Now that we have all the jobs and their essences figured out, time to piece them all together!

 

1. Candy Chemist

Tanya, testube; both start with the letter ‘t’. What a coincidence, it must be fate.

I started off with a test tube rack as a base for the ‘T’, giving it a wooden texture to mimic the real thing.

 

Next up is the testube. I couldn’t find one of the right shape and angle that was also available in high resolution, so drawing it out with the pen tool was the next best thing. I added some reflective streaks on a translucent base to make it more glass like.

 

 

Now, for the content. To show the candy part of this, I gave the liquid inside the test tube a candy cane look.

 

 

It looked alright, but a little flat, so I masked a caramel swirl-ish pattern over it, adjusting the translucency a little so as not to cover the candy cane pattern.

 

 

I like how the test tube turned out, especially since you can see through it like actual glass.

 

 

For the ‘M’, I used a beaker as the base, using the same technique I used for the test tube.

 

 

I then gave its content a pink base, and then an ice cream texture (yes, ice cream is a kind of candy because it’s sweet and yeessssss).

 

 

 

I also added a tube to the ‘M’ for added candy flare. I used the paintbrush tool to get out the line of the tube. Next, I outlined it to covert it into a shape. Then I use the knife tool to segment the tube before colouring it like an unrolled rainbow lollipop.

 

 

And with that, I added shadows, a stone table, like that of a kitchen island, and simple wall texture for the background.

 

 

2. Firefly Mechanic

By using the pen tool and creating shapes, adjusting their structure as I went, I used the build of a firefly for the base of my ‘T’,

 

 

and where the glowing butt should be, I replaced it with a light bulb.

 

 

Just like a firefly’s butt, this light butt (whoops, I meant bulb) should also glow, so I duplicated the shape of the bulb and gaussian-blurred it to give it that effect.

 

 

Lastly, I added some gears to its back for a mechanical look.

 

 

As for the ‘M’, I gave it a side profile of a firefly as the base, starting off with gears as the mid-point. I also added the back legs and attached them to the gears.

 

 

 

The upper part of the firefly body was then added, the front legs being straight as to resemble the legs of a LED light.

 

 

 

The same steps were applied to the LED to give it a glowing effect.

 

 

Finally, for the background, I added a blueprint texture, and to make it look less flat, I created a vignette that better frames the initials.

 

 

3. Secret Stasher

For this piece, I wanted to try using traditional media. I used a black piece of paper and gold and silver pens and markers. I chose black paper to bring out the feeling of secrecy; hiding in the dark. The gold and silver are shiny and give that metallic look of locks and keys.

The two initials are mainly made out of keys, locks, and red wax, and the M is positioned on a black safe box that is chained up with black chains (so as to not overpower the other brighter colors).

 

 

I also used a white pen to create highlights on the keys, locks, and chains, enhancing the metallic texture of it.

 

 

 

As for the red wax, I used a chinese marker to colour it in, I had to colour the area with the gold marker first, otherwise the red wouldn’t be as vibrant as it should be.

 

 

Once all the drawing and colouring was done, I scanned it so that I could give it a texture using Photoshop. I used a collage or articles from magazines as the texture, because magazines have a lot of gossip, but in this case, the gossip is being kept secret and safe.

 

 

I also tweaked the colours, saturation, and levels a little to make the final image darker and more vibrant, balancing the exposures of the drawing and texture.

 

 

4. Tear Stain Remover

Traditional media was used for this piece too, mainly watercolours. I started off by drawing out the initials and covering the with tape to prevent the watercolours from staining them. I used an xacto knife to cut away the access tape along the edges of each initial for a more precise outline.

 

 

Peeling away the tape was quite satisfying 🙂

 

 

After that I continued using watercolours to paint the insides of each initials; yellow for the sponge and pink for the squeegee. Both these colours are generally more on the positive side, yellow being positivity and pink being tenderness. I then outlined the initials with a thin marker to define the lines lost under the paint.

 

 

For slight effect, I added a little bit of dripping blue watercolours below the area cleared by the squeegee, making sure to cover the cleaned area with tape again.

 

 

I scanned this one too, and for its texture, I added a picture of crystalised tears viewed from under a microscope. The image I got was that of tears of grief.

 

 

 

After that, I proceeded to edit the colours and all again.