Random Sketches

...all made with a sepia coloured Indian ink pen

...

Exercise: Packaging

Research

I actually got told off for taking photos in the first supermarket I chose for research...luckily the others weren’t as picky. 

I also looked online:

Trend Hunter website for packaging ideas 

Sunpack 

Lovely Package 

Anouk Perriault 

Extinct animals

I had a look at this site and didn’t think that any of the extinct creatures would appeal to children as much as dinosaurs, except perhaps the dodo.

Natural History Museum top 5 dinosaurs

I immediately decided against including the Coelophysis as it didn’t appeal to me as much visually.

I chose one dinosaur for each flavour and did some thumbnail sketches

Sketchbook

I wanted my dinosaurs to be funny, friendly and cartoony so as to appeal to children.

Colour-wise I chose purple for the raisins, orange for the ginger and brown for the chocolate chip, deciding to colour the dinosaurs, one for each flavour, then tending towards their complimentary colours for the background packaging to hopefully make them stand out in a zingy way.

At first I imagined that I would use flat digital colours, in fitting with the cartoon drawing style, adding texture by drawing it in. Then I did some experiments with marbling, improvising with oil paints diluted by white spirit and mixed in a water bath.

One of my results reminded me of reptilian skin

so I opened it in photoshop and adjusted the colour balance to change it from blue to purple.

I then took one of my thumbnail sketches, cut out the shape, copied it to a layer mask over the purple, applied the mask and cut and pasted the result to a new document and then layered over the cut out line work

This worked pretty well so I put him on a yellow background, textured with a tissue paper layer,

then copied the dinosaur shape, pasted it to a layer mask and then lightened his belly and chest with a 246 point brush in white with soft edges.

I also made a strip with multiple images which could be used elsewhere on the packet.

Deciding on the shape of the package

Initially I thought of making the image to fit a tube, but looking at various tube shaped packaging I realised that  only half the area is devoted to the image, the rest being reserved for information and this didn’t fit with my idea of including two dinosaurs in the image; one in the foreground observing the other at play with the biscuits in the background, so I opted for a rectangular shape.

I then used my thumbnail sketches to work on a layout with the text for each flavour

Choice of fonts

I decided to include the name of the dinosaur on the package, making a play on words with the flavour name. I chose Prestige Elite Std, an old fashioned typeface  style font for the name of the dinosaur, such as you’d find labeling an exhibit in an old museum and Curlz MT, a fun, informal font for the name of the flavour. I curved this text to make it more lively.

I planned to replace the O in organic with a drawn biscuit image eventually so I chose the perfectly circular O of Century Gothic followed by distorted segoe script for the rest of the word. I’m not sure this works yet, so I’ll return to it later.

Line visuals

I printed the thumbnail layouts and traced them in pencil, making a few adjustments to the position and posture of the dinosaurs, then scanned them to photoshop multiplying the layers to make the lines more bold.

Colour line visuals

I coloured the T-Rex version with the colour adjusted marbling in photoshop as detailed above.

I opted to replace the traced Prestige Elite Std text with computer generated text as it looked too uneven, but decided to keep the 'organic' and flavour title hand drawn.

I found the result a bit disappointing at this stage; I think this is because

• the background dinosaur is too big
• the dinosaur shapes lack depth, they need shading
• the biscuits need more work
• the background colour is not quite right

This is a version with the background dinosaur made smaller, he now fits into the space better but the ‘Organic’  and the biscuit he is stretching for are in the wrong place

I added purple shading to the dinos, changed the background colour, moved the ‘Organic’ and altered the biscuits (they still need detail)

I used different pieces from my marbling experiments to colour the other dinosaurs, first changing the colours in photoshop to match the flavours

Chocolate chip

Ginger

I saw a programme about Wallpaper recently where they discussed the 'deepening' effect of adding layers of subtly coloured patterns between the foreground and the background so I thought I’d try it here

I used a photo of ferns (since ferns are prehistoric) that I found on the internet, I’m not sure if that breaches copyright since the original image is unrecognisable. I asked my tutor for advice, she said “I don't think it does, it's all abit of a grey area to be honest. If you credit the source you can be sure that you're not trying to hide anything.”

I chose a bright green background colour for all the boxes because it is eye catching, it sets off all the flavour colours well and unifies the set.

Although the Triceratops also work well with blue

The T Rex is my favourite so I developed it to the mock up stage, here are the sides and front

Mock up

On reflection

The colour LV’s are probably a bit over developed for this stage, considering the likelihood of changes being required in a real life situation but I wanted to experiment with layer masks in photoshop so it was worth the extra time.

The marbling worked really well as textures for the dinosaurs and biscuits.

Overall I’m pleased with the results, I think they are eye catching and would appeal to adults and children.

However, the little stegosaurus and triceratops are a bit stiff looking, next time I’d make them more fluid like the t rex.

A few days later I made some biscuits to take to a friend’s party, they didn’t have raisins in them and they weren’t organic so I changed the text slightly (the colour coding doesn’t match, but never mind) and made an actual 3D mock up with a different box.

Another batch of biscuits (with raisins this time), another box, another mock-up

 

Wallpaper

I caught the end of a TV programme (Fabric of Britain) about wallpaper the other day, featuring gorgeous designs by

Pugin 

Marthe Armitage 

This picture of one of Marthe’s inked lino cuts is outstandingly beautiful 

According to the online ‘Bible of British Taste’ she makes the best wallpaper in the world 

and of course

William Morris 

I find these particularly compelling because my own style tends to be very flat and I have a fondness for repeating an idealised version of a thing, creating symmetry where there is none.

A chap interviewed in the programme said that the addition of layers of subtle colour adds depth to an otherwise flat design. I’d like to give that a try.

The Fabric of Britain is part of the homely and inspiring Handmade in Britain season with its lovely logo 

Review: Summer Exhibitions

Couples

August 2013 Ventenac, France

This exhibition consisted of six short films showing simultaneously in a beautiful old, empty wine cellar. The nature of ‘romantic’ relationships was the central theme to all the films.

It so happened that on the day I went, with my reluctant boyfriend, relations between he and I were pretty strained, so much so that the pertinence of the violence in Marina Abramović and Ulay’s films made me laugh in recognition, especially the slapping sequence; ‘Slap! Wince. Slap! Wince....two people locked in a repetitive pattern of spite and retaliation. In the bow and arrow sequence the gradually building strain in Abramović’s whole body is evident as she keeps the bow wielding the arrow which is pointed at her heart taut. Ironically without her pull on the bow the arrow would have no force behind it. I should point out here that my boyfriend and I have never slapped each other and are happily over our blip. He didn’t find any of the films remotely amusing.

Marina Abramović’s performance piece ‘The Artist is Present’ is cited by Kelly Grovier in this Sunday Times Culture supplement article   as being one of a ‘hundred contemporary art masterpieces which will still be remembered and discussed centuries from now’. I defy anyone to watch without emotion this clip in which she and Ulay are reunited after 30 years without contact; it makes me cry every time.

Clap

August 2013 Paraza, France 

http://www.leclap.fr/

The two artists in residence, Sofu and Rémi Magnouat, had a month to create two exhibitions called ‘Over the Trees’ addressing the theme of the dying Plane trees which line the Canal du Midi, on the bank of which the gallery sits.

I loved Sofu’s ceramic installations made up of small components chained together which are a metaphor for the connected parts of a whole, be it an individual life, the lives of many or a territory.

This ‘united division’ is also illustrated in this installation of hanging coloured strands which look like a tree trunk.

Upstairs there was a room full of small sculptures of the human form in various poses and groups which inspired in me a feeling of good humoured fascination probably becuase of their small size and appearance of patient observion, like little white human meerkats.

It was also very interesting  and inspiring to see the work displayed withing the studio space, to see the materials lying about, the trials and ‘workings out’.

I wasn’t so keen on these painted aluminium characters ‘in the flesh’; they seemed brash and rough after the serenity of the ceramic pieces, but seeing them later in my photographs I enjoyed them more.

Shop window paintings

August 2013 Carcassonne, France

I was a bit divided by these works of street art by Mohamed Lekleti  that I saw painted on shop windows in Carcassonne; when I saw the first one my interest was piqued but on closer inspection I thought it missed the mark slightly in terms of colour and proportion, however my admiration grew as I saw more and more, probably because the style was consistent (something I think my work lacks), the ground was ingenious and the amount of work involved in the project must have been huge. I was also envious; I’d love the opportunity and audacity to do something like this.

Museum of Art and History

August 2013 Narbonne, France

The number of art works in here was huge, they seemed a bit jumbled and some were poorly lit but it was very enjoyable. Here are a few of my favourites:

Winter Garden by Stephen Marsden, is an installation of six 17^th century style busts with their heads replaced by roses, lit with different coloured lights and standing on a lawn of herbs. These looked like giant chess pieces and it was shame not to be able to see them from closer quarters as they appeared to lack emotion from a distance, I also felt that it was really just one piece multiplied as the only difference between them was the colour of the light directed upon them.

The detail in these 17^th century paintings was astounding:

Portrait of a Woman by Elias Pickenoy

Portrait of a Woman by Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn

And this 15^th century religious painting by Neri di Bicci looks remarkably modern

 The sheen on the dress in this unlabeled painting is mesmerizing

And this 18^th century portrait of a beggar by Gaspare Traversi is a marvel of suffering and perspective

You can feel the dry heat in Max Moreau’s 1936 oil painting of a water seller