For Week 5,
the project was Vehicles. This area is something I am interested in so I really
did enjoy working on the project. However, like last year I was slightly
frustrated because there were no boundaries. The reason I dislike this amount
of freedom is because I believe constraints and limitations progress creativity
far more than the ‘do what you like’ approach. I think it can also minimize students
who might not consider validity and purpose in design. That being said, it was
time to crack on with some designs, I did land last year so I figured why not
try air! This was the first time I had drawn/learnt about planes so it was a
learning curve trying to understand the content before attempting to create
something from it.
I love
racing, the idea of pushing machines to their limits in speed and durability is
fascinating so when I discovered they do this with planes at events such as the
‘Red Bull Air Race’ I was rapidly drawn to it. I also looked at classic WWII
fighters such as the P51-Mustang, Spitfire and Messerschmitt Me 262 (jet), I
tried to understand what makes these planes so famous, alongside their
capabilities ofcourse. These designs seem to have aggressive forms, almost like
a shark from the front, with short wing bases that suggest agility. The tip of
the propeller got my attention first, if this attribute were to be exaggerated,
I was convinced the results would bring a more bold design that shows its
greater purpose of speed. I didn’t see reason in adding random shapes onto this
well identified silhouette as I thought it would only alienate the designs
ability to convey its purpose (racing).
After being
inspired by the Heinkel He 178 (first practical jet aircraft) I looked at jet
technology and came across the SR-71 Blackbird. Its jet designs truly do define
the word ‘speed’ and I had to adopt this influence somewhere along my design
process. At this stage I had the whole ‘function defines form’ state of mind,
so I wasn’t going to add random forms simply for the cool factor, instead I
wanted as much credibility as possible with this project so everything needed
purpose. After doing some side views, I decided to jump into some perspective drawings
to get a further understanding on what I wanted to develop from my silhouettes.
This lead to an elimination process where I found myself drawing quite a few
similar variations of planes, I did also draw pilots in most of the sketches
just for a mental note on scale. I do constantly look back at Scott Robertson’s
work as he is one of my favourite vehicle artists. I also had influence from a
Sci Fi pioneer/illustrator called Chris Foss, his work is outstanding in all
matters of design and innovative thinking; not to mention it is all traditional
as he was doing these great paintings since the 1970’s before a digital medium
had been developed. His work influenced me to add graphics, decals, and other
patterns I thought could attain a retro style. I also added in these because I
wanted each plane to be identifiable in its uniqueness, this idea came from the
film ‘Red Tails’ which I have blogged about earlier.
After
developing what I thought would be a functional design, I began coming up with
finals. I do kick myself a little for not experimenting further into
traditional colour, I feel as though it is always good to get out the paint
pots before you jump into to Photoshop because it helps reach organic, fresh
outcomes however, only having two weeks on this as well as a 3D deadline, I had
to finish it all up quickly. I started looking at F1 cars, as well as the
Japanese Touring Car Championship, after finalising the plane it was time to
look for a method of presenting it. I found using these road racing cars as a
template would work well because of its similar nature. At this point it did
cross my mind to make up a manufacturer of my own including badges, sponsors
etc. The reason I didn’t do this was because existing vehicle manufactures give
far more credibility and are easy to identify with.
I wanted to
push this idea further into a world where these things could exist, so I
decided to continue with a ‘controversial’ final design from Nissan, it was
inspired by the turbo charged f1 cars from the 70’s which claimed many lives,
but still went on the track for many years. I decided to add excess fuel tanks
to the exterior of the design to reduce the number of pit stops thus giving the
plane a huge advantage. Ofcourse this design is very impractical and dangerous
but I wanted this ‘sport’ to be in its early stages where rules and regulations
had not been developed thoroughly. The idea is the manufacturer is claiming
100% safety with its new material that encases the fuel, claiming it to be
‘crash proof’.
This project was very
exciting and refreshing to work on, if I to add anything, it would definitely
be details like designing landing gear, seat ejection/safety, pilot suit, and
even the environment the planes could race in. I think when I do find time I
will be adding at least a couple of these things to the project.
I do realise
that these briefs I am about to review have been overdue as I completed them
months ago, but it is something I have to get done because I do believe
reflecting is important. For Week 3 we were taken through Leicester City
Centre, the goal of the brief was to complete many quick sketches in an almost
storyboard fashion. To get a better idea of what our tutors wanted we were
directed towards an artist’s called Gordon Cullen, an artist who had alongside
other finished works, completed many quick sketches. Cullen’s basis was
architecture so things like perspective, horizon line, and scale appeared very
accurate. This is what we needed to achieve in limited time to get us in the state
of mind where we could draft ideas accurately.
I found this
exercise quite nice to do, the freedom of just finding interesting areas and
jotting them down without worrying about a final piece or development work.
Although I am not a huge fan of standing up with an A3 sketchbook, awkwardly
trying to draw, it does push you out of your comfort zone. I also think that
when pushed out of your nice little room with warmth, internet and supplies,
you do have to work harder to achieve a gratifying result. After working
through with pencil and pen, I did quickly work with a black marker, I think it
helps define lighting quite dramatically as you are only using two values.
Overall I was happy with this brief and I think a few digital sketches could
not hurt, maybe something more refined that explores colour.
For week
four we found ourselves beamed down into Bradgate Park. It is similar to Abbey
(where we went during week one) in terms of what’s there, grass, trees and
water; however it has some very dramatic hills. I do prefer it over Abbey
myself because it’s not as ‘neat’; you can walk through thicker grass and reach
up high hills looking down into other pathways. The day we went it was raining
so I had to put the sketchbook away after the first hour or so, for its own
safety ofcourse. I did manage to take many photographs and discovered my
attraction towards the water once again.
After
working through some thumbnails in pencil I realised I wanted to develop my
ability to portray organic foliage with realism and try to understand how light
workings around these forms, I pushed what I preferred into acrylics to
identify colours. This time the water didn’t catch my eye because of the
ripples but more for a centre focal point. As now we are meant to be thinking
of composition a whole lot more, I wanted something to contrast the various
greens that would be making up 90% of the painting for my final. I was quite
happy with it; maybe I could add more detail into the foreground alongside more
contrast as well. What I did realise is that you can’t rely 100% on photographs
and a camera (especially is it isn’t something of very good quality) it tends
to compress the colours, so if you don’t add more vibrancy you tend to get a
very gloomy outcome.
