ASSIGNMENT TWO: 

Ideas and observation...

I started my search for inspiration with my mood boards: 

SUMMER: 

AUTUMN: 

I found the orange and purple colour contrast most exciting in the Autumn selection. The purple inspired by Zazie Bulles : 

On my travels I was drawn to the imagery used by 'Pret a Manger' that I collected. The fruit and vegetables are bright and vibrant highlighted more so with the simple white background. The dissected pieces are fun and cleverly matched together. 

The text being made up of different fonts is a classy twist. I find this marketing idea quirky and exciting. I just love the larger than life broccoli with a make shift ladder propped up beside it. Could a giant vegetable highlight quality? I think it does in this image, big and succulent. The very best. 

I also took a wonder and picked a home grown apple straight from the tree. It is a beautiful apple, so perfect with its leaves still attached. However, it is not perfect. It has imperfections, blemishes, and as I found with my Marks and Spencer research, the fruit and vegetables need to look picture perfect. I can still use this photograph as inspiration in my own work however: 

DIRECT OBSERVATION: 

I started by playing with the 'Pret a Manger' dissected fruit idea: 

With a combination of ink, watercolour and oil pastels, I drew freely:

After eating a bowl of strawberries, I had this idea. Summer strawberries and cream.... Stewed apples, blackberries and custard for Autumn maybe? I enjoy this idea as part of a story maybe, however I don't think it necessarily concentrates on the quality of the fruit. Food for thought...

I visited a supermarket and bought a selection for each season, I didn't have any set ideas at this stage, I went in with an open mind. For Summer, yellow pepper, tomatoes and the biggest lettuce I could find. For Autumn, cabbage and beetroot. 

For my photoshoot, I used white paper to place my fruit and vegetables on as previously advised in an exercise to help with my objective drawing: 

Objective drawing in ink and watercolour of vine tomatoes: 

Objective drawing in ink and watercolour of yellow pepper: 

Oil pastel 'larger then life' lettuce: I still love the quirkiness of this idea, but does it say enough as a 'point of sale' display? I'm not confident that it would express the quality message to consumers. 

Ink beetroot: Looking at all of the lines and detail was so interesting. 

Ink and colour pencil beetroot: 

Oil crayon beetroot: As I found the purple and orange colours so appealing, I put them together. 

Ink cabbage: I worked hard to capture the textures and veins of the cabbage, such an intricate vegetable when I really looked at it.  

Having spent time on photographing my fruit and vegetables and using my moodboards for help, I had a play with layouts.

The Summer lettuce and Autumn cabbage looked most detailed and interesting when viewed  from above. I surrounded the lettuce with Summer tomatoes and the Cabbage with Autumn beetroot. I also experimented with the 'larger than life' theme: 

For my final illustrations, I will use the two photographs below as my inspiration, however I have realised that it is actually quiet hard to find the 'perfect' fruit and vegetables, and must take good lighting in a professional environment to achieve the perfect look!


Using watercolour has proved a successful, accurate colour match, it is also fresh and bright. 


Summer visual inspiration: Large, fresh lettuce, tomatoes and the addition of a yellow pepper: 

Autumn visual inspiration: Large, fresh cabbage and beetroot.