One week Exercise

During one of my Tuesday seminar meetings, we were all tasked with partaking in a physical and mental exercise for one week, as a way of finding more creative outputs and see if we develop any new healthy habits, these include a cold shower, daily dancing, daily exercise, reading for an hour, going to bed early etc.

Tuesday 27th October

I started off with five minutes of conscious breathing by slowly breathing in through my nose amnd out my mouth, next I did a little dance excercise and mae sure I was completly highdrayted with water, my last exercises for the day were drawing, reading a book for an hour and taking a picture of me reading the book.

My drawing was of Moon Knight (Marvel Superhero)

The book I read was Stepthen King’s The Shinning (1977).

Wednesday 28th October

I started off today by doing five minutes of conscious breathing, then I did 15 minutes of stretching, including streching my arms and legs, doing sit ups, squats etc. Later in the afternoon I did a drawing of Michael Myers from Halloween.

Thursday 29th October

At 9 AM, I started off the day by walking into university campus, it took me 43 minutes, during the early afternoon I did a small drawing of an hour glass in my notebook.

Friday 30th October

The first thing I did was do 15 minutes of morning stretches followed by five minutes of conscious breathing, in the late afternoon, I went for a quick 20 minute walk both there and back, during the late evening I sat down drew a small drawing of me as a Kestral in my notebook.

Saturday, 31st October

I started off my morning as usual doing 15 minutes of stretching and five minutes of conscious breathing, by the late afternoon I sat down and did a drawing of Blade from Marvel Comics.

Sunday 1st November

In the morning I started off my 15 minutes of stretching and five minutes of conscious breathing , during the early afternoon, I sat down and drew a picture of Stan Smith from American Dad and finally from the late afternoon to the evening I went on a long walk for 42 minutes.

Monday 2nd November

I started off by having a 40 minute walk both there and back, next I proceeded by doing five minutes of conscious breathing, during the evening I did a drawing of Homelander from ‘The Boys’

Conclusion

Through out this entire week of exercise I did manag to achive most of the daily excercises including the walking, breathing, drawing and occasional stretching, I did miss some of the other ones such as taking a cold shower, limiting my time on social media, cooking a new recipe and going to bed early one night (staying up doing worl, mostly)

However when not doing my work or running errands, this exercise did give me differnet aims on what to do on a daily basis, my top favourites were the walking and the drawing. Even though I was mainly focusing on my main project through out the past week these exercise did give me something to do when I have about an hour or two to myself, in future, if I were to create an exercise routine to suit my own needs,(however I would still do the daily walks and drawings since those are some of my favourite activites) mine would include limiting myself to what I eat, making sure I get a perfect balance of in door uni work and fresh air or set various timers (preferably 1 hour) for whenever I work, read, relax or do chores (even make a game of it, like see how much I can get done in an hour, then try to break that record). These excercises could benifit in healthy thought process and effiency without being too difficult or demanding and would give me the ability to work at a better pace.

Comicbook Artwork

Comicbooks artists and their work

Charlie Adlard – The Walking Dead,
Mike Mignola – Hellboy, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
John Romita JR – Spider-Man, Kick Ass, Daredevil, Wolverine, Punisher: War zone, Eternals
Todd Mcfarlane- Spawn, Spider-man,

Why do I like it?

I like it because, eversince I was a child, I would continiously draw superheroes into my sketchbook and as ime went on, I kept getting better at and even to this day, I still continue to draw comicbook character either superhero or non superhero or even my own made up characters.

What do they mean to me?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved drawing, wheather I’d be using a pencil, a pen, charcol or a crayon I would sit down for hours drawing what I liked, It was’nt until I was about 7 years old that I discoverd a genre that captured my interest

Todd Mcfarlane

John Romita Jr

Mike Mignola

Alex Ross

Charlie Adlard

My own artwork

Props (Various Movies,Tv shows and video games)

These are movie props from various movies, tv shows and video games

I like them because of how iconic they are and how they play a big or small part in some of my favourite movies, tv shows and video games, and I’ve always wanted to make them my self.

Movies Props
Lightsaber – Star Wars Franchise
Captain Americas Sheild (Various Marvel Movies)
Hal 9000 – 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
Face Hugger- Alien Franchise
Billy the puppet
Freddy Krugers claw glove- A nightmare on Elm Street franchise
The flux capacitor-Back to the Future trilogy (1985-1990)
Wolverines claws- X-Men franchise (2000-2020)
Michael Myers’ Mask – Halloween franchise

Tv Show props
The Amban phase-pulse blaster- The Mandalorian (2019-)
Daredevil’s Billy Club- Daredevil (2015-2018)
Blue Sky- Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
Mr Robot Jacket- Mr Robot (2015-2019)

Videogame Props/items
Leviathan axe- God of War (2018)
Hidden Blade- Assassins Creed franchise
The Dubstep Gun- Saints row IV (2013)
The BGF- Doom Franchise
The Chainsaw paddle- Deadrising franchise
Blades of Chaos- God of War franchise

Leonardo Da Vinci (Sketches)

Leonardo Da Vinci was a renisance artist and is considered to be one of the best painters, inventors, carpenters, scientists, designer etc, of all time. he was also known for inventing early iterations of well known technology such as the helicopter, the tank, the parchute and the robot.

I’ve always had an interest in how knowlege and multicapable he was, and how he was a pioneer in medical science and technology, and even to this day, his diagrams still hold up as medically accurate.

Paintings:

Mona Lisa (1503)
The Last Supper (1498)
Vitrurian Man (1490)
Salvator Mundi (1500)

Designs for inventions:

Winged flying Machine
Tank
Parachute
Helicopter
Diving equipment
Robotic Knight

Drew Struzan (Movie Posters)

One of my choices for the The Gesamt Kunstwerk Project is specifically the movie poster art work of Drew Struzan. Before anyone could just take pictures of others or gather images from Google images and photoshop them together and post them online, most movie posters were hand painted, some of the most distinctive ones were stylized to grab the peoples attention with exotic color choices, character and background layouts and even small part of one or two scenes as a way to capture the size and scope of the movie, one of the artist who is best known for this style is Drew Struzan.

Drew Struzan is an american illustrator and painter, best known for hand painting posters for movies, he first started off by painting Album covers for music bands, such as: Alice Cooper, The Beegees and Black Sabbath, he then slowly transitioned into the movie business, but only doing small B movies that didn’t leave that much of an impression on people, that was until in 1977 when he was asked to paint the poster for the movie that kick started his popularity that movie was called ‘Star Wars’, after that he continued to paint many more poster for many famous mainstream movies, most notably George Lucas and Steven Spielburg proporties, in fact around the early days when they started making posters by photoshoping the main actor into a blank back ground, Struzan was comminisioned to paint posters for the Star Wars prequal trilogy decades after the original trilogy ended.

Known Movie posters he made:

Star Wars (The original and prequel trilogy) (1977-2005)
Indiana Jones (1981-2008)
Back to the future (Part 1,2,3) (1985-1990)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
E.T: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
The Green mile (1999)
The Thing (1982)
Harry Potter and the Philosipher’s Stone (2001)
Blade Runner (1982)
Hook (1991)

Why do I like his work?

I like how each poster gives a layout of the movie, displaying the main characters, locations and even particular scenes, also the artistic style really draws you into the movie even before you watch it, rather then posters today that just photoshop the actors in a blank back ground.

What does his work mean to me?

When I look at his work, it’s make me as well many others to belive, that he like the rest of the film crew working on the movie that he is putting in months if not years of dedication into one film, he wants to encourage others to experience the action, drama and magic of the movie, the kinds of posters he does (as well as many other people who create these kinds of posters) prove he’s seen the movies, rather then just reading a short plot summary or watching the trailer, he shows off the best of what to see in these movies, what’s worth seeing (e.g Andy Dufresne’s escape in Shawshank Redemption, Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan’s Exciting and heartbreaking duel in Star Wars Epidsode III Revenge of the Sith or the invitation to monsters, magic and Wizardry in Harry Potter.

Here’s a link to his website for his artwork, including: Album covers, comic covers, movie posters, products, unused posters, etc

http://drewstruzan.com/

The Gesamt Kunstwerk Project

For my first assignment of third year, I’ve been tasked with bringing together a collection of Objects with artistic proporties, objects that mean something to me and why, So in this project I have chosen ten objects for my fantasy collection, in terms of style, creativity, meaning and overall purpose, thus giving me ideas on how to explore it.

For my collecrtion I have picked:

Drew Struzan (Movie Poster art)
Ai Wei Wei (Lego Portraits)
Leonardo Da Vinci (Medical drawings and Invention Schematics)
Movie Props (Various Movies)
Comicbook Artwork
New York City Landmarks
Robert Welch (Knives)
Doc Marten (Shoes)
William Burges (Welsh Architect)
Macbook Computer (Apple)

There will be seperate blog posts going into full detail about why I chose them and they mean to me.

What will be my creative approch?

From picking all ten of these choices, I’ve decided that the best approch to combine two of them together, this is so they can both show off their unqiue style together.

Here are some examples:

I’d take Da vinci and all of work and painting and combine them into a Drew Struzan style poster, this would allow me to show off this paintings and inventions to show first glance on what his work and legacy was about, sort of how Struzans posters showed first glance to the people before they even saw the movies he advertsied.

I would create Da vinci style schmatics of my favourite movie props, and replicate his style of sketching, the coffee stained styled paper of his drawings, almost in a way that he built them, (e.g: A Lightsaber, The Flux Capacitior, Freddy Kruger’s Claw Glove etc.)

I would create lego brick style paintings of New York Landmarks or possibly create 3d printed pixel pieces (with painted patterns) that magnetically attach to a framed wooden board with magnets.

Field Reflection

For this assignment, I will be going over my field reflection to show how I have progressed and what I have learned throughout this past year.

Skill acquisition (Including research, context and making)

Each of my projects has an even balance of a professional and ethical layout, while also allowing me to incorporate my own personal interests. I have made sure that my research is consistent and relevant with my subject matter (whether it would be a making project, a blog post or a major essay). When making, I was able to gain new skills which I applied to each project. Each process was unique in terms of designing and creating, whether it this was sculpting, making moulds, or CAD building.

Ideas and realisation

Figurative Modelling

During the five weeks of figurative modelling, I had the opportunity to exercise my sculpting sketching skills, while also I’d been inducted on new skills such as Slab folding, sewing fabric body parts, sculpting body parts in a step by step process, that involved starting with one shape and building upon it, 2D and 3D slab collage, testing my sketching skills in life drawing with multiple time limits.

Rajasthan

I was tasked with making my own augmented reality book using inspiration from my trip to Rajasthan. The idea I came up with was making a book written in my own hieroglyphic language, that could be translated into English. I first scanned my alphabet into illustrator and had them laser cut into stamps. Once I typed up and printed out the scripts and created the trigger images, I then made the book using red fabric and sewed in a piece of cardboard (to help shape the book). Once the book was finished, it was then folded and held together by a piece of string wrapped around a button.

Discipline-specific knowledge

In both these projects, there were challenges to my skillset; things I enjoyed and things I need to practice at. I exercised sketching, sculpting, slab building, life drawing, sewing, miniature painting and augmented reality skills. Development of skills what the maker course is about; how it specialises into multiple fields of making and how it allows us to find our way. It also allows us to find or exercise our comfort zone, while introducing us to skills we thought we would never have.

Contextual understanding of own practice

The explore projects I participated in had a major impact on my work and creative abilities. In both projects, I was given multiple challenges, such as putting my sculpting skills to the test and writing an honest, reflective learning journal and also by traveling to India. I was able to find a subject matter that was both a practical challenge and was something I had interest in, which made the project more enjoyable.

Evaluation of own learning and Conclusion

This past year has been very different, but productive in terms of research, making and discovery. I created a series of medals dedicated to a misunderstood film maker, put my sculpting skills to the test and travelled to India to be inspired and encouraged by their culture and traditions.

After finishing both explore projects, the ideas I had for designing and making as well as the new skills and knowledge I have acquired, has shown me what I can do. This gives me more insight and confidence in what I might do next.

Pixel Model Update

I’ve recently done an update on my final project concerning my Pixel models, In my first blog post about my final project, I mentioned how I had an idea to put two in one in my models, how their both key chains and desk knick-knacks (using small magnets to attach to bottle caps), with this, I took it a step further and made them three in one, so they are Key chains, desk knick knacks and fridge magnets

That way you can either stick them on your fridge, place them on your desk as a Knick knack or take them where ever you go.

Character Gallery

Here is a collection of all the 3D printed pixel models I have made for my Final year projects,

Most of these are designs I found on the internet, some are of my own characters and designs, here are some links to the designs I found on the internet:

https://www.deviantart.com/8bitherodotorg/gallery/all

My own characters and designs:

My original avatar of me from 2018 (nickname: Pix)

My new 2020 updated version of me (also named Pix)

Mind Man (superhero I created)

Wondering Woman (superhero I created)

Professor Physics (superhero I created)

Internet designs:

Spider-man (Marvel Comics)

Arther Morgan (Red Dead Redemption II)

Michael Myers (Halloween)

Batman (DC Comics)

Superman (DC Comics)

Captain America (Marvel Comics)

Doctor Strange (Marvel Comics)

Venom (Marvel Comics)

The Flash (DC Comics)

Raphael (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

My Final Year Project

For my final year project, I decided to expand on a particular element for my foundation project from 2018.

What I did was make a 3-D printed pixel model of me, that I designed, printed and hand-painted (as part of an alphabetical set of models of me, relating to 26 art movements, e.g A =abstract, B=Bauhaus, C= Cubism, in this case, P was for Pixelation) so with that, I saw an opportunity to design and create more of these models to display or even sell them as merchandise.

Making Process

The first step is drawing the design, (The designs are based on fanart creations of 8bit Megaman graphics styled characters from movies, tv shows and other videogames) the best way to draw the designs and keep the square count consistent, I bought a square paper notebook to draw the design.

(Note: The numbers on the edges help me keep track of how squares are used and could even be used to tell apart or create different templates).

When creating my own designs I would often use inspiration from other designs this is so I can keep the design consistent with the other. (depending on the character’s body build, accessories or pose, the square ratio may vary)

CAD design

The next step is to translate the design on to Tinker cad, I first start by arranging the squares in the right place (I use the square note pad design as instructions, I make sure to colour coordinate to tell the difference and to get a preview before printing (even though it comes out in plain white).

Once the design is finished, I would then export it into an STL file and import it into Prusa slicer for preparation and slicing, once I set the model(s) to a 60-degree angle ( in order for it to come out the way I want it), after that, I would slice (add supports) and export it in a USB.

Next step is setting up the printer, first I would pour the right quantities of liquid resin in the tank, then I’d select the file from the USB, (the printer I have is resin-based and uses ultraviolet technology), so once the metal plate lowers down and sinks into the resin, the ultraviolet light then arranges which part goes where thus sculpting it in place

After a few hours (depending on how big the design is or how many I’ve made at once) I then remove the metal print platform, I’d then scrape off the print and cut off the excess plastic, next I would then wash the print using isopropanol (or nail polish remover), once cleaned I would then placed the model(s) into the washer to dry and cure.

Painting

Next, I’d take the model(s) and paint them, I’d first start by drawing the grid of small squares to help arrange which colours go where, like a jigsaw puzzle, I’d start with the outer line, that way I would draw distinctive lines indicating which colours go which (depending on the design), I would then outline the coloured shapes with a pen to help them stand out.

After that, the model(s) is finished.

Designs

For this year, the theme I chose to go with for these models is a superhero theme (as well as other icons of tv, film or video games)

The designs for theses characters are based on ones I found on the internet, where they created Megaman style looks for many icons of comics, movie, tv and videogames.

I used these designs to help count how many squares there are per length (particularly the ones that have a grid background, to make counting easier) and draw them out in my square paper book, I would then use the drawings as instructions when designing on tinker cad

Ideas

This project does have a few business opportunities and ideas of what they could be sold as and who they can be sold to and how they can be sold.

Key chains

Way back when I made my original model from 2018, I had a side idea for this pixel model idea, not only could it be apart of my art collection exhibit, but it could also be used as a souvenir, either a desk knick-knack or a keychain (because when I created the original model, I intentionally gave it a key chain hole, so it could also be used for someone’s keys or backpack), for example, I had a friend, who liked my model so much, that I decided to create an exact copy for her to keep as a key chain.

Another idea, I’ve included with my prototype models is I’ve managed to find a way to make them both key chains and deskc knick-knacks by gluing on 3mm x 0.5mm magnets to the bottom of the feet and on a bottle cap. Anothet idea I could do for the magnets, would be to print accessories to attach to the characters. (e.g guns, lightsabers, swords etc)

This is a basic idea of what kind of merchandise I could use these designs for and base on what they like, this Leeds to another possibility

Customised commissions

Aside from the comic book, movie and videogame designs I found and copied off the internet, I also created my own unique designs based on me and my own made-up superheroes, this gave me the idea to design and create commissioned models based on customer or friend request, with this I could make anyone for anyone, (possibly try different forms of 8bit, such as Mario Bros, the legend of Zelda or even 16-bit designs)

Another idea (if possible) would be to create a camera filter (on my website) that transforms a picture of someone into an 8bit form (with the possibility of customizing options, e.g clothing, accessories, facial features etc), once they submit the design they want, I would then create on CAD, print them, paint them and have them sent to the buyer.

Check out the making process video on my Youtube channel: