Process Work for the Surface Design Project
re·form
verb
to make changes in something in order to improve it
Almost all lizards can drop their tails at any point of time as a self defense mechanism. Some of these reptiles can regrow or reform their tails over a period of time. This defence mechanism called caudal autonomy normally happens when the animal feels threatened or is grabbed by the tail.
There is another reason why a lizard will drop its tail and it's called Tail Rot. This is very common among bearded dragons and is the result of their tails not shedding properly or the tail being injured. Most people and the vet will say that the tail needs to be amputated but that is only for severe cases. My bearded dragon, Berri*, has sustained an injury to the tip of his tail from his previous owners. I've been told that he has to have his tail amputated but his tail is perfectly fine. When and if he drops his tail I'll take him to get it amputated but until then he's been doing just perfectly fine.
*Berri's Story
It was 2015 and my biological dad, stepmom, and two younger brothers went Yard Sailing. It was late in the day and my little brother Luke, eight-years-old at the time, came upon a glass 10 gallon storage tub that looked empty from a far. He looked inside and found a eight inch darkened lizard that looked dead. Luke, being a typical boy, touched the lizard and it opened its eyes. Luke picked up the lizard, walked over to the woman running the yard sale and asked her how much she wanted for him. "Take him and his mother for free. We have no use for them anymore," she replied. Luke talked to my dad and they decided that they only had room for the younger lizard but would talk to my aunt about taking in the mother.
They went directly to the petstore afterwards to pick up the necessities for lizard care and along the way Luke Googled the lizard and found out that he was a normal Australian Bearded Dragon. They got everything they needed and headed back home to set up the terrarium. Luke, knowing that I'd want to know about a new addition to our rescue shelter, texted me and all he said was "Found live Dragon at yard sale at home now". I dropped everything and drove to my dads as fast as possible.
As soon as I got to the house I was disappointed because it wasn't an actual dragon but I instantly bonded with the lizard. They had his terrarium all set up when I got there and seeing the lizard enjoy his first 50 gallon tank was adorable. We found that he loved to eat blueberries so we decided to name him Berri. Berri also liked to get stuck in long hair(this was before I shaved my head) as I came to find out as I held him more often. We noticed the tip of his tail was smashed and darker than the rest of his body so we took him to get looked at but, the vet wanted to euthanize Berri and we weren't about to give up on him. We went home and left his tail be for the time being so we could see how he did.
Flash forward to the present and you'll see a happy, light coloured, two foot long bearded dragon chasing butterflies in medium cut grass. Berri has certainly grown into his 50 gallon tank and is healthier than ever before. His tail doesn't slow him down at all anymore. He loves his heating pad and cuddle time. He enjoys his play time outside a little too much. I'll have to make a harness for him here soon so he doesn't run off and try to bite the dogs. Sadly, my baby boy will be going to sleep for two to three month straight here soon for brumation(similar to hibernation). My little brother, Isaac, will be in charge of watching Berri this year as I will be stuck at college.
Above are some photographs of Berri that I took; I thought those of you that see this would appreciate seeing a majestic dragon. Also I used three of these a reference for the dragons in my patterns.
Above are my mind maps as I started thinking about this project. I tried thinking of words that described me the best, but nothing stuck. Most of these words will be foreign to you if you're not from Australia or aren't familiar with their lingo. In the first mind map(left) I finished the branch with the word Lead. I like to have organization and direction within all of my work even if it is just for practice so the word Lead fit. I didn't want to stop there so I dug deeper. Finally I found a word that describes me perfectly, Reform. Reform means to make changes in order to improve something. That perfectly describes me and my work because it is never ending and always changes for the better. I am always reforming my style and growing as an artist because of it.
This is my mood board for the Surface Design project. I wanted to get a sense of the background behind my word and what I want to convey with my project. Above are some inspiration, scales, colours, and font/letter form ideas I was thinking about for this project.
Above are my 10 thumbnails for my pattern and letter form for this project. I have a Bearded Dragon and his scales are an interesting shape and pattern so I wanted to incorporate those into my design. I couldn't decide on what form I wanted to use until I got to the tenth thumbnail.
Above is my rough of number 10 in my thumbnails. I chose this one to further for my rough because I feel like it depicts the reptile/lizard aspect of my project perfectly. The ends are all tipped with thicker ends to show the reptile/lizard way of regrowing or reforming a tail. the tips match the overall shape and edge of letters.
Above are my additional six thumbnails for this project. My professor and I agreed that there needed to be a few changes so I played with some ideas she and I talked about. It was decided that the full stops weren't telling the viewer what I wanted it to, which was being reformed. Another change that was suggested was having the scales change size as they descended. As I took another look at Berri, my bearded dragon, I noticed that his scales decrease in size as they descended along his body from head to tail tip.
Above is my second rough where I implemented both changes suggested that were added to the thumbnail number 16. This still isn't what I want the letter form to look like so I think I'll do another rough.
Above is my third and final rough of the letter form for this project. I decided to go with thumbnail number 18 for this rough and I like that there are torn pieces on the letter form making it look like it actually needs to reform. This is the rough I'm going with for my finally letter form design.
Above is a screenshot of my Illustrator file in progress while working on the letter form. I took the scale pattern on the left and added it to the inside of the letter form on the right.
Above is an image of what my letter form looked like before I made the last changes to it.
Above is my second mood board for this project. I decided to make a pattern of Bearded Dragons. In this mood board you will see that most of the images are different angles of lizards; these were to get reference of what angle I wanted to use.
The above image is my drawing I did in Photoshop as references for my patterns. I took this into Illustrator and traced it to get the parts I needed for my patterns.
Above is a screenshot of my Illustrator file in progress. The patterns off of the artboards are my tests on how I wanted to approach these patterns.
Above is a screenshot of my Photoshop Surface Design animation in progress.
This is the reference image we used for our in-class demo in Adobe Illustrator. We learned the needed skills for the Surface Design project through this demo. We learned how to use the following Adobe Illustrator tools: Pen tool, Blend tool, Smooth tool, symbols, Symbol Sprayer, Blob Brush, and Expand appearance.
The above images are my process images for the in-class demo in Adobe Illustrator. I personally had quite a hard time, but these tasks take practice to get the hang of before they become muscle memory.
Above is my finished Coca-Cola surface design demo we worked on in class. This project was difficult but became easier as we worked more on it. We learned how to use the following Adobe Illustrator tools: Pen tool, Blend tool, Smooth tool, Blob Brush, and Expand appearance. There are some small mistakes and it's not the exact same as the actual Coca-Cola surface design but that's a part of learning. Even though this demo gave me a migraine I thought it was a fun way to learn the techniques we needed for this project.
