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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.

 

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It was quite time consuming to do four different styles on different mediums, but the experimentation process was fun and worth it 🙂

 

The first row I worked on was Birb Eats;  me as a small bird having difficulty eating “small sized” meals.

 

 

I used watercolours for this one, not really to add meaning to the piece, but more because I liked the look of this style and wanted to try it out.

 

 

What I found interesting and really aesthetically pleasing about watercolours is that when it dries, you can see rim of the marks made. The colour can also be very soft, depending on how diluted the paint is, which kinda helps portray that soft, dull colour I wanted for the feathers (because I see myself as a little dull, wardrobe-wise, so I guess the watercolour does add meaning after all).

 

 

I chose the colours red to yellow because they are colours that stimulate hunger, which is fitting for the topic of food. I was trying really hard to find triadic and split complimentary palettes that had both green and red in them, because I really wanted the burger to have lettuce in it. Alas, I couldn’t find that combination of colours in those palettes and had to forgo the green.

 

 

The second row was Plastic Gucci; me as plastic bag, looking at a fashion magazine and trying hard to look like those fashionable people, or bags, in this case.

 

 

For this row, I used a method which I could only identify as scrapbooking, because I used various materials such as cloth for the couch, patterned paper for the background, magazine clippings for the magazine, and plastic for, well, plastic bag me.

 

 

This style requires quite a bit of trail and error, mostly for the mini plastic bag. It took me about four to five attempts to create two good plastic bags, mainly because I didn’t have a template and had to figure out the right dimensions for them. The couch was relatively easy, because I’ve done stitching before, and this was a simple design.

 

 

And as for the Gucci bag in the magazine, it took awhile, but I managed to get the two G cut outs right on the third attempt.

 

 

The magazine took a bit of trail and error too, because the magazine is a little slanted, so they aren’t just rectangular clippings. I also had to look through several magazines to find pages that were pink-ish to fit the colour scheme.

The reason for using pink-ish colours was to symbolise beauty, and some purple for a little bit of vanity. This helps to emphasise on plastic bag me trying to look beautiful. However, the plastic bag itself is white, to show my pure, plain, and probably non-existent fashion sense.

 

 

The third row, one of my favourites, is Peanut on Fire; me as a peanut, placed under pressure and heat that everyone else seems to be handling just fine, while I alone catch fire instead.

 

 

I used simple vectors for this because it’s clean, and rounded off the edges to make it look calm and friendly, which contrasts nicely to the chaos that goes on in the panel above. I also chose colours from orange to yellow to show that energy when the others (represented by delicious popcorn) succeed, despite the heat they are under, rocketing off the pan as they pop. Yellow is also a colour that represents anxiety and nervousness, both of which I relate to when under pressure and in the midst of a lot of people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To further emphasise on the stress faced by peanut me, I used a crumpled paper background for all three frames. Comparing the paper textures from left to right, the paper gets more crinkled, showing the increasing level of stress.

 

 

Overall, this row was easier to do, probably because it was digital and didn’t need a lot of materials and paints to create like the other rows. Thank goodness for Photoshop and it’s pen tool.

 

 

Lastly, we have Procrastinating Panda; me as a panda, procrastinating as always, and slaving away at the last minute, trying to finish all my assignments on time.

 

 

This was done in colour pencils, because I can make controlled marks with it, and the lines get thicker and and grainier as you apply more pressure. I also tried combining what I learned about mark making in this row, playing with lines and their meanings. For this one in particular, I used loops and scribbles.

 

 

The first panel is coloured in with small loops to show how calm and happy panda me feels, sleeping the day away. The colour I used is mainly blue, a relaxing colour. But we shift to the last panel, the blue colour changes to represent fear and depression; fear of not being able to finish my assignments on time, and depression as a general “there’s no hope for me anymore” feeling what washes over me when this happens.

 

 

The lines change from smooth loops to sharp scribbles. This represents the shift to a more stressed feeling as I work on my assignments.

 

 

The last panel is the most chaotic, as well as the darkest panel of the three, the scribbles dense and reflecting all my fears and anxiety.