Measuring a Croissant and constructing orthographic projection drawings by hand
M1
How to Capture a Croissant?
To capture an accurate photograph of the croissant, the first thing to do is the set up a stage. White background (in my case I used white papers) will be ideal to minimize the effects come from other colors and also makes it easier to crop up later in Photoshop. The light must be all around the croissant to reduce the shadow and to each detail equally clear. The camera must be parallel to the croissant in order to make its shape and angle as accurate as possible.
How to Draw a Croissant?
I used transparent papers to retrace the croissant. I started by retracing the outlines and then locating important texture lines. Finally, I used hatching, sketching and stippling to fill out the space inside according to its details. Different hardness and thicknesses of pencils were used to complete the drawing, and the notations were also made with pens with different thicknesses.
How to Project a Croissant?
Grid drawings acquire high accuracy, and it takes time to make sure every line is parallel or perpendicular. Cross marking the interaction points is to locate key points on the contour of each section of croissant so that when making the slanted grids above the big outline, we would be able to project the original shape in a slanted angle without losing too much shape. In addition, the axonometric render looks a little strange compared with the real croissant we see because it is a view without the perspective that is inevitable in our life.
Final Submission
Reflection
The word representation holds different requirements in different territories. In drawing theories, it means to generalize what we see and draw them artistically. This process is to be re-designed and narrated by illustrators, where some traits from the reference object are exaggerated and omitted. But the representation varies its meaning in this course. We are tasked to reproduce the croissant we bought in orthographic and axonometric drawings, and every detail must be preserved as perfect as possible. As l had changed into a completely new mode of thinking, I didn’t meet up with many difficulties until I was about to scan my drawings.
In the account of the low practicability to get a printer or scanner in my case, I had to take all the photos using my phone and handle them in Adobe Photoshop. This is where things got tricky. I could not make the paper flat as it should have been. I couldn’t control the light to shine on paper equally, not to mention the reflection of pencil drawings. It took me a great amount of time to edit those photos into digitally satisfying images without losing the original information and accuracy. As a result, while this project aims mainly to familiarize us with standard representation methods, I personally got quite an increase in image editing software. Instead of feeling upset about not using the most effective equipment, I found it interesting thinking out of substituted plans and struggling with unknown situations to get the desired outcome.
Through this project, one idea becomes clearer than ever for me. Producing work is to meet up with endless possibilities of implementation plans and unplanned situations. It s a great clash between the obstacles and our capability, mind, and even luck. As the process is progressed by us, all the instabilities and unknowns are bravely faced and finally settle down, and that s where the sense of achievement comes from.