Lino Print - Second emulation/ experiment

I experimented with lino printing to be my second emulation and experiment. This is due to my first emulation being a variety of exotic fruits, therefore I have taken a fruit and created a lino print from it.. I chose to design an whole orange but viewing it like it has been cut in half, and drew out blocky letters to form the word orange. This links to the first emulation I did due to design including a fruit, the name of the fruit and the process includes ink, which was used to write the annotations in the first. I cut this design into the lino block with a sharp lino tool. This is so that when ink is placed onto the block it does not go into the cut out lines, meaning an image is created when printed.

I placed black ink on a tray and ensured I had two rollers, paper and newspaper. This was so I could use one roller to roll the ink onto the block and another to roll over the upside down block so to press it down onto the paper. The newspaper is so to make sure I don't get ink on the table. I rolled ink over the lino piece and turned it upside down and rolled over the back so to ensure the ink was pressed firmly onto the paper.

I then lifted up the lino block to reveal my print. I had a couple of attempts at printing as a few were very patchy. I decided to choose this one overall, as the design itself is clear and I like the messy smudges and patches which have been created as they are effective on the design.

To edit the print, I scanned the paper into my computer so that it could be edited in Photoshop.

When printed, the design had been flipped, meaning the writing was facing the wrong direction. Therefore, I fixed this by flipping the canvas so it was readable. I then turned the design black and white, altered the threshold and used the magic wand tool to remove all the white.

I started with the traditional orange colours of, well, orange! I changed the background, orange skin and orange segments to different colours of orange. 

I proceeded to do this until the piece was filled with colour. I coloured this in using the paintbrush tool in Photoshop.

I experimented with different colours to produce a variety of designs. I used a monochromatic design for the orange and pink by using different shades of the same colour. Analogous for the blue, green and yellow, so to create a contrast and ensure they were bright and vivid. Finally, for the light pink, light orange and light green design I experimented with choosing random pastel colours. 

Colour choices

Each lip product box will be a certain colour that will link to the ingredients that are featured in the lip butter pots. Therefore to plan which ingredients will go with what colour, I chose six of the most popular colours that are linked with fruit and vegetables. These were Red/pink, Brown, Yellow, Orange, Blue and Green. This method of working is like a brainstorm but with colours instead of titles, I chose to do it like this so you could visually see the colours and physiologically link the colours to the said ingredients. I decided to paint the shapes with bright water colours so that the page was vivid and appealing to look at.

I then used each shape as a title or heading - E.g. the colour green will have green fruits and vegetables round it. I did this for each shape until the page was full with possible and sensible ingredients that could be used for each box of that colour. E.g. three ingredients like lemon, banana and mango will be used for the yellow themed box.

I then added final details to the watercolour shapes to make them as bright and appealing as possible. I chose watercolour as I think the look of it suits the theme of my natural products and is a fun and easy medium to work with.

Below is my final colour choice ingredient page, I ensured I filled each colour with the most suitable ingredients I could think of.

However in my final i will only use four or five of these colours. I will use the ones that have the best ingredients and which colours would look most effective.

Further Planning

Here is a picture of my sketchbook page that includes my further planning and ideas for the design. I have illustrated that the three lip butter pots will go inside a box. I have also annotated and drawn ideas that could be used on the design, such as a seal detail to go on the top of the box, a honeycomb pattern going on the box, a signature and annotations explaining that the colour of the box is dependant on the ingredients of the lip products.

Research Into Possible Box Shapes

The three Lip Butter pots will be placed in a box, for which I will be designing both. Therefore to decide what box shape to have, I looked through a helpful book that contained all kinds of box shapes. I took pictures of ones I liked and ones I thought could be suitable for my final product. To make it easy for me to refer to, I put them on a slideshow with two categories, basic square boxes and more fancier boxes.

Research Into Topic

The main subject of my final product will be based around the harmful chemicals that are featured in many cosmetic products that are produced today. To learn more about my chosen topic, I have researched news articles that highlight what chemicals exist in cosmetics and what the side effects are.  The first article I looked at was by the David Suzuki Foundation. This is a foundation that revolves around natural products so is a company that is trust worthy and reliable. The document explains the statistics of chemicals being in makeup products and then perhaps the main feature of the articles is when they name the chemicals and explain the side affects of these.



These chemicals have been dubbed the 'Dirty Dozen' by the David Suzuki foundation. When reading these, one of the most common side effects are Cancer and can cause harm to fish and other wildlife.

I used a highlighter to emphasise which sections are most important and informative within the article. These are highlighted parts such as "one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals" and when they surveyed Canada's products they found that "80% of entered products contained at least one of these toxic chemicals".

Another article I researched was one by the 'Mail Online'. This article could perhaps be a little less trustworthy compared to the 'David Suzuki Foundation', due to newspapers having a known reputation of boasting and exaggerating their facts and information. This article is again about the harmful chemicals that are featured in make up, however is focused on a specific topic such as the rise in asthma in children. Compared to the first article, the 'Mail Online' highlights how to reduce these chemicals and the risk for getting asthma.

Again, I have highlighted the key facts that stand out within the article. This is information like "Babies exposed to high levels of phthalates in the womb are up to 78% more at risk" and "Around 5.4million Britons have asthma, including 1.1million children". Advice such as "Avoid using plastic containers and to store your food in glass jars in the fridge" is given to help readers to be more healthy and to change their ways to reduce the side affects.

The second page goes into more detail about the side affects for women and babies. Such as, "Children born to women with the highest levels of butylbenzyl phthalate were 72% more likely to develop asthma". These worrying and scary figures will encourage women to change their habits so to reduce the chances of getting asthma, which is just one of the many side affects from being exposed to so many chemicals in cosmetic and plastic products.

Scamps

Below are my first scamps of my product. I did two sets of scamps which feature the lip butter pots and the boxes that it could be put in. I drafted different ways the description box could be displayed and the different patterns that could be featured. I also annotated them so that I could refer back to the details when designing my final product and for my further drafts.

Type Choices

To start choosing the right fonts for my name I gathered together a variety of script, sans serif and serif fonts. I obtained these from a website called Dafont and chose ones that I thought would be suitable.

To make the type choice page more exciting I added a background that fitted with the theme of my topic.

Below are the three type boards that feature fonts that could be suitable for my products name. I decided to create three boards instead of a mixed one so that I could have lots of the same type of font on one board, this gives me more variety of what font I could have. 

I then printed these off so that I could annotate if they do and don't work, and circled the ones that I thought could be used for my final name.

Deciding On a Name

To start brainstorming ideas for my brand name for my lip butter product, I started by choosing words that were associated with being natural and organic. As being natural and organic are the foundations of my product and are the key selling point. I used a thesaurus online for words that were associated with clear, beautiful, organic and natural and wrote these down.

I then put these words together to create possible names for my product. I decided on the name 'Bee Natural' as thought having a reference to bees in the name is essential due to the product being made of beeswax and honey. Also the products are all about being made from natural resources and produce, therefore to define the brand values I included 'Natural' in the name to emphasise this. I think the play on words in the name is really unique and will be a memorable name.

Putting Ideas Together

To start gathering ideas for what my final piece could look like I started brainstorming. I wrote down the purpose, audience, what the products will include and what they are based on. This is so I can record what I am aiming for when making my products, which I can refer to when making my products.

My different make up products will include a variety of natural ingredients. Therefore to narrow down what ingredients I could use, I wrote them down so that I could then select which ones to have in the final products. 

After selecting the ingredients that I thought would work best, I wrote down different make up products I could make out of these fruits and oils. My favourite is either making packaging for the Lip Butters, Body Butters or the Facial Scrubs. This is because I think these would be a cute product to do that could include different ingredients  meaning I could make a few designs for these products.

Too cute to not copy

Here is a simple piece of artwork that I really liked due to the style and wanted to experiment with copying it, however knew was too simple and didn't contain enough skills to be my copy. Therefore I did this minimalistic one and another very detailed and complex one.

I started by drawing each element in fine liner that was featured on the piece.

I then coloured each element in on Photoshop and edited any mistakes to ensure it was similar to the original.

I opened the original next to the Photoshop document that I was working on so to ensure I chose the right colours and positioned everything in the correct place.

Below is my version and it took more time and skill than i thought it would, especially when trying to make the grey washed out background. However I am happy with the result as this is a really cute piece with the cartoon style bees.

Bumble Bee Species Copy

Below is the piece of art I will be attempting to copy. I found this off Pinterest and decided to copy this piece due to it linking to my makeup products as the lip butters will be based off the ingredient beeswax or honey. I also decided to copy it as I love the style of the piece and how detailed the bees are compared to the scruffy handwritten type.

I started by copying the type with a ink dip ben and a light box under the piece of paper  so to ensure it was as accurate as possible. I decided to use the light box for the type as this handwritten type is so unique that I thought it wouldn't have looked as effective if I didnt copy it. Even though there were a few mistakes such as the ink filled in some of the gaps in the letters and was thicker or thinner in places, It made it look more like the original due to that containing mistakes too. 

I decided to draw the bees on a separate piece of paper just so that if I made any mistakes with the bees I could start again without messing up the page containing the type.  I drew the bees in pencil first and then began colouring them with watercolour pencils so that I could add detail to them when they had been coloured.

Due to the wings being such a pale grey/ white I decided to watercolour them as I did not have a pencil that matched the exact colour I was after. As with watercolour you can mix the specific colour you desire. Below is a picture of the fully coloured bees and me about to paint the wings.

Here is a picture of the watercolour painted wings.

To get rid of the pencil like stroke on the bees (as the original does not have these), I decided to use tiny bits of water and add texture to the bees and blend the colours together so to make my version similar to the original.

To put the piece together I scanned both the type and bees into Photoshop. I then cut the bees out so they were directly editable and could be easily placed on the document containing the type.

Below is a working progress shot in Photoshop of both parts being but together. I used the original as a reference to ensure I placed each bee next to the correct species and name. 

Here is the final piece, I ensured the lighting, colours and shading were correct for each of the bees as I wanted them to be very detailed just like the original.