Well, I have to say, this has possibly been the most enjoyable brief I've attempted this year, and (hopefully) the one that will save my hide during the assessments, as I feel I've produced my best work here.
As mentioned in previous posts, the Bookjacket brief required us to create a book cover for a nature-themed book. From all the subjects I decided to go for The World of Spiders, because Spiders are brilliant, intricate and so beautiful (a million women are screaming right now).
I started with the basic research, drawing diagrams such as the spider anatomy, facial close-ups, different species and the various types of spider’s webs, but when it came to the thumbnail designs it only took me about three or four drafts until I was happy with one design. See my Tie Dye post to spot the design.
I set my heart of the close-up of the spider face with their big pearly black eyes, making a few changes here and there throughout each draft. It was then that we were given our workshops.
For the first fortnight I had a blast working in the 3D buildings, which, annoyingly, I was not aware that I have been allowed access to for the last year and a half. At first I was clueless about what I wanted to do with the project, but after some inspiring demonstrations from Dave Jones, which included showing us how to carve into polystyrene and vacuum-form objects, I asked to have my arm cast in mod-rok; my idea was to adapt my ambition as a tattooist and “perform” the tattooing onto the cast arm, using only spider-themed images.
Here's me looking ecstatic:
Dave handed me a book to flick through called 500 Figures in Clay, an absolutely gorgeous collection of inspiring 3D art. I picked out a few of my favourites and photographed them to give myself an idea of what I wanted.
Once the arm cast had dried out I painted it a pale skin colour similar to my own, then set about designing some “tattoos” for it.
I’ll be the first to admit they are not precisely what I had in mind. This 3D work was to be my piece de resistance, but I rushed the tattoos and did not put much thought into them, and so I ended up with these.
When it came to transferring the designs to the arm-cast, I had visions of doing it the way tattooists do, using carbon paper. Alas, I could not get hold of any, so I transferred them by hand. It was probably the easiest part of the project, as painting them turned out extremely difficult. As the cast had been made quite rough and thick I had a hard time sanding it down and there were a lot of cracks and grooves that would disturb the paint. Watered-down acrylics would not take to it very well, and so I had to take my time, painting it with undiluted acrylics very slowly. Suffice to say my neck is still aching from the concentration.
And yet I am not particularly happy with the final outcome. I know this is because I rushed it near the end. In an attempt to polish up the rest of my projects I left this one until last minute and jeopardized it’s success. However, as my boyfriend stated, I sure did learn to plan ahead and take care next time around.
My plan was to do a series of arm casts painted to look interesting, for example: a tattooed arm, a zombie arm, a bionic arm, etc. It’s something I would perhaps like to look into doing next year.
As well as the arm cast I had a go at vacuum-forming a rubber spider, making a cast of it and creating my own little red latex spider. It was for no particular reason other than experimentation. However, in the end I decided to use it in the final 3D model as an arm adornment. Since glue didn’t hold it on, I actually had to sit there and stitch it to the cast!
I guess what they say must be true: “Prior planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance”. And don’t I know it!
Finally, in a very sad and ironic twist of fate, my tarantula Mandy died during the project. I brought her in after being told I could preserve her in resin to use as an ornament, paperweight, fancy decoration, whatever.
Here she is, lovely as ever!
Bookjacket Brief Part Two – Final Blog
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