Handy Spandy, Jack-a-dandy
Loves plum cake and sugar candy.
He bought some at a grocer’s shop
And out he came, hop hop hop.
The four images above are the final images for the assignment.
The first two lines’ images are created in ‘continuation’ effect, with the intention that by combiningg the two images, the viewers can get a bigger picture of Handy Spandy’s identity.
The third and fourth lines are not ‘continuation’ even thought i tried my best to keep them in the same style as the first two. The last two images are more of like a ‘framing of an activity/event’ (just like movie framing) of Handy Spandy when he bought sweets from grocery shop and when he just finished buying them.
The approach to this final images are a mix of fantasy/abstract and realism. The Handy Spandy that you see does not accurately resemble human being, it just have some feature like eyes, mustache, wearing clothes and hat, but the hands are so inhuman and there is no feet – that’s why he hops! However, certain non-living objects are from daily life such as the cakes, the candies, trolleys.
FIRST STEP: RESEARCH
Actually, I did jotting down ideas on my phone before hand, but I think the steps that really helped me able to materialize the ideas are through research of what previous artists had done.
The research is quite a lot, and I did type down what I was thinking as I was compiling them, so here is the pdf file of my research.
I did not follow all of the things that I have thought earlier, but I gain the confidence from doing this research.
SECOND STEP: PROCESS THROUGH EXPERIMENTING
I did sketch on my sketch book, but the images will never be as meticulously ‘drawn’ as in photoshop/illustrator directly. So, most of my experiments are digitally done. I am using Photoshop CS5.
Here are some of the process images I have done before coming to my final images.
PROCESS A
The 6 images above are just some of my early processes. I firstly made the Handy Spandy character an egg shape, inspired directly from Humpty Dumpty. i thought at first, maybe Handy Spandy is a character from Humpty Dumpty’s world, but that our professor said to me that it looks deceiving instead (audience will think Handy Spandy is Humpty Dumpty instead). So, I think it’s wiser to change the shape of him so audience will not think that way.
I found doing the images for the first two lines fun. However, it is super tiring and hard to make the images for the other two lines :(. I was running out of ideas and started to being too literal, just like the image of Handy Spandy literally shopping cakes in a supermarket. I got less creative. The hop hop one is also hard to make since ‘hopping’ is a moving action. it’s hard to be captured in an abstract way! I haven’t known how to approach this idea of hopping at this stage.
PROCESS B
This second round, I tried to get rid of Handy Spandy full figure, so it could be more abstract, i hoped. The first two are rejected, since the ‘hand’ symbol doesn’t represent ‘handy-ness’ of Handy Spandy. Handy Spandy might not be a handy man, it’s just a nickname for him, so it should not use a hand symbol instead.
In this process, I approach more the use of patterns and repetition, and then I tried to see whether the negative image of the image are good or not. I like some of them, but friends said they look scary…
PROCESS B V.2
Since the hand-shaped one is rejected, I tried different approach. I try to play with the emotion, as well as the dingbats. “Maybe the hat doesn’t have to be a hat”, so it become eyebrows. then the hand is ‘infused’ into the mustache, to give effect of ‘oops’. I feel empty at first, since the the eye is a big hollow circle. then, I playfully at bicycle to see what effect it will give. and taddah! i kinda like it. and the bicycle is able to add even more identity to the Handy Spandy! he might be a dandy but ride bicycle. The polaroid frame is an experiment to reduce the too-simple feeling.
then, in order to be consistent, I add the ‘hat effect’ to every single Handy Spandy’s face in other images. they all now have eyebrows or closed-eyes with hats.
PROCESS C: FINALLY FINAL
I made these assignment for weeks, until my friends from other courses (I do my work with friends from other faculties) remember which image that they saw for the first time! #randomfact.
Anyway, this process C is actually the ‘correction’ of process A. I like the result from process B V.2, but they feel too ‘safe’ for me. just repetition, patterns. they are not bad, but I do like some concepts from process A.
So i decided to give another try by correcting process A.
So, firstly, i changed the shape of the Handy Spandy. I at first wanted to try hand-shape, but so hard. then heart shape, too romantic. So, i think peanut/eight-shape is neutral and pretty original. I like it so muc has it’s so smooth and cute at the same time. I didn’t regret spend more time doing this process C :).
Then, for the one with Handy Spandy holding the trolley, I LOVE IT SO MUCH. it looks like a symbol. i didn’t realize until process C that actually trolley itself is representative enough for a grocery shop/supermarket. the simpler the better, and that is really true in this matter.
I also adapt the idea of ‘hopping’ from process B: using the spring.
FINAL WORDS
TBH this assignment is actually an exercise for us to get used to ‘dingbats’ and halftones. somehow after doing this, i do poster designs more easily and faster. Well, I like first assignment too, but this one is more viscom while i feel the first one is more fine-artish.
Yeay!!!!!!!!!!!
My favorite image. it may or may not be Mimi’s favorite or friends’ favorite but this is my favorite. makes me wanna fly~~~~~ “He bought some from a grocer’s shop”.
