and now for bread

As I understand it, creativity is spurred by observation. it is with this in mind I chose to try an exercise. As I strive to learn what it means to design, and design effectively, it has become obvious to me that I need to work on my skills as an observer as well as a designer. I chose for this exercise to work from a completely random and mundane shape: a slice of bread.

I began by taking the initial shape for a test drive. How can I simply play with the basic shape of the bread. How can it be manipulated, squashed, stretched. All the time in this stage I am thinking two dimensionally.

Now I begin remembering the lessons from my early animation days. This series of drawings is much in the same vein as the flour sack exercises from high school. I began to think about how even a simple shape, like a slice of bread, can be brought to life, can be a character. Here I have explored a couple basic movements.

Here, I have essentially revisited the first set of drawings in the fact that I am again playing with flat shapes that are merely a distortion of the basic bread shape.

Volume is an issue that I have with many of my drawings. In this image I wanted to begin thinking about the fact that every shape that I create needs to be able to be turned in space. How does even the most "designy" shape exist on a three dimensional place. Have all angles and planes been considered. Will a shape read if viewed from even the most extreme of perspectives. These are things that I struggle to remain conscious of while I draw. Here, I have quickly sketched some of the more basic shapes that I found.

Now it was time to consider the volume of these forms. With simple guideline construction I have delineated the three dimensional qualities of these forms. some are more successful than others. It is important at this stage to really grab an understanding of the forms that I am creating and to be mindful that there is structure and however "out there" it is, I need to ensure that it holds up.

This stage was merely a playful stage where I made these forms into some faces. This stage served only to help me visualize how details can be placed on solid three-dimensional forms.

The final two stages are a bit of a step back in the respect that I have gone back to thinking about the large forms first and continuing with them by constructing larger, more general shapes on top of them. The faces in the previous image are far more detailed and concerned with the minutia. I need to keep things a bit more general for longer before getting tied down to specifics.

The next logical step in this whole process would be to lather, rinse and repeat. Doing this again would allow me to continue to push the thoughts and drawings farther than before. I can begin to identify different ways of looking at the same shape, finding new ways to interpret and finally resting on a new solution.

More to come....