm.

“What’s wrong with my blade?” she asked, without looking at him. Her voice still held an edge, but the anger bunched in her shoulders had softened.

Alistair huffed. He shouldn’t be opening his mouth, but he had never been very good at shutting up at the proper time. “It was made for someone with a longer reach than yours. The weight is balanced too far towards the point and it swings wide.”

“Perhaps that’s why I’m practicing.”

“Ignoring ill-suited equipment might work in the tilt yard, but in a real battle it’ll get you killed,” he snapped, forgetting protocol again. “Excuse me for trying to help.”

For a long moment, Rosslyn didn’t answer. Her thoughts were her own as she eyed the sword girded at her side, the white steel shaped like a willow leaf in an ancient Alamarri style, from a time when forging techniques produced chunkier, less sophisticated weapons. A muscle ticked in her jaw.

She faced him again. the cabbage dropped to the ground with a dull thud. “Show me.”

He blinked. “You want to spar – with real weapons? Now?” So much could go wrong. He might injure her, and then he would be in trouble, and what if –

“Unless you’re not a match for me?” A militant gleam shone in her eyes now, a challenge without even a hint of mirth. But he had his pride, too, and the world shrank to the bare ten paces that separated them as he squared up to her.

“If I do match you, you’ll admit I’m right – find another sword to use?”

Her head tilted to the side, that lop-sided smirk of hers enough to make his insides squirm. “If.”

--

Word of the fight spread through the barracks within the time it took for the runner to reach the officers’ quarters with instructions to retrieve Alistair’s weapons from the glorified box that served him as both bedroom and office. By the time the poor lad returned, laden down with a sword and shield that together probably weighed about the same as he did, he had to battle his way through a mob of soldiers five deep around the ring who had drifted in to watch the spectacle. Silver glinted between palms as bets were taken, passed along with good-natured insults between Cousland loyalists and staunch Rainesfere men.

In the centre of the commotion, calm and quiet, the two warriors padded up in practice gear.

“Honour must be satisfied, Madam Enchanter,” Rosslyn said, without looking up from the buckles on her cuirass. “That sour look does nothing.”

“I have enough patients already without you two clobbering each other senseless, my lady,” Wynne shot back. “If this is about satisfying honour, I’ll eat my own boots.” The old woman’s arms were crossed over her chest, the expression on her face unchanged since she had first noticed the gathering and come to investigate.

Rosslyn tightened the final strap on her vambraces. “Your objections are noted.”

She picked up her sword from where it had been resting against the closest ring-post, and checked the bark sheath on the blade to make sure it wouldn’t come loose. Such bindings were reserved for high level training, light enough not to impede balance or add extra weight, but strong enough to protect the blade from blunting – or from fatally lacerating an opponent if a fight got too enthusiastic. On the other side of the ring, Alistair was doing the same, his skullcap already in place over his tawny hair, and his shield hefted on his left arm.

“Just so you know,” he told her when they met in the centre of the ring, “I bruise easily.”

Flint-eyed, she squashed her own cap onto her head and fastened the chinstrap. He imagined he caught a faint twitch of humour on her lips before the movement obscured her face, but he couldn’t be sure.

“You both know the rules,” croaked the nervous recruit who had been picked as a referee. “No weapon strikes aimed above the shoulders; no interference from the spectators; the fight ends when one competitor yields, or… or is too injured to fight.” He glanced at Rosslyn and licked his lips. “Hopefully it won’t come to that. Do you both swear to abide by these rules?”

“Yes.”

“I do.”

“Then begin!”

They tapped swords as a formal salute, and stepped back out of range, circling slowly. Alistair brought his shield up before his face, his sword held point-forward at his shoulder in readiness to lunge, while Rosslyn, cautious about his superior size, held hers swept to the side for a better chance at deflection should he close for a strike. Her gaze dropped to the centre of his chest, the better to anticipate his movements; faces, after all, could lie.

Shouting grew into an excited buzz around them, then faded out of hearing, useless.

She struck first, a whirl of blows that sent them both spinning to opposite sides of the ring. Cheers rose from the Highever soldiers, but this initial flurry was just a test of Alistair’s defences, probing for weak points she could exploit. It wouldn’t be easy; his strength foiled her speed and he had the solid bearing of a shieldmaster in training. She had to rotate the hilt in her grip to release the jangle of nerves the impact sent down her arm.

“Get ‘im telt, lass!”

With the second attack, she sliced forward at an angle, faster, cutting crosswise so he was forced to overreach. She caught his sword on the outer edge of her shield and he jumped back as she swung her right arm in a reverse arc that would have disembowelled him had the fight been real. The move seemed ungraceful, but he had left the opening on purpose, to see if she would take it.

“Don’t insult me,” she snapped. “You could at least try to kill me.”

“If I do that, I’ll get executed,” he retorted. Now that his battle-blood was rising, he found himself enjoying being the sole object of her attention, antagonistic though it might be. The fire-hot fury that had consumed her earlier was gone, and in place of her scowl a frown of concentration, and maybe just the faintest hint of a smile. But he had to focus, or the fight would be lost, and his argument along with it.

So he came at her without warning, driving her towards the rail, shield to shield before she could get out of the way, but in an instant the pressure against his shoulder vanished. She sidestepped neatly and turned along the length of his off-side, delivering a swift elbow to his ribs before disengaging to circle again, to whoops and jeers from the spectators. He had not meant to let her do that, and he stumbled, knowing that if she wanted, she could have ended the fight there. Payback for the opening he had given her before. When he looked, he saw a grin pulling at her lips, but it vanished quickly.

They became more serious. The blows they traded were fast and brutal, the two of them evenly matched and equally invested in winning. Soon they were both breathing hard and fighting the itch to dash the sweat from their eyes. Rosslyn kept their engagements brief, making Alistair do the work of closing to a distance where he could use his bigger size to bear down on her, but she had grown up training against her father’s guardsmen, and she had learned how to turn her blade to redirect the force of such blows, to combat reach with flexibility.

She swiped low for his legs and used the distraction to dance away again. Alistair turned and trailed after her, dogged, and doubts began to creep into her mind. All her injuries from the road ached from his unrelenting attacks, which often came over the top of his shield and meant she had to raise her arm to deflect them. She might have expected some leniency from a different opponent, but Alistair wasn’t Gilmore; he respected her skill enough to give her all of his. He saw the way she rolled her left shoulder to ease the strain of her injury from Glenlough, and he noted it only as a weakness to be turned to his advantage.

But he was starting to tire, as well. She saw it in the slight drop of his guard, how he hesitated to close the gap between them. The onlookers had quietened, sensing the match was nearing its end and eager not to miss a moment of it.

“Give ‘er what-for!”

He rushed her. She was done running. Her stance braced to hold her ground, and their shields locked together with a hollow smack, their swords trapped at crossguards in the middle. For an instant they stood close enough to feel the ragged edge in each other’s breath, silver eyes caught on amber, but then Rosslyn dove left with a growl and Alistair stumbled forward. His right arm overextended, exposed between her shield and his own. Her sword was already swinging in a backhanded arc above her head – he could see its path down across his shoulders, a killing blow to the back of the neck – the crowd now at a roar –

He ducked and twisted on his heels. His loose arm dropped and he exploded upwards with a last burst of strength that broke against her shield just as she reached the apex of the Coachman’s Cut. Unbalanced, she was knocked clean off her feet, the sword flying out of her hand as she instinctively reached out to brace against the fall. Alistair tumbled after, and together they hit the ground with a muffled thud that sent a shock of force through Rosslyn’s teeth. Disbelief settled on the crowd with the dust, and those at the back peered over the heads of those in front to see what would happen next.

Alistair stared down impassively, the point of his sword resting flat against Rosslyn’s neck and the weight of his shield heavy on her chest. She had managed to get one elbow underneath her, but she was pinned, caught out of reach of her sword with his bulk pressing her into the dirt. The silence stretched; time was measured in racing heartbeats. Her eyes darted between her blade and the one at her neck, searching for some way to save the situation, to change the odds, to fight. Alistair tried very hard to ignore the warmth of her breath on his cheek.

Finally, she sagged, her voice choked and tiny. “I yield.”

“Ser Alistair is victorious!”

At the announcement, Alistair scrambled to his feet, all traces of the merciless warrior gone. He caught a flicker of vulnerability in Rosslyn’s eyes before she rolled gaze away from him to the sword lying inches from her right hand, and he watched as she hesitated, then snatched it from the dirt like it was a snake about to bite.

“Here.”

She grasped the hand he offered to pull her up, her grip strong, her back and entire right side dusted with sawdust. She hardly seemed to notice, and did not look at him as they touched shields to signal the formal end of the bout. Cheers and groans rippled around the ring with the chink of coin, but to him it was muted by his confusion, the feeling that in his victory something had gone terribly wrong.

“My lady?”

“If you’ll excuse me –”

Rosslyn bowed and left, letting the crowd part before her like iron filings before a lodestone. By the time he caught up with her, she had reached the equipment tent and flung her sword on the workbench, half her training gear already unbuckled. At the tramp of his footsteps, her hands stilled on the straps.

“I… didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked.

“Only my pride,” she joked, but it was unconvincing. “You’re impressive – your fighting skills, I mean.”

Alistair felt heat creep up the back of his neck. “I could say the same. You almost had me a few times there.”

“But not quite.” And there it was again, that flash of hurt smothered as quickly as it emerged. She scowled down at the sword on the workbench. “I apologise for taking up so much of your time – you must have duties to see to.”

He recognised the dismissal for what it was, but sympathy made him hesitate. Now that the anger had drained out of her, away from the crowd, she looked exhausted, leaning against the table as if the responsibility on her shoulders were too much to bear alone.

He had never been very good at keeping his mouth shut.

“You know, I know better than you might think how hard it can be to – to live with a legacy hanging over your head.” He fiddled with a stray thread in his shirt. “I can see why you would want to hold on to anything you can.”

She turned and stared at him for a long time, her expression inscrutable. “Your parents had high expectations for you, then?” she asked eventually.

“I… no.” It was his turn to avoid her gaze. “My mother died when I was small and my, uh, father barely knew I existed.”

She frowned, irked by this information for a reason she could not define. “So who raised you?”

“Dogs,” he said, shrugging.

“Dogs?”

“Yup. Giant, slobbering dogs from the Anderfels, a whole pack of them, in fact. In the winter we’d all sleep in a big pile and play wicked grace for ram chops.” He grinned, and was pleased to see an answering smirk on Rosslyn’s lips.

“I see,” she hummed. “That explains the table manners.”

“Oi!”

“And was it the dogs who taught you swordsmanship?” she asked. “Or, swordsdogship, I suppose.”

“No, that was Duncan.” His smile broadened into something more genuine at the happy memory, and the warmth brightened the honey of his eyes. She had called him impressive, she was joking with him again, she was funny. “He’s a Grey Warden, he used to stop by when he was recruiting sometimes. He’d take me out and teach me, first with sticks, because you might not have noticed but I’m terribly clumsy, and then later he’d bring real practice swords with him.”

“He sounds like a good man,” Rosslyn said.

“He is. He’s Commander of the Grey now – or he was, last time I heard anything about him.”

“Hm – you have friends in high places.”

He chuckled. “I suppose I do.”

“I hope…” Her smile faltered. Her fingers danced along the edge of the workbench. “Oh, never mind.”

Concerned by how she turned away from him, Alistair edged closer, stretching out a tentative hand, only to spring backwards when the tent flap whipped aside to reveal Teagan, his cloak awry and his face creased into a disapproving glare.

“Would either of you care to explain what just happened?” he demanded. “Why did I get word from Captain Rothby that a fight had broken out in the lists? Well?”

Rosslyn and Alistair glanced at each other like children caught stealing pastries.

“You’re expected to set an example – there are recruits out there who have barely been with us a week! And now they’ve seen two of their superiors decide to hash out their differences in a glorified brawl.” Teagan rubbed a finger along his jawline. “I expected better of you, Alistair. I thought you had more sense.”

“Yes, my lord. I’m sorry.”

“Teagan, the fault is mine,” Rosslyn interrupted, stepping forward. “I goaded Alistair, and he was honour-bound to respond.”

“With due respect, my lady, if he allowed himself to be goaded by you, then he has yet to learn the lessons I have tried to teach him. Such childish behaviour is a disgrace to your positions, and provoked or not you should both have had the presence of mind to conduct yourselves with a greater amount of decorum. Do you think your father would be proud of your little fit of temper today?”

“It’s a shame he’s not here to be asked his opinion.”

“The soldiers were pleased,” Alistair said hurriedly. “The bout was a boost to morale and it gave the newer recruits a demonstration of the level of skill they might be able to achieve one day.”

Teagan rounded on him. “Do not try to justify this action. I am still Commander-in-Chief of this camp, and that display showed a flagrant disregard for rules put in place for the benefit of all.” He stepped back, suddenly weary. “Lady Rosslyn, I apologise for the comment about your father. I’m sure he would be happy to know you can hold your own against such a skilled opponent. He taught you well.”

Rosslyn swallowed. “Thank you, my lord.”

“I will speak to the quartermaster. Both of you will spend this evening helping the normal rotation clean the practice equipment, since you’re so eager to behave like common soldiery, and maybe that will teach you a lesson about settling arguments with steel.” He turned on his heel before either could muster a protest and marched out into the gathering dusk, the silence left in his wake a palpable thing.

“Well that could have gone worse,” Alistair muttered eventually.

“It could have gone better, too,” Rosslyn replied. “Why didn’t you stand up for yourself when Teagan stormed at you?”

“What else could I do?” he shrugged. “Without him I’m just a stablehand or a farm grunt living hand-to-mouth. He took me in, so to speak.”

“From the dogs?”

Alistair’s head snapped around at the new, probing lilt to her voice, and scowled. “He’s not my father. My father’s dead, and never wanted anything to do with me in the first place.”

She started. “Forgive me – I shouldn’t have pried.”

After that, they lapsed into silence as they finished stripping off their practice leathers and laid them out for cleaning, but Alistair’s mind resounded with the weight of the secret he had never revealed to another living soul. Never before had he even wanted to, and yet in the last few weeks he had caught himself wondering what might happen if he did. On better days, he imagined what it might be like to be raised to princehood, how many people he could help if given the power to do so. Soon enough, however, he would hear Isolde’s tittering laugh ringing in his ears, mocking him for thinking his father’s name would ever outshine his mother’s common blood.

“Alistair? That’s a very thoughtful expression on your face.”

He did his best to smile. “Just trying to work out what I want for dinner.”

She smiled back, remembering their earlier conversation. “It would have to be something filling, to last through all the gruelling hours of work Teagan has in store for us.”

“Maybe not something with cabbage in it, though.”

“I doubt there are many cabbages left for the refectory to get their hands on.”

“And whose fault is that?”

The smile turned into an outright chuckle. It was brief, but he heard it. He watched as she gathered up her gear and placed it back in the racks, wondering what it might be like to make her laugh properly, every day.

“I’ll see you later,” she said, pausing on her way to the door.

Only once she had gone could his thoughts scramble enough sense together to answer, but by then there was nobody to hear but himself. “I look forward to it.”

[ejstannard]

Practical task: Inspiration for work

Piece 1

For my first piece of practical work, I decided to take inspiration from Rodrigo De Filippis’s work. His work consisted of old-fashioned looking collages, which I really liked. I used that old-fashioned theme for my work.

For materials, I bought a bunch of papercraft magazines, as I really liked the paper and patterns in them and thought it’d fit with the theme effectively. I began cutting out pieces that I liked and putting them onto the page, without sticking them, to plan the layout of the collage.

The main image that I took inspiration from was this one:

I was interested in this one because the colour scheme was inspiring to me, and the small details within the collage that made it look scientific/mathematical. There were lots of different shapes used in the work, mainly rectangles and squares, so I made sure that I had a variety of shapes in my work as that was also a target I previously set myself during my last practical task.

My first piece turned out like this:

At first, I really didn’t like this piece as the ink I’d used for the lettering and the stamps had smudged quite a fair bit, making it look incredibly messy. However, once I’d left it to dry I realised that it didn’t look too bad, so I tore it so it looked worn out on the outsides of the page, and stuck it into my sketchbook. In the end, I actually liked the way the ink smudged as it enhanced the old-fashioned theme I was going for previously. I made sure my next piece could aim to correct these mistakes, however the first attempt didn’t go as badly as I thought it did.

Piece 2

My next piece aimed to be a similar pattern to the first one, except my aim this time was to make a neater version of it. This was so that I had two different comparisons and more pieces to work from.

I kept the majority of the collage the same, but this time I added my own illustrations to it to give it a more personal touch. It ended up looking like this:

Overall, I much preferred the way this one turned out. I used a wider range of colour in this one, while sticking to the same colour theme, and experimented with different stamps as well (which came with the papercraft magazines). To improve my piece, I could’ve experimented with more mediums. For example, watercolours or coloured pencils.

Piece 3

My third piece this time was inspired by Roberto Fonfria, who is a similar collage artist with more experimental tenchiques. A fair amount of his works used translucent materials such as receipts and tracing paper.

For my own work, I decided to use this inspiration to make my collage look less neat and more experimental. I chose a more historical aspect for this piece of work:

I really liked the torn-out pieces I’d added onto the page, as I found them to stand out a lot more than the other pieces I’d stuck down. An example of this would be the white lettering at the bottom-right of the page, reading ‘ANNE’. To improve this piece, I could use a lot more materials that were used in Fonfria’s pieces. I saw a lot of what looked like receipts in his work, so I could use this idea to be more creative with my work and use things around the house similar to that. I feel like that would link to the artist’s research a lot more.

Piece 4

My fourth piece was a combination of the BlackLivesMatter movement, with my inspiration coming from the ‘grunge graphic design’ pins on Pinterest. A particular image I took inspiration from was this piece:

I focused on this piece because I really liked the simplistic yet effective layout of the collage, and already had lots of my own ideas from looking at it.

I began by cutting out random pieces from magazines which I felt would most fit the aesthetic of my work, and planned out placements before sticking them down. To take inspiration from this image, I wanted to collage a face in a similar way onto the page, so I began drawing and painting a woman’s face on a separate sheet of paper. After cutting it out, I experimented by cutting out parts of her face to separate certain facial features from each other to give off a similar effect.

After sticking it down and adding the last few touches with a marker pen, the finished piece looked like this:

Overall, I was very happy with how this piece turned out. I didn’t think the face would turn out that well, especially when using watercolours on a cheap sheet of paper. But I ended up really liking the effect it created on the paper texture once it’d dried, so I’m glad I didn’t bin it in the end. One thing I wish I’d added at the start was more paint on the paint splatter at the left side of the page, as I feel it would’ve brightened up the page subtly but effectively.

Piece 5

My final piece I based around global warming, and still keeping the idea of grungy graphic design. The piece I chose this time to focus on was this one:

I chose this one because I wanted to keep the floral idea in my work, to go with the theme. I also felt really inspired from looking at it and felt that my work would benefit from the techniques used.

I started by cutting up flowers and greenery from garden magazines and mapping them out onto the page. Once I’d selected enough floral patterns for the background I stuck them all down and started to work into the middle of the piece. I inked out a globe, and started writing paragraphs from my articles inside the countries. I layered words over each other so that they’re almost unreadable, and highlighted key words with a thicker pen.

The end result turned out like this:

Overall, I really liked the patterns of the background and I feel that the colours contrasted well with the globe in the middle. I still feel like I could’ve worked more into this one, maybe by adding more patterns in the white gaps in the background.

[imaginekpoplikethis]

Mixing it up - Troublemaker! Min Yoongi X Reader - Part 2

Sorry for taking long to update but I just haven't really found the time to write recently. I'm sure since summer is basically over I'll have to get back into my normal routine so it should become more consistent. Gonna call this MIU now, just letting you all know.

Love for all of you 💖

Preview  Part 1  Part 2 - Here  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10  Part 11 - Final

"Good morning girls. As you know, we have decided to take in half of the students from our neighbour school so please make them feel welcome. You would want the same, wouldn't you?"

No. No you would not. At least not from these students. Honestly, you would be lucky to not get fire crackers in a classroom as a welcome. You had to admit, half of them didn't even look like bad students but your mother always taught you to 'not judge a book by its cover'.

This was when you realised you were being unfair. Maybe the ones who looked like bad students weren't bad students. You could only pray but judging by the smirks and squarely shaped bulges in their pockets of what you could only assume were boxes of cigarettes, they did not look like the type of people you would want to linger around.

Perhaps the worst thing about this whole situation was the fact that all your desks had practically been squashed together to make room for the new students and you were someone who liked having space. Or at least enough to be able to not turn to the side and accidentally butt heads with someone.

"Make a note of the students you will be sharing your class with and try not to forget them." Your teacher proceeded to call out a small list of about twelve names and you leaned forward, making sure you were not going to hear the dreaded name 'Min Yoongi'.

"And finally, Park Jimin. Now girls, I expect you all to show your temporary classmates around until they get accustomed to the schools layout." A sigh of relief escaped you and you slumped back into your seat. Looks like God was on your side today.

No Min Yoongi. Hopefully he wasn't in your school at all.

Upon making eye contact with Suhyun, she flashed you a thumbs up and you grinned back at her in return. A knock at the door caught your attention and your teacher called the person standing outside in.

"I'm looking for class 2-b, can you direct me to it?"

You should have expected as much. Min Yoongi stood at the entrance of your classroom, bag slung over his shoulder, uniform barely passing the line of presentable in all his stoic glory. He gave your teacher a once over and scanned his classmates, only acknowledging the boy named 'Jimin'.

"Er- down the hall and up the stairs. Second classroom to your right." He nodded once in thanks before slowly turning around. You shrunk down, hoping to avoid catching his eye but it seemed as if your luck had run out for the day. Instead of immediately exiting the room, he stopped in his tracks and stared at you. All was silent for a few moments until he cracked a smirk and clicked his tongue.

"Well aren't I lucky? Didn't expect this to be your class..." As his sentence trailed off, he slowly inched back out of your class, taking a second to glance at your classrooms sign before setting out on his way.

Your teacher cleared his throat and you were surprised to find him watching you with slight curiosity.

"Ah, Y/N you should have let me know you were friends with a student from our fellow school. We could have organised you to be in the same clas-"

"No. We are not friends. I don't know him." You were certain your reply would increase the curiosity that was poorly hidden from those around you but you could not care less. The last thing you wanted was to be mistaken as a friend of Yoongi. Judging from the type of person he seemed to be, you could possibly be a victim of revenge violence just for being acquaintances.

You shivered at the thought.

"Oh... well moving on. I will assign your seats now."

Focusing on Suhyun once again, she pouted at you and this time gave you a thumbs down.

That was a poor representation of how you actually felt.

You were definitely close to flipping a table over. Why were you so annoyed?  The answer was simple. You had a gut feeling that now that Yoongi knew which class you were in, you would be seeing a lot more of him and there was no doubt in your mind that he would bring his bad ways with him.

Were you judging a book by its cover? Yes. But you felt that this particular boy could be understood just by reading the blurb of his book and you sure as hell had.

It didn't cross your mind that the 'blurb' you had read was not all there was to Min Yoongi. Not in the slightest.

-

The past week you had grown somewhat used to sharing your classes with the new students and, to your relief, you had not spoken a single word to Yoongi at all. The only times you ever saw him were the intervals between when one class would end and another would start.

You had gotten to know a few of the new temporary students: a girl named Mi-Rae and, surprisingly, Yoongi's close friend Park Jimin. You initially tried to not associate yourself with him but soon discovered that he wasn't even half of what Yoongi seemed to be. He was a soft spoken and kind hearted boy who never failed to greet you whether it be through an exchange of a few words or an adorable grin. Those were only two of the reasons why you deemed him nice to be around.

Mi-Rae was one of the few students who was always smiling and not in the malicious way you noticed some of the others carried. She had approached you on her second day and joyfully introduced herself to both you and Suhyun, much to your surprise.

From that moment onwards, you decided that you would give all of the students a benefit of a doubt. Maybe even Yoongi because, in all honesty, he hadn't actually done anything to you. However, the chances of that happening were pretty slim.

You were currently sitting in the lunch hall, patiently waiting for Suhyun to arrive with her tray of food. Whilst you were waiting you let your eyes drift around the room, taking in the different students.

Most of the girls had welcomed the new students with open arms thus the reason why so many had merged with the usual lunch groups. Yoongi was not included, unsurprisingly. He managed to scare off a group of girls within the first day and stole their table which he was currently sitting at with his friends.

As you were about to set your gaze elsewhere, Jimin noticed your stare and enthusiastically waved at you, drawing the rest of the boys attention towards you. You being the polite person you were, shot a smile back at him and waved despite the smirk that was resting on Yoongi's lips.

"Who're you waving at? Yoongi?" Suhyun had joined you, questioning your actions. You almost choked on the drink you took a sip of. Almost.

"What kind of stupid question is that? Maybe I'm waving at Jimin, who happens to be waving back." Suhyun made a noise of realisation before beginning to dig into her lunch.

"Ah... but then why is his friend walking in this direction?" Just as Suhyun had said, one of Yoongi's friends was currently on his way towards your table, a polite smile spread on his face. When he reached the table, he sat across from you, his smile widening for some odd reason.

"Hello, you're Y/N and Suhyun right? My name is Seokjin." You weren't sure what you were supposed to do with that information so you merely raised an eyebrow at him.

"Would you like to join us over on that table?" He proceeded to point towards the table the rest of the boys were situated at, all of which were staring in your direction.

"Um... why?" He began chuckling and you couldn't help but wonder if it was a fake laugh. It sounded like a window screen wiper in action.

"Oh, you don't have to be scared! It's just to meet new people." Evidently, this 'Seokjin' person mistook your distaste for the idea as fear.

"I've met you, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung and unfortunately Min Yoongi. We are acquaintances and I'd rather not be anything more than that." He leant back in his seat and presented you with a small smirk.

"Don't you want to meet the other three? We don't normally ask people this." You could have scoffed at that. Honestly, who would care to meet them? Certainly not you.

"Maybe you shouldn't ask people this, meaning don't ask me. Why're you placing yourself on some kind of pedestal? Are you that special?" Seokjin looked somewhat taken aback by your brutally honest thoughts which caused you to feel bad. He was just trying to be nice in a weird way and you completely shot him down. Your conscience wouldn't allow you to be so rude without reason which is why you immediately dismissed what you had said.

"I'm sorry, please ignore what I just said. It was really rude of me." His smile resurfaced and you felt the guilt ebb away slightly.

"It's okay! So, are you and your friend going to join us?" Well you were back to square one. You couldn't really stand the thought of sharing a table with Yoongi but then again, he was just one person. Who's to say the rest of his friends were like him? Jimin obviously wasn't.

"Yep, we will!" Your head snapped in the direction of Suhyun and she giddily smiled at you.

"That's great. Come on!" Your head whipped back towards Seokjin, eyes wide and eyebrows furrowed. It seemed you were having trouble comprehending what had just happened in the space of ten seconds.

"Wait I-" Suhyun nudged you below the table and leant towards you to whisper. "Hey, honestly this is better than being on Yoongi's bad side. Just go along with it." She had a valid point. From what you had heard, Yoongi's bad side was something many tried to stay away from and you were sure you were on the brink of crossing over towards it, no matter how playful and indifferent he may seem.

"I'm sure he'll forget about your previous impressions if you just bare with me and be polite." Holding back the words of protest you could sense forming, you simply nodded at Suhyun, picking up your tray of food and standing from your seat. Seokjin had left you  both just after Suhyun had agreed to his proposal and was standing by his table, beckoning you over.

A deep sigh escaped you and you trudged towards the table, a tight smile plastered on your face. You had already planned out what you would do and what you would say. That's why it didn't take you any less than a second to seat yourself down in front of Jimin, your smile turning genuine. Suhyun sat beside you, greeting everyone at the table before pinching your leg.

"Ow! Er- hi guys, nice to meet you." You couldn't believe something so awkward had left your mouth. You were lucky that Taehyung was as bubbly as he is since he immediately diverted the attention towards himself with his greeting.

"Hey, Y/N! You're actually sitting with us! I thought you hated us or something..." You quickly bit back the 'I do' sitting at the tip of your tongue and let out a nervous chuckle.

"What? What reason would I have to hate you?" Out of the corner of your eye you noticed Yoongi raise an eyebrow in amusement and his smirk widened. He knew how you felt. That much was obvious.

"I don't really know... ah- wait, let me introduce everyone!" The next ten minutes consisted of Taehyung introducing and describing the personality of the six other boys seated at the table with you and Suhyun. By the end of it, you were confident in your ability to write personal statements for each of them due to the detailed introductions Taehyung had provided.

"I hope we can become good friends." You slowly turned towards the person who had spoken only to come face to face with a smirking Yoongi. He was resting his head on one hand and staring straight into your eyes, though it was anything but romantic.

You couldn't stop your inner self from voicing how unbelievably handsome he looked which caused you to knock yourself on the side of your head.

"H-hey! Are you okay?" Taehyung's worried voice went through one ear and out the other.

You were too busy telling yourself that it was just the light that was playing tricks on you.

[cheznieba2a2]

Spending far too long making maquettes for characters I could’ve just drawn

It’s true, I could have just drawn out my cast and been done with it in 2 days max, but, that’s boring. I’ve done enough character drawing in this project already and my hands were getting withdrawal symptoms from clay. These dudes took me way longer than I anticipated, used up far more clay than I prepared for and on one occasion, made me cry, yet I had so much pure, child-like joy making them that I really don’t care.

Here we go lads

Base Structure

cuttin wood, twistin wire, glueing wire in wood, making a skeleton

I cut up some little almost squares of wood (don’t judge me, I’m terrible with a hand saw and I really couldn’t see a big enough pay out from whipping out an electric one) and sanded the edges down so my hands wouldn’t die. I then proceeded to do one of my least favourite model making activities and twisted together a bunch of wire so I could start making some little skeletons.

I didn’t have any sketches for the crew members that weren’t Steve, only a vague idea of what style I was going for so this was terribly planned. HOWEVER, I just went for the classic one little one and one big one which spoiler worked out super well.

I drilled holes in my poorly cut bases and used some Araldite to secure those bad boys in there. I didn’t attach the arms to the rest of my skeleton yet because I had no idea where I wanted them yet and thought that waiting until the tinfoil body shape was sorted would help me out a wee bit.

I was correct! putting the tinfoil on first made figuring out the arms way easier, however, they aren’t exactly securely in there so let’s pray to the maquette gods that that won’t be an issue later on.

Super Sculpey time

Because of my loose-ish arms and incredible ability to mess something up if it’s not rock solid, I decided to shove down a relatively thin layer of clay over my tinfoil and wire friends and bake it so I could just build over solid foundations. They currently look absolutely horrifying but I’m really happy with their proportions both in themselves and to each other which I didn’t expect to happen. I’m also digging that I decided to go with interesting stances and not just a stood up and rigid kinda thing.

If whoever is marking this somehow remembers my blog posts about making the maquette for Greg during that stop mo project, you will recognise my skills for using various glassware from my poor Mother’s cupboard to help to support my chaps and hopefully save them from imminent death in the oven.

I then realised I completely forgot about all the extra bits on Steve and set to work fixing that with a power drill up the bum, through the head, even more twisted wire (still hate it) and some extra tin foil padding. Also, once I added the tail thing, I realised that his bottom half was no where near as fat as I wanted it to be, and it would have been way to much mass to do in just clay so I went ham with that foil.

This is when I cried. 

I just dropped him while working on the face and it was a moment. I refused to pick him up to assess the damage for 5 solid minutes, so all I was going on was an awful smack sound, a pile of crumbled clay and a concerned look from my Dad who happened to be in the room at the time. Thankfully, I was being dramatic and the damage wasn’t even too bad, I had him right as rain in 15 minutes and a little extra oven time.

Here he is! all fixed and honestly better than he was pre death drop.

I’m aware that the lush yellow blanket draped over a piano stool is a wee dramatic from a WIP shot, but this is when I read the email about the stop motion work experience and I needed a good shot of these fellas to send in. 

Anyway,

I’m actually so proud of this trio. Yeah non of them can stand up on their own and they are currently secretly propped up in some way, BUT, for something I did literally no planning apart from random brain waves here and there, they’re turning out wicked.

Painting

I wasn’t going to paint them, because they’re just maquettes and I had told myself that I was already spending way too much time on these chaps but I just hated the full skin tone look. It just gave me the absolute chills. Also, I’m currently thinking that I want to use actual fluffy fabric where I want these just to be fluffy and it would just look so wrong if I had a different coloured fabric over a block tone body soooooo here we are.

I kept them all on the same colour scheme and I’m actually really happy with how it turned out. I stuck some glitter onto Steves weird ball thing just because I found it in my draw like 2 days and I wanted an excuse to use it and I fully love the result. I did have concerns about their mouths looking rate weird, but with a lick of paint i’m living for it.

Getting around trying to texture clothes with clay

I did indeed end up going with my fabric idea.

I popped to my nearest wilko, found a cheap pillow that I kinda liked the texture off (it had two fabrics so I had to go for it, I love options), and cut it up like a mad man. I used good ol’ hot glue to attach it and during the process got so much white fluff everywhere that I don’t think my parents want me coming home from Norwich anymore.

Steve looks fab, but, I’m an idiot and did the fluffy fabric before some the smoother, less gets-in-your-way stuff, so I’m going to have some real fun trying to hot glue that down around this fur.

For example, this is the order I should’ve done the fabric in, but hey, I learnt and I’m now a better person.

I decided to leave sleeves and trouser legs off my little guy because not only did I like the diversity, but he was too little anyway and he would’ve become just a bundle of dead pillow.

I love how they look now, and The fur is just beautiful.

Giving them a base for no particular reason

Since they can’t really stand on their own and looks good together anyway, I decided to make just one big base that they could stand upon.

I made the smart person decision to paint around their crystal white feet with the soul sucking black before I glued them down so that I could really get those angles going for a pretty finish.

I glued them down with hot glue which worked way better than I thought it would. Originally I was just using the hot glue to temporarily hold those suckers down while I drilled and screwed nails into the underside but after realising how difficult that would be with their very very delicate limbs, I risked leaving it with just hot glue and it’s proper secure.

Shockingly, the two puppets that had both legs on the ground were the worst balance wise, and I could see their ankles cracking and bodies tilting the longer I left them to stand on their own. My mum had the fab idea of shoving some dowel under them, so I painted it black and used far too much hot glue to make sure my lads didn’t die. It actually worked really well and is way more subtle than I thought it would be.

The finished gang

Cast sheet

It’s basically the non-animated version of my turnaround. I took a bunch of screen shots, shoved them into the photoshop document lovingly provided by Jon, and made it all fit while putting my tetris skills to good use. 

Conclusion

It’s been 7 days of solid hard work, including through Christmas eve and day (can I get some points for dedication here), and they’re finally finished! Yes, I did exactly what I said I shouldn’t do and got so caught up in a minor aspect of the bigger project that I spent too much time on it, but I absolutely loved doing this. Maquette making is one of my favourite parts of this course and I do not regret a second of this. Sure they have their flaws, like two of them can’t stand without a pole on their bum and most fingers have fallen off and been glued back on, but I love them. This has to be one of my proudest achievements since Greg, so I’m so ready to take this project further.

Also, i’m rate proud of my cast sheet for the character bible.

[elizabethchapman-blog1]

First day of placement

07/05/19

The first day at Leigh Hetherington Bridal Boutique. I was shown around the shop, workshop and went through all the health and safety risks.

My first task was to gently take out strands of fabric to fray the fabric so that it could be attached the bottom of a jacket. The client was hoping for a chanel like suit.

21/05/19

Throughout the week I have been helping out with the ‘chanel’ look alike suit. I have traced off pattern pieces and altered them. Then, I cut the fabric and lining out. I have been sewing up the lining and have been taught how to hold the bottom of the lining connected to the jacket with tiny stitches going through the lining once every inch. 

once the jacket was finished it needed one last finishing touch. I placed the black embellished cord around the edge of the jacked and sewn it into place. 

26/05/18 

I learn how to make buttons today! 

Leigh gave me a circle shape stencil to draw around to cut out the white satin. I then had to cut the lace to place on top. I placed the material into the machine with the top of the button facing down with the plastic fastener on top. I then pulled down the lever on the machine hard enough for all of the parts to come together to create a button.

30/05/18

Today I was given the task of cutting out a pattern on calico and sewing up the corset toile. I pinned the pieces into place matching the notches and sewed a 1.5cm seam allowance. Not only did I learn how to make a corset, I was taught how to put the bones in correctly and how to cut and press the seams. When there was a curved edge you would cut the seam right down to the stitch line every few centimetres. At the front of the bodice you would cut the outer seam around the curved bust but leave the seam underneath. This allowed the seam to sit nicely on top of the bust also making it easier to steam and sew the bones in. I cut the bones to fit the seam and placed a small triangle shape of calico in half at the top and bottom of the seams (to make it sturdy) and placed the bones inside and sewed around the bones and calico. 

Once I had learnt how to make the corset I was then moved on to cotton. This was the bodice that was getting placed inside the dress.

05/06/19

Today Leigh was needing help to get a dress finished. The other intern and I have spent the day sewing through beads of a Gatsby style, vintage dress. We needed to sew through the beads so that when Leigh cut the back of the dress all the beads wouldn’t fall off.

01/06/19

Once we had removed the unwanted beads from the dress and sewn through the others so that they didn’t fall off we checked over the dress to make sure no other beads had come off. Once we checked over the dress we then sew the beads back onto the back of the dress with a double thread so that the same pattern on the straps smoothly flowed from the straps all the way around the edge of the back. We soon realised this was a lot harder than it looked. We needed the beads to go straight, however once you had sewn a line of beads they soon moved out of place. As soon as we realised this we asked leigh if there was anything we could do to prevent this. She then showed us a better technique to sew on the beads where you sew through the fabric then back through the beads and then back through the fabric. This task was extremely time consuming.

03/06/19

We finally finished beading the outline of the dress however the beads still wernt perfectly straight due to some being too tight which causes some beads to push out of place. Once Leigh had checked the dress over she asked for us to go through all of the beads again the straighten them out. This helped the problem a lot.

04/06/19

Due to previous beading, the intern and I were allocated onto another dress that a woman had brought in. The dress was brought in by a woman for leigh to alter It. However, the dress wasn’t made to a high quality standard and a lot of the beads had fallen off, therefore, Leigh asked us to sew them back on.

10/06/19

I have now been at the boutique over a month and im trusted to do things a lot more. Leigh is currently making a dusk pink lace dress for a woman. Today she asked me to cut out different shapes of lace and pin them onto the dress to then sew. A few hours passed and I had pinned the bottom half of the lace. Leigh then messaged the woman with a photograph of the dress to see if she was pleased with how the lace was placed onto the dress.

11/06/19

The customer had got back to leigh and wanted the lace spread out further and to look less symmetrical. We altered the lace and once we had come to a final result I began sewing the lace on. Leigh told me to sew tiny stitches through the lace then to go through the tulle but to be careful not to sew through the under skirt.

12/06/19 

Today I moved onto a new dress. A bride was wanting a fishtail dress that had pleated/ruffled tulle on the bodice. Leigh told my to hand stitch down both edges of the fabric with about 2 inches apart and to then pull the fabric to create the please. I then had to pin the fabric onto the bodice securely forming lots of different sized pleats. I really enjoyed this task as I enjoy working on the mannequin and I felt like this was a very high role being in charge of someone’s wedding dress.

20/06/18

Due to a previous injury I had at work, it now had healed and I could work back on the machine making corsets. Today I made another one in calico.I only needed to bone half of the corset as this task was now becoming easy for me. Once I had made this corset I moved straight onto doing it in cotton.

21/06/18

Today I cut out a dress in calico and sew all the parts together. Once I had sewn the dress I then needed to cut the curved seams and press them the same I would for the corset. I then placed bones from the top to the waist. The front of the dress needed to be double boned as the woman wearing the dress has a large bust.

23/06/18

Today I was set a task I had never done before. I made a bodice to fit the customer. Leigh gave me a draft corset pattern and told me how much needed to be taken off to make the bodice smaller. Leigh told me when to take off the measurement and how much needed to be took off. I then curved it out with a set square. After this I we realised that the corset wasn’t going to flow smoothly along the top. I needed to cut off some of the top allowing it to flow nicely. I then needed to measure the distance between the notches to make sure they all fitted correctly, however some were out by a few mm. This is common to happen after changing parts of the pattern. Leigh then told me all I needed to do was rub out the ones that were wrong and put in my own. after this, I then traced off the pattern and cut them out.

 After this, I then cut the corset out of cotton and began sewing the pieces together. 

Once I had sewn it all together the corset fit well together and the edges ran smoothly. After checking it over with Leigh I then begun to place the bones in.

The toile corset fit the customer perfectly. I was then able to make to corset for the actual bodice for the wedding dress so everything had to be perfect! 

04/07/18

Today I made another corset, however, today I had to make it slightly different. Instead of the bones being put in at 1.7mm from the edge they needed to go all the way from the top and bottom double layered so it was more sturdy. This was because it was going to be placed inside a dress. 

06/07/18 

My last day at Leigh Hetherington Bridal

My internship has come to an end! Today I was running errands and helping finish things in the workshop before I left. I was sewing up hems to tacking dresses that needed to be taken in or up. it was an eventful yet busy last day. 

it was very sad to say goodbye to my colleagues and boss. I had an amazing experience on my placement and enjoyed everyday, I will miss it and the people! I was set many different tasks throughout the months I was there and learn many new skills and techniques that i’ll take on and hopefully use in the future. I also gained great experience as I was able to see many garments grow from start to finish and getting a gathered an insight into how bridal boutiques are ran. 

Due to tasks on many garments needing to be finished in time for fittings and them needing to be complete in time for someone’s wedding the company was working in a fast pace. This meant that I needed to complete my tasks promptly but at a professional manor. Whether it be hand beading or finishing a garment, creating toiles or bodices. This helped me with my time management, which is crucial to have good time management not only in my studies but in the future to make sure i meet my deadlines and don’t rush anything. It also helped me get used to working in a fast paced environment. 

Working with Leigh helped me become more confident with pattern and toile making, which i needed more help with. I learnt how to alter patterns to make made to measure garments along with what measurements you need to take from a customer to help make the patterns. Leigh also taught me the best ways of cutting certain fabrics and hot to be cost efficient using lay planning. I also learnt great embellishment skills such as hand beading and sewing lace along with making embellished flowers and applying them to a garment. I also found making buttons interesting as it was something I had never done before!  

[livthomasba1b]

Mystery Box - Character Research

For my next task I have to design a character that I will use in the ‘mystery box’ animation. If I choose to use CG for this animation I must design a biped robot. However if  choose Stop motion my character can be anything as long as it is still biped.

I’m still a little unsure which type of animation I’ll go for, however I think I’m slightly leaning towards CG. The only downside to this is that there are the specific requirements of designing a robot. However this is actually a positive too, since it forces my thinking to be much more concise and focused. It also allows me to do a lot of research for references as well.

Baymax - Big Hero 6

There are many places I can draw inspiration from to help create my character. One thing that immediately comes to mind is Big Hero 6, which features the robot, Baymax. 

Baymax is a robot who has a hug able and ‘non-threatening design’. This is evident in his appearance which is very soft and ‘marshmallow’ like, linking to semiotics where we can consider Baymax to be rounded and pear-shaped. Pear shaped characters like this are similar to circular ones in the aspect that they are soft and have rounded edges, symbolising a harmless and friendly character, however the variations of circles can suggest room for change or evolution to something less soft in appearance. This is purposeful for Baymax since he was created to be a healthcare assistant - therefore he needs to be approachable and lovable. This shape and ‘softness’ isn’t normally associated with robot due to their stereotypical and known build/structure of metallic and hard materials - this is something I need to consider when designing my own character and take into account what their purpose/personality is like.

However, this is later seen for Baymax when the narrative evolution causes his design to change and become stronger, seeming more structured and dependable, but still maintaining their rounded likeable appearance.

Star Wars

Star Wars is a franchise that comes to mind when thinking of robots. There are many of these in this universe normally known as droids. They come in all shapes and sizes, however unlike Baymax they tend to represent a ‘typical’ robot in terms of build.

C-3P0 and K-2SO are droids that resemble more of a human build. They are biped with two arms and two legs - this means their movement would be similar to manipulate like you would a normal person.

Both designs are very metallic - something to possibly consider for most (if not all) robots is their limitations in movement due to their structure. However since their structure is different to a humans, perhaps their range of movement could be greater?

Something I like particularly about K-2SO’s design is the long and thin limbs paired with the bulkier chest. This gives him a sense of superiority and dominance, along with elegance in a way. He is a lot darker in colour than C-3PO, this is mainly because K-2′s film, ‘Rogue One’ is a lot darker than the other Star Wars films, while he was also purposefully build to be a part of the empire; the dark side. 

C-3PO’s design stays very true to the basic human structure and proportion, this is simply because of how the original Star Wars films were made it meant that he was a man dressed up underneath the material.

Other famous droids include R2-D2 and BB-8. They are not biped and are consider more friendly and cute. This is mainly due to their design:

They are very round in their designs, curved and circular shapes are considered the friendliest as they have no sharp or dangerous corners or edges. Circular shapes in nature have a tendency of being soft and harmless and evoke likeable characters. 

Even though my character will be biped unlike these two, this is still something to consider if I wish for my character to be cute of friendly. The addition of a rounded head for example for curved edges will help to create a more inviting and approachable robot.

WALL-E

WALL-E from Pixar’s ‘WALL-E’ is a robot designed to clear up the abandoned earth which has become a seemingly massive landfill site. His personality is a massive part of the film, one particular feature is his curiosity. He is always discovering and collecting old human items; something he has a fascination and interest in. This aspect of him can be seen in his design, which I believe can be pinpointed to his large rounded eyes. This is a key part to his design which is otherwise very simple and squared - these eyes add the human touch to him which causes us; the audience, to sympathise and feel empathy for the robot - it creates a kind of attachment and relatability.

This is a character designed to be appealing to the audience. We follow him throughout the film and need to like him to root for him throughout the film.

I found an article about WALL-E including information about the idea and designs: 

A quote I found that I think perfectly describes the character. This is director/writer Andrew Stanton talking about the initial concept for the film:

“And it just really got me thinking about what if the most human thing left in the universe was a machine?  That really was the spark.  It has had a long journey.”

Interestingly for the preparation of the designs in the film Pixar’s animation team made field trips to recycling stations to observe giant trash crushers and other machinery at work, studied real robots up close and in person at the Studio, and watched a wide range of classic films (from silents to sci-fi) for insights into cinematic expression. Sticking to Pixar’s motto of “truth in materials,” the animators approached each robot as being created to perform a particular function, and tried to stay within the physical limitations of each design, while creating performances with personality. 

This was an important aspect to note since it helped me realise/remember how I can reference and use influences from other things that aren’t specifically robots. This caused me to think back to a screenshot I took of one of my daily changing laptop backgrounds: 

This is a picture of a telescope by a lake. However the reason I took a screenshot was because it reminded me of a face, that it could potentially be a character - similar in ways to WALL-E.

The Iron Giant

Sonic Robots

Goros Art

[livthomasba1b]

‘Up’ Characters - Archetypes and more:

Different character theories show a variety of character's that appear in stories - some meant for more in terms of motive and emotion, whereas others believe they simply serve as a sphere of action, only there to fulfil a task to keep the story going.

Using these theories and other notes I’ve made on the film, I’m going to take a closer look at the characters of the film ‘UP’.

Carl Fredricksen 

Notes:

Carl is a rather old character to be the protagonist of a story, this is more unusual as he isn’t as relatable as most other protagonists. Age range/target audience is much younger than him. (However use of young Russel levels this out). 

Carl has resigned himself to his house. He has humanised physical objects(the house) and used it as a replacement of actual company and humans. This is reflected in the way he interacts with others – very dismissive and to himself (doesn’t open up easily). 

Grieving process is a major theme in the film. He refers to his house as Ellie (his wife who recently passed) – he does this because he can’t let it/ her go - she is holding him back from moving on with his life. 

Carl DRAGS Ellie (the house) around - creating this weight on his shoulders, bearing this grief and responsibly that he doesn’t need to. He later comes to terms with what has happened and lets Ellie (the house go) - he’s at peace with his grief, finally able to accept the past and move on. 

Carl seems to have no purpose when he loses Ellie, there’s of loss of energy in movement. By end of film he has new purpose and more energy. Seen in his movement and particularly when he gets rid of his walking stick.

Russel and Dug becomes a new lease of life for Carl. He sees Russel as child like figure in his life, the child he never could have.

Carl and Ellie’s ‘Club’ represented family. It was just him and Ellie in the club. However we see Carl opening himself up when he gives Russel the badge = accepts him as part of his family and also passing the torch to the next generation.

His design at this point tells a lot about him. He largely consists of squares, representing him as a solid and dependable character, but mainly to show how Carl is boxed in and stuck in his ways, he won’t be moved which can be considered as rather stubborn - it’s not a dynamic shape, its very static.

To help my understanding I think it’s useful to draw the character and identify where the shapes are.

Through drawing Carl it was very easy to recognise where the squares are and actually how many are in his design. In fact his entire body shape is very squared/rectangular.

These shapes amplify the concept that Carl is ‘boxed in’, however they also relate to how he’s a sturdy character and dependable. Circles are also discreetly seen in Carl to make him seem more soft and likeable. This is evident in his large rounded nose, the tennis balls on his walking stick and most importantly in the ‘Ellie’ badge. This one is very important as it represents his love, Ellie and is placed over his heart, adding this soft and caring side to Carl, which the audience can relate to.

These aspects can categorise Carl in the Hero archetype, even though he may not immediately look like a ‘typical hero’. He’s a solid character, who is dependable, but also soft inside and very caring, but is need of change. 

Character Archetype:

Propp

Propp’s character theory suggests that there is two types of hero archetypes: the victim hero and the seeker hero. The seeker hero is normally more enthusiastic and willing to be the hero, they go out of their way to do so. Whereas the victim hero may be less willing, the task of being the hero may happen upon them even though they may not wish it to. Carl is definitely the victim hero in this case, however still the hero never the less. One particular aspect of the film and Carl is about change. The hero tends to be flawed and in need of some kind of change, be it physical or mental. Carl conforms to this as he needs this journey and adventure to have a realisation; an epiphany, of how his life should be and his attitude to others.

Vogler

Unlike Propp’s theory, Vogler has only one hero archetype. Chris Winkle in his article “The Eight Character Archetypes of the Hero’s Journey” (2014) suggests that “during the journey, the hero will leave the world they are familiar with and enter a new one. This new world will be so different that whatever skills the hero used previously will no longer be sufficient. Together, the hero and the audience will master the rules of the new world, and save the day”. 

This description of the hero fits Carl very closely, since he leaves his own world and must learn new skills and change as a person in order to complete his goal and adventure. With the help of his new companions and knowledge Carl grows as a person and caring friend and is able to save the day and realise what is actually important in life.

Russel

Russell is a character who takes Carl on his journey. He is the opposite of Carl in design, being very rounded. Unlike Carl who is a solid, static character. Russell is very dynamic representing the change in Carl’s life, the shift that will help change Carl for the better.

Contradicting Carl in design, Russell’s entire body is very circular and egg shaped. The rounded shaping can also been seen in similar shapes like ‘chubby faced children’, showing the child like innocence in Russell.

Even Russell’s clothes emphasise this, particularly his large sash where he has collected many Wilderness Explorer badges. However there is one missing, over his heart; the ‘Helping the Elderly’ badge. This part of his design links him to Carl who has the missing badge over his heart.

Ricky Nierva is a production designer at Pixar. He describes the use of shapes in these characters and around them in the setting and background in ‘Up’ in one of his talks: Don’t be afraid of the blank sheets.

Character Archetype:

Propp

In terms of Propp’s character archetypes Russell could be the helper since he aids Carl on his journey. He could also been seen perhaps as the donor, offering Carl knowledge and wisdom in a sense - this leads me to his character archetype in regards to Christopher Vogler’s theory:

Vogler

Russell follows a few, however I feel he strongly fits the role of mentor. Throughout the film; even though his immediate appearance may contradict this, Russell imparts wisdom to Carl in his own ways. He teaches him the value of friendship and is shown kindness through Russell, he learns how to let people into his life again through understanding compassion, and given knowledge from Russell, helping him change for the better. 

Russell also offers Carl his companionship throughout the course of their journey, this can set him in the place of the ally. He is very loyal to Carl and wants to help him on his funny mission to place his house beside Paradise Falls. Along the way Russell shows a lot of care for Carl and values his friendship and in the end new relationship similar to that of father and son.