Final Artwork Process
URGH!!! Why didn't I choose to make something more simple...like Kim Welling's work?
After deciding that it may be a lot easier to use matchboxes as my frames to house my 10 rules illustrations, I began by seeking 10 large matchboxes which was harder than I had thought. A lot of shops around where I live no longer sell large boxes of matches as a lot of homes don't have open fires and most people use lighters now-a-days for smoking and lighting candles. Luckily I found 5 (slightly battered) in Co Op and another 5 in a random petrol station in the middle of nowhere. I hadn't realised when purchasing these boxes that both sets of 5 were slightly different styles from each other - but that all adds to the crafty feel, right!?
I now have rather a larger collection of matches from the 10 boxes which I have bought, and instead of them going to waste, I plan on using these in a personal project over the summer. I may try some matchstick modelling and see how I can incorporate these sticks into my illustrative work somehow. I'm thinking... typography!?
Matchbox #1: "Be Adventurous"
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| Painting trees |
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| Arranging forest |
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| 3D assembled |
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| Final hanging additions |
My first attempt at my idea for a final piece was a bit of a tough one. Learning as I went a long meant that a lot of time was spent figuring out how my little "adventurous" scene was going to fit in the matchbox and how I wanted all of the elements to be arranged compositionally. I knew that I really wanted to paint most of the elements and stray away from flat coloured paper/card, therefore I used a lot of gouache throughout.
Matchbox #2: "Be Creative"
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| Painting sky background - gouache |
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| Cloud detail |
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| Mini sketchbook |
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| Observational sketching and life drawing |
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| Story/poetry writing and polaroid photography |
For this matchbox piece, I knew it would be difficult to visually communicate what I wanted to say, therefore I focused on the work that I want to produce when being creative daily. I want to make use of sketchbooks more in my practice and personal work, therefor created a mine one to take centre stage with a variety of media used throughout. Whenever I have time to myself to kick back, relax and be creative, I find myself gravitating towards my many many cacti and my music, therefore they had to feature in this piece also. Super fiddly again as almost everything is made from Bristol board, heavy weight card and painted card, but I am happy with the simple/striking result.
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| Cacti elements |
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| Assembled cacti |
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| Boombox and cacti |
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surrounding picket fence made from
painted bristol boa |
Matchbox #3: "Indulge in Interests"
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| painting soil background (gouache) |
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| painted soil on raised bed |
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| plant assembly |
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| plant detail |
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| final veg box |
Matchbox #3 was definitely the most fiddly to create. Each element was so tiny and made up of multiple hand painted and cut parts, that the overall assembly took the most amount of time. The raised bed (made from painted brown card) really helped structurally, as this could be cut so that each of the plant/veg elements could be slotted and glued into place, making the whole model really sturdy. Influenced by the details and lots of different greens we are beginning to see as summer is approaching, this is to represent my portable veg box summer project idea, and I hope the real one turns out just as well in real life!
Matchbox #4: "Be Organised"
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| Start out matchbox |
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| mini notebooks/folios |
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| assembled desktop and calendar (based on my real home studio) |
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| final matchbox studio |
Matchbox scene #4 represents another of my top 10 rules which are really important to me - organisation. This scene is pretty much exactly how my studio looks (when it is nice and organised), with my calendars and notebooks dotted everywhere to help keep me on track. I had a lot of problems with the painting of this scene, my yellow gouache decided it didn't like the inside surface of this matchbox so as soon as it was dry, it all began to flake off. I started again 3 times, with this being the final result which seems to be holding together ok. Little details, like my love of post it notes and messages are key to having the right space to work productively in.
Matchbox #5: "Be Mindful"
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| painting pond water background |
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| assembling tracing paper water |
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| carp sketching |
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| carp painting - gouache textures |
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| test: fish beneath water |
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| final hand painted paper-cut fish |
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| Adding scales and details |
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| reed detail |
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| reed and grass complete |
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| deep fish assembling |
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finished painted extras and details:
fish, water lilies, lily pads and reeds |
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| surface fish assembling |
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| final matchbox "mindful" pond |
I feel this matchbox has been the most successful in experimenting with an idea. I feel it really conveys my "mindful" moment, which will hopefully trigger my memory and cause me to become more mindful in the future. I have never used tracing paper in my paper-cut work before and it works so well as a way to convey the water in the pond, and the fish beneath it. Without this element, I would not have been able to create the same 3D effect and house the fish as structurally sound as this. The reeds and grass took forever - never again! I also has a lot of fun painting the carp. If it had been flat coloured card, yes it would have looked cleaner, but would have lacked some realistic qualities which I feel the final fish have, and painting has kept a correlation in media use throughout the pieces.
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| "Be Organised", "Be Adventurous" and "Be Creative" matchbox rules |
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| "Be Mindful" and "Indulge in Interests" matchbox rules |
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| "Be Mindful" and "Indulge in Interests" matchbox rules |
Successes
Overall I feel the process of creating the artwork for this brief went pretty smoothly. Although I used to work in this hand crafted way often, I actually learnt a lot of new skills that I will be able to capitalise on in future briefs. Perseverance has been key also, as all of these boxes have such tiny elements within them, which have been so fiddly and often seemingly impossible to construct. This is also the first time I have incorporated painted elements of my paper cut/craft work and after these results I want to explore this way of working further. I feel it has boosted the overall aesthetic to new heights and adds a lot more detail and interest to key elements which would have been completely bland and flat looking if left up to simple block coloured card to do the job.
Failures
A major failure throughout creating these matchboxes has been time management - everything took so so long to produce and as a result, I haven't been able to complete the set of 10. This has been a real disappointment as I have really enjoyed the process, but working day and night (literally) still hasn't give me enough time. Damn my perfectionism and in some cases I am still not satisfied with what I have produced, with areas lacking in structure and looking a little messy. I am worried that what I have produced doesn't reflect the extreme level of work I have put in for this brief, and I am hoping that maybe this is just my debilitating lack of sleep causing me to worry too much about submitting an incomplete set.
After deciding that it may be a lot easier to use matchboxes as my frames to house my 10 rules illustrations, I began by seeking 10 large matchboxes which was harder than I had thought. A lot of shops around where I live no longer sell large boxes of matches as a lot of homes don't have open fires and most people use lighters now-a-days for smoking and lighting candles. Luckily I found 5 (slightly battered) in Co Op and another 5 in a random petrol station in the middle of nowhere. I hadn't realised when purchasing these boxes that both sets of 5 were slightly different styles from each other - but that all adds to the crafty feel, right!?
