My projects rarely follow a linear path, so writing how my ideas develop helps me to see the point where the diverge happens and what the triggering event was (if there was one). Documenting my process helps me to better understand my work and see where I can move on from there.
Although I spend many days shaping an idea in my head, I am a spontaneous creator once the canvas is finally out. As a mixed media artist, I'm not limited by the media I use. This just means there's a lot of experimentation that I can do (and will document)!
After reading a Virginian Pilot story on All Good Craft Granola Bars, I reached out to see if there was anything I could do to help support them. After meeting with the owner and learning about the company (which has so many wonderful initiatives), Bryan and I decided to collaborate on creating characters for the five granola flavors he has:
This post will focus on my process for creating Punkin.
My work so far has always involved line art so I wanted to try a completely different style that used blocky shapes and gradients. Version 1 didn’t turn out the way I imagined and I was also restricted to using four colors (for printing purposes). This is a style I generally struggle with so I’d like to work on it more in the future.
Version 2 turned out much better and is better suited to be used as merchandise material. I’m quite happy with how this one turned out.
As a challenge, I decided to create an animated pixel version of Punkin. I’ve only ever made pixel art once for a game design class in college but I ended up scrapping it because I was unhappy with it and frustrated with the process. I did a tiny bit of animation when I was in elementary school so I’m at least somewhat familiar with it.
In all, I’m very new to this form of media and it took about two for me to get it to the final version.
Overall, I am happy with how this looks and am proud of myself that I was able to do it. 🙂 I think I strayed away from doing pixel art because I found it daunting, but now that I’ve done it I have decided to make more pixel work.
AVDLR