My Top Choices for my Da Vinci Project

When it came to creating designs for my Da Vinci Project and creating more unique iterations of well known technology and reverting it back to Da Vinci’s time, I had to narrow down my ideas and select my ideas based on their design, function and overall interest in design and engineering them.

So through the many ideas and process of elimination, I managed to put together my own choices for my personal collection, starting with…….

The Prosthetic hand

This design and model is by far my favourite and most ambitious idea, mainly because of all the work and process went into it, as well as its idea of functionality.

My original idea for the hand was to be operated by a series of strings that were connected to the fingers and to move them in position they would have to be pulled and hooked in place by the amputee, with two sets of five strings on the palm and backhand, it could be used to make a fist, give a thumbs up, point and even give the middle finger.

However, I wanted to take this idea further, so I designed and built a new prototype that was able to move on its own via arm movement.

Now the function was different compared to my original, however it still carries the idea and set of its predecessors, more specifically the the two series of strings connecting to the front and back of the hand.

The latest design consisted of elastic cord attached to the back hand and fed over each finger, this was so the fingers would stay up and the strings (attached to the muscle brace) would pull the fingers to form a fist.

The Type Writer

Like the hand my main idea for my typewriter function was elasticity, more specifically, each of the typing key would be suspended by rubber bands wrapped around the hooks, thus keeping them in place, so whenever the user types a key the rubber band then pulls the key back into place.

Glasses

The glasses were a fairly simple design, for my version I wanted to give it two unique features, were you could switch out the lenses for a different thickness as time goes by, another feature I thought of was an attachment of multiple switch lenses for artists, scientists and/or model makers.

The Micro Scope

One of the microscopes features is similar to the glasses, were you can switch the thickness of lenses at anytime, however for this the lenses (I call Micro-discs) are inserted into the main shaft of the scope in order to get a closer look at the specimen.

One of the key ideas of this project was to recreate modern ideas in Da Vinci’s eye, this would either mean simplifying or overly complicating the designs of our current inventions, for the microscope, rather than turning the dial to zoom in for a closer look, the idea is to simply push down the upper scope for a closer look and using the micro-discs for an even closer look.

The reason I chose these particular kinds of inventions was because if Da Vinci was way ahead of his time, logically he was want to design and create inventions worthy of expanding his need for knowledge and research into medical and scientific technology.

For example if he wanted to further his research in science he would use the microscope to get a better understanding of the human or animal body, possibly expanding his knowledge in medicine.

He would also use this prothetic hand design to further the use of prosthetic to allow amputees of the renaissance to have easier lives, since it would a huge upgrade from a hook or wood/metal hand that doesn’t move.

My Da Vinci Sketchbook

For my final project, I created a select few of models based on my Leonardo Da Vinci inspired sketches.

When starting this project, I knew if i was going to build like Da Vinci, I had to think like Da Vinci, So I bought a sketchbook to specifically draw and design either my own Da Vinci themed ideas (based on old/modern technology or reimaginings of Da Vinci’s designs.

Here is the link to my Sketchbook Powerpoint:

https://outlookuwicac-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/st20142403_outlook_cardiffmet_ac_uk/EV6j2E4skOxPnzyOxWDKT9cB_Zior2t7oNVrLVVXNKomGg?e=Kt8cjg

Preview:

Current Progress

The current stage my project is at now is slowly transitioning from research and design to CAD work and creating small simple prototypes to test their design, stability and to test wheter my designs actually work or make sense.

So far, I’ve created prototypes of my microscope, glasses and hand

To see if my design work or make sense, I would first start by sketching the pieces of my designs on paper, then I would cut them out and trace each piece onto foam core poster board, once all the pieces were cut out, I then drilled holes onto the ends of each finger joint and through the hand, to secure the fingers and joints in place I used toothpicks and glued the ends to keep them in place.

Foam Core poster board prototypes

The Typewriter prototype

3D Prototypes

The Hand

Before I moved on to using Fusion 360 to develop my skills and learn more intricate techniques, I started by using tinkercad to create the basic shapes, I started by creating my prosthetic hand.

I first started by creating and printing a finger, the result was decent, although I did have to alter it by cutting chunks off each section and sanding the sides of each joint, this was so the finger was able to move around properly and curl into a fist. Once all the pieces were modified, I cut up some toothpicks and slid them through the holes on each joint and glued them in place. (This was useful, for the next time I design the hand, that I would make sure that there’s plenty of distance between each finger joint, allowing the fingers to move flowingly)

Once I was satisfied with the finger movement, I then designed and printed out the main hand so I could attach all the fingers to.

Once the main hand was printed out and all the fingers were cut and trimmed down i then inserted the fingers into the knuckle slots and kept them in place using toothpicks and gluing the ends in place with superglue.

Once all the fingers were attached, I took my dremel and drilled holes to each joint of the fingers and glued in these loop pieces I 3D printed then I took some string and tied knots at the ends to secure in place, this would then allow me control to move the fingers in the direction way I wanted.

The Fully assembled Prototype- I was happy with how the build turned out in quality, build and function, especially how the fingers moved, for future models, I might consider using fishing wire as opposed to string, this would help hide the strings and add a little subtlety.

Here is a link to a video of my prosthetic hand in action:

Exposure Part I

Artist Statement

What?

I design and create Da Vinci themed models based on his designs (reimagined) and what current or old technology would look and function if he invented them, with this I want to create a fantasy collection to both express my interest in Da Vinci’s work and create new and different reimagining’s of old and current technology.

How?

First, I draw these designs out in my Da Vinci sketchbook, to check if my design could work (in terms of either putting it together and possibly functionality), I would create a prototype using foam core poster board or card paper, once I’m happy with the design, layout and possibly functionality, I’d then start measuring the model and its pieces to program into cad, once all the shapes are copied into CAD, I then make them smaller for the 3D printer, because they don’t necessarily have to be too big.

Once all the pieces are printed, washed, dried and cured, I’d then start to paint each big in a particular colour scheme (the colour palate is supposed to represent the kinds of metal and material that Da Vinci would’ve used in his time to give a steampunk look, such as Gold, copper, bronze and silver), once all the pieces are painted, I’d either piece them together or drill holes in the pieces and suspend them on rods to create the look of an explosion, so it shows all of the pieces.

Why?

I chose this project because Da Vinci is my favourite artist and the best way to explore my interests in this project (as well as any other projects) is to create my unique models and designs, this can give me an opportunity to both create interesting interpretations of technology we know today and to think and build things like my favourite artist.

Current Progress

Currently, my work is in the design stages, where I am currently drawing new designs on a daily basis, these designs are either based on old fashioned or current technology and some of them are reimagined designs on Da Vinci’s designs to give them a slightly modern update while also containing that same renaissance aesthetic.

Once I have created enough designs and once, I go through the process of elimination, I will then have picked less than ten or possibly five designs for me to create on CAD, 3D print and decorate for display, each model will displayed with their own blueprint as well context behind each model.

Visuals of Practice

Collection Proposal

For my project, I intend to create 3D printed models of my designs inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s blue prints, these will either be reimagining’s of Da Vinci’s work or Da Vinci style iterations of old/modern technology.

For example, one of my ideas involve creating a typewriter that functions differently compared to a normal typewriter, the process includes using one hand to types the keys and the other to drag the paper tray to the left, once one line of writing is finished, the paper is then pushed through the slot at the back, the typing keys are suspended by rods that attach to the back, and to keep them in place (when typing) are hooked using rubber bands.

The final outcome will be a collection of models based my five chosen designs, each model will be displayed along with their own blueprints, these will include layouts of the pieces, their functions and their paragraphs containing context for their inspirations as well as their intended function (whether or not they would actually work).

Defined professional trajectory

Professional Practice

For this project, I intend to use professional CAD software to create intricate models based on my designs, during this I expect to gain and develop experience in CAD software, this could be very useful in my practice in designing and making, could look good on my C.V and would put my 3D printer to good use.

Marketing and Audiences

If I were to sell these models for profit, I would advertise and sell them on my website, while also including a “commissions” page where customers can request what they want to be 3D printed, if they wanted to, it could fit the theme of Da Vinci style designs (note: again, these Da Vinci models are more for show rather than function), or any kind of model they want.

The best way to get more customers to ask what they want (in terms of commissions) is by showing them what you can give them by producing and selling well designed and good quality prints as a way of getting more unique requests. The commissions page would have a text box that will go directly to my email, the customer would then type their request, the size they want they model to be and even hand drawn or digital designs and I would respond as soon as possible to let them know when they might be done as soon as possible.

The target audience for my work is anyone of any age who admires both the work and influence of Leonardo Da Vinci and those who love the idea of interpretations of both an artist’s work and the technology we know to this day, opening a fantasy collection of Da Vinci style pieces, made to look like he made and designed them. This is just a fun expansion on what I and a lot of people like, like my last project, when I built my second artefact, I was going for a direction of my model either being an ambitious model that explored my interest or a collectable and display model product that could be sold to many who share my interests in Da Vinci and fiction.

My Statement of Intent for Exhibition

This is my statement of intent of what I will be doing for my final project for the first five months of the new year in terms of research, context and craft.

My Idea

My idea is to create an exhibition displaying my 3D printed, Hand-crafted dioramas (with the pieces suspended on rods on a board of wood) based on my Leonardo Da Vinci style schematics of Movie props and common everyday appliances, each piece will be displayed on its own with its own description and final sketch in the style of Da Vinci’s work.

The Items I have chosen so far are:

A light saber (Star Wars)
The Flux Capacitor (Back to The Future)
A Pin hole camera
Desk Lamp
Type writer

E.D.G.E

Ethical– My project will involve CAD design, 3D printing and model making, all of these would make good practice in development in CAD and potentially starting my own commision business in selling 3D models to anyone who requests them, these models could be inventions, appliances, toys or models, so I believe that this project will be my guide into more of an understanding into the world of model making and business.

Digital– During the bowl and secondary artefact portion of the project, I was given the opportunity to expand more on my CAD skills and begin building bigger projects, this form of CAD is a step up from just placing small cubes into a pattern like my last major CAD project.

Global– During the months of first term, a few of my classmates have requested me to personally 3D print a model for their project (and some I’ve even offered), a very good idea to get the word out is by sending out a post on Facebook and Instagram, letting people know that I’m available to 3D print model for them at a price, not as much as commissions, but more as a 3D printer for hire, since I’ll request them to create the files themselves, due to me not having enough experience.

Entrepreneurial– With owning my own 3D printer and learning basic CAD skills, this style of craft opens up a lot of business opportunities, including starting up a commision business that involves creating and printing CAD files or even printing out CAD files created by my customers who request them, for example I’ve already had a few of my classmates request me to print for them for a small price.

Timeline

Each month will break down into a strategy that will start with research and practice and will slowly build up to my final model and design for my degree show.

January

Research in CAD- This will involve me doing extensive research about CAD design and quick tricks I could learn and how to operate professional industry standard (and possibly complex) CAD programs

Context- For this, I will be sketching many ideas for Da Vinci style ideas and writing about their functions
Reading and research on Da Vinci’s inventions as well as other forms of craft.

Reading Material:

Leonardo Da Vinci: Extraordinary Machines
Things Come apart 2.0: A teardown manual for modern living

February

CAD Development- learning to use more professional CAD software and continuously applying what I know and what I will learn
Incorporating designs into digital construction to learn the limitations of both the CAD software and what can be possible to put together.

March

I will be printing many prototypes of a variety of main and alternate designs for the project
Testing the prototypes for quality and possibly assembling and functionality

April

I will begin CAD work, printing and decorating the final models and writing up their descriptions
I will visualise and plan out where my exhibition will be and what the layout will be

May

Last finishing touches
Setting up my exhibition

My Evaluative Statement

Evaluation of the Bowl project

When I started planning out my bowl project, I knew instantly how I was going to do it, for my bowl, I wanted to give it a unique feature (seeing as how the theme for my project was collaboration). So I thought about using magnets again just like in my last project, so I came up with the idea of creating a bowl that could split in half, this would act as a visual representation of two of my Gesamt kunstwerk ideas and concepts coming together as one. During this first project I experimented with a variety of design ideas including a four piece split and using a 3D pen to create 3D elements.

After printing out a total of five prototypes, I settled on using one simple design of making a bowl that split into two magnetic parts that could also be used as shelves for fridges as well as other magnetic surfaces.

As for the decorative design, I would paint each piece in their own unique design based on which two Pecha Kucha designs, I decided to combine together. For this one, I did a pixelated portrait of myself and New York landmarks. When the pieces connect together it forms another painting on the inside of the bowl of a pixelated statue of Liberty as a visual way of two worlds coming together.

Evaluation of the Secondary artefact

For my Secondary artefact, I still wanted to keep the theme of collaboration going, so I decided to bring in a design I drew back when I made my Pecha Kucha, my design was a Leonardo Da vinci style schematic I drew showing the design of a lightsaber, (and one showing the flux capacitor, both sketches can be found on my sketches blog post) so I wanted to take this idea a step further by adapting the sketch as a 3D diorama showing all the pieces laid out and stylized in a steampunk look, This would give it a Da Vinci style appearance using the limited amount of resources he had given the time period. The context behind this is to create a fantasy collection of Da Vinci themed dioramas paying tribute to pop culture.

More context can be found on my secondary artefact post on my blog.

Sketches

Here are my sketches for my bowl project as well as my secondary artefact and my ideas for future models.

The Bowl:

Seconday Artefact:

For my Da vinci style design on the lightsaber, rather then writing in backwards italian, I decided to wriute in the fictional Star wars language know as Basic.

Here is the Galactic Basic Alphabet:

Here are the translations:

“Kyber crystal” (Top centre)
“When chosen by a jedi, it turns blue or green, when chosen by a sith it turns red” (Below)

Future Model Designs:

Note: For some of these Da Vinci style drawings, (except for the light saber) I wanted to write it in the unique way Da vinci wrote notes on his sketches by writting them in italian backwards, So for the Flux capacitor, I googled the drawing from the movie and copyied the writting and equasion, translated them to italian on Google translate and did my best to write backwards, similarly to how he wrote it.

The drawing used in the movie (Back to the future 1985)

Here are some of the quotes I translated to Italian:

“The Flux Capacitor” (Top right corner)
“It’s what makes time travel possible” (Top-bottom right corner)
“Caution: Sheild eyes from light” (bottom right corner)

Pinhole Camera:

One of my non movie prop Ideas is to create a Da Vinci style pinhole camera and experiement various types of way that it will operate, such creating a big slider for the pin hole, using reusabel matches or possibly creating a remote control prototype.

When I begin my research, I will intend to read a book on Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions to get more ideas on what I could make.

My Second Artefact

On the 22nd of november, I started progress on my secondary artefact.

For this I chose to continue the theme of combining two of my Gesamt Kunstwerk choices into one, for this one I decided to take an earlier idea I had before making my bowl and expand on it.

My idea was to create Leonardo Da vinci style shematics of my favourite movie props as well as everyday appliances (including a lightsaber, flux capacitor, a desk lamp, a pinhole camera etc), so to take this idea further, I thought about creating 3D model dioramas recreating the layout and design shown on Da Vinci’s schematics and how he designed them, by laying out the big and small pieces.

Designs and Context

I chose to start by building a light saber and used this design as inspiration.

https://aminoapps.com/c/star-wars-rp-amino/page/item/building-a-light-saber-unfinished/j0wY_YgaCoIMRmzwj6M3pYQjW45njg5Lob

So my idea was to create the pieces in CAD, print them out, drill holes into each piece and suspend them on rods on a wooden board.

My Designs:

CAD

After I sketched out the design and planned out what I wanted to print, I then went onto CAD and started created all the pieces, a lot of these pieces involved a lot of curving and grouping the shape together and even engraving.
I was excited about how this was a step up from moving small squares into a pattern to make a pixelated character and how I was able to engrave neat and impressive detail into the pieces.
Also, I printed out long rods to support each piece on the board.

Building Process

Once the pieces were printed, I was able to take them out, clean, dry and cure them, I also designed the pieces so they could connect, (even though this wasn’t the main goal) how some the pieces couldn’t connect (again this wasn’t the plan), the pieces did come out very nicely, except for the main body of the crystal chamber, I realised that the rods supporting the top part were too thin, so I had to break them off and 3D print and glue on thicker ones, also the machine couldn’t print the support inside the crystal chamber were I would position the magnets for the kyber crystal, so I had to improvise by taking some procreate (sculpting putty) and sculpt the support on each end of the chamber and glued in the magnets.

Once the pieces were finnished and modified, I took a board of wood and placed the pieces on top to align them and made sure I was able to fit them all on the board, once the pieces were where I wanted them I marked areas around the board where I would drill the holes for the rods and marked the pieces for where they’d be drilled.

For the colour scheme, I wanted to give it a steampunk look, to make it look like a sort of renaissance aesthetic, so I settled to using colours such as Gold,silver,bronze and copper and I had to make sure I picked the right pieces to be painted the right colour. I chose to paint the kyber crystal blue, just like in most of the movies.

Note: If I ever sold these as collectibles for fans, I would give them the option to change the kyber crystal into a variety of colours such as Red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, white, black, magenta, indigo etc, just like in the movies, tv shows and video games.

Once all the pieces were painted, I then took my dremel and drilled holes onto the pieces and glued the rods into the pieces and the board.

Note: This design of the pieces suspended on rods is both references Da Vinci’s layout of how his inventions would be constructed (as shown on his sketches) and in the Star wars universe of when a jedi or sith constructs his/her lightsaber by using the force to make the pieces float, thereby constructing it with their mind.

End Result

I was very happy with end result and I am looking forward to designing and printing more like this, however I do feel the layout of the parts on the board struggle to spread out, since some of them look like they’re too close together. Also for future models similar to this I think I might add wood varnish to the board to make look old fashioned, because of giving a steampunk aesthetic I crumbled up a paper towel added silver paint and dabbed it onto the pieces to make it look like scratches also I took my scalpel and scratched some the pieces, I wanted to make it look old fashioned, I would also consider adding brown and green rust, to really give it good old fashioned quality.

Future Intentions

For the next term, I will be planing on creating more of these Da Vinci style dioramas in the same style as my lightsaber, for this I’ll be practicing more on sketching out the designs and layout of each new model and to help with the layout of the pieces, I will be exploring the tear down movement of objects, basically taking apart pieces of tech and appliances, this would help me create better layouts for my sketches and model like how da vinci drew the pieces of his inventions to show how they come together. Once I do that, I’ll be able to create more detailed and more layered out design.

Note: Just to keep in mind, I’m not going to build all these things for practical use, so they don’t have to be functional, they’re just display pieces, most of these are fantasy and would difficult to recreate, e.g: The lightsaber would be scientifically impossible to recreate, sorry.

Commercial context

For my collection of these Da Vinci style models, my target audience are fans of big pop culture media including Movies, TV, Books and Videogames, this is because fans love collecting either industry made or fan-made merchandise (including Action figures, statues, posters, home appliances).

People collect very cool and very bizzare things like A shotgun toothbrush, a floppy disk coffee table, ninja star coat hangers, a Pac man ghost that changes colour when played with music, an amplifier key holder etc.

And many more:

https://awesomestufftobuy.com/gifts/home-and-garden/

My idea creates opportunities of showing them and potentially making a profit, whether it would be selling these models as assembly kits for fans to collect and build or a special exhibition displaying all these models that fans could attend and admire the thought. Passion and creativity went into creating unique pieces, based on their favourite fictional genres, or even creating a franchise of Da Vinci-themed models of every-day appliances for everyone to obtain for their collection.

The First bowl

Once I printed out enough prototypes and experienced with different functionality features, I was ready to create my first bowl with one of my creative decorative designs.

CAD design
I began by selecting the Mark IV design as the main design (with the standard two-piece split), once the parts were printed I started by painting them in a base colour of grey in acrylic, once they dried I then gave them a secondary coat of white. (This was so it help the bright colours stand out, once I painted them.)

Piece 1- The Pixelated portrait

I started by drawing the design in pencil then outlining it in black paint, for the colour scheme and design I decided to do a mix of Adam Lister’s pixel paintings (The shades, sizes and layout) and a picture of me that I uploaded onto an app on my phone called “Bricks” which allowed me to upload and create lego style photos as well as controlling the resolution of the pixels to make it either blocky or a bunch of small pixels.
(I used this to give me an idea of shading, shadow and background colour)

Note: I was originally going to paint the person (me) in very colours and using the pixelated picture as a reference, I was happy with how it looked so I decided (mid paint) to just keep the background in bright colours and paint me in the same dark colours as in the original photo.

Heres’s a link to the Adam Lister page on The Guy Hepner wesite to see his work: https://www.guyhepner.com/artist/adam-lister-paintings/paintings-adam-lister/

Piece 2- New York landmarks

I started by roughly drawing my three selected New York landmarks the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the one World Trade centre.

The Collabritive painting

Once I glued in the magnets to each piece and attach them together I was able to paint my collaborative painting, at first it was difficult getting the positioning right because the drawing would curve if I didn’t spread it out, because of the shape of the bowl. What painted was a pixelated version of the Statue of Liberty, to help with the design and proportion I took some design inspiration from a pixel artist named “UNIHORSE” off of his webpage on “The Blockheads”.

https://forums.theblockheads.net/t/unihorses-pixel-art/48314

I added this painting inside the bowl as a way of collaborating my two choices, each half being its own thing, but when combined together, the two worlds create one, which is the theme my Gesamt Kunstwerk choices in terms of applying my own ideas to my choices.

End result

I was happy with how it turned out, especially with how both pieces were able to magnetically attach to the fridge and the magnets were able to hold the pieces in place and just like in the video, it was able to hold a handful of skittles.

Here is a link to the video on my youtube channel demonstrating the bowl practical use:

The Bowl Project Part II- The other Prototype

Mark II

After printing out the Mark I, I decided for future models I would create holes in CAD, rather than drilling them in after the printing process (this would then save me time, so I can just directly glue the magnets in place), my first attempt didn’t go as I planned since the holes didn’t align very well so I decided to instead glue the pieces together this was when I discovered that the bowl made water (as well as other liquids) taste terrible, so I realised that the bowls with more for dry food and objects.

Also, the gaps between the bowl pieces and the magnets would’ve caused it to leak through.

Mark III

For the third prototype, I made sure I didn’t make the same mistake as last time, to prevent this I created long thin sticks in CAD to help align the holes on each piece (while moving the holes in the right place) with this new design, I wanted to improve the shape and structure by making it taller and closed in, instead of it being short and wide, and as I mentioned before I wanted to improve the use of magnets and strategically place the holes in CAD, I was very happy with the result comparred to the first two, so this meant with more magnets and holes, the more strong the bowls structure is.

Mark IV

The forth prototype model was pretty much the same as the last One, except I decided to experiment with a 3-D pen to add 3-D elements to the bowl this was an intention for my to have both a visual and textual aesthetic to it could be admired as both people who can see art in those who can feel art, the end result was ok, I do require more practice in controlling the pen and creating shapes and patterns, more then just branding it with a name.

Mark V

For the fifth prototype, i wanted to take a step further in the split feature by having split into four pieces.

I did this by using the same process I did in splitting the bowl into two by splitting them into corners, this was more tricky then the previous design when creating and aligning the new holes, When the design was printed, it was not what I was hoping for, the pieces weren’t even and not all the holes lined up, also I didn’t think the magnets would be strong enough to support all the pieces

I ended up abandoning this concept and decided to stick to the two bowl split since the design was better stronger and had a lot more opportunity since it was a bowl that could be split in half and be used as magnetic selves to attach to fridges as well as other magnetic surfaces.