Element of Surprise

I then used Photoshop to change the size and position of the Penguin. I used the hue/saturation tool on Photoshop to change the colour of one of the Penguins to represent the 'element of surprise'. This is my final piece for the element of surprise task. Personally I prefer it to my earlier attempts simply because it has more detail to it, where as before I was trying to use as little detail as I could.

I took the project further after class and decided to create a more realistic image. I used my images from my research to paint this Penguin.

http://s1286.photobucket.com/albums/a605/Kerribear91/Penguins/

This was my second attempt at the element of surprise task. I thought I'd make one that was more obvious and easier to find. On this one I took the idea of using the collective noun that we found earlier on. There is a Penguin with a parcel on this image with penguins in the parcel which was meant to represent the 'Parcel of Penguins' collective noun.

We got asked to create an image with a element of surprise within it. This was my first element of surprise. I was trying to make it as difficult as possible to find the 'odd one out'. I asked a number of people if they could see it but many found the 'decoys'. The odd one out is actually near the bottom left hand corner, there is human face wearing a Penguin hat rather than an actual Penguin.

My final experiment was with paper cut outs. These were really simple to achieve but I found to be really effective. My favourite is the first one on this sheet of Penguins, I was very surprised at how much you could strip away.

My next lot of experiments I tried on different paper. I thought I would do them backwards to the last ones I did, and instead of using black on white, use white on black. These were actually some of my favourite ones. 

After completing the required amount I started experimenting with other materials and other ideas. Because on my first page some of the shapes looked a bit like bowling pins I decided to have a bit of fun and see what they would look like as a collection of bowling pins. I also did quick drawings with a black marker pen to see if I could strip any more detail away. I found I could literally strip everything away apart from a triangle for a beak and a white circle for its belly and people still recognised it as a Penguin as they are know as a 'black and white' animal, which makes them easily recognisable.

The first task was to get at least 25 drawings done of your chosen animal. I started of with a pencil because it was the simplest and quickest material. I tried using different shapes as well as trimming the detail right down to its most simplistic form to see how much I could cut the detail down whilst it still looks like a penguin. I asked people around me what they thought to get second opinions of them still looking like Penguins.

Examples of how to make a bird look as simple as possible but still look like the animal its supposed to.

I found a few collective nouns for Penguins, my favourite ones were:

Colony of Penguins
Parcel of Penguins
Raft of Penguins
Huddle of Penguins

As soon as I knew we were doing this project I was really happy because I love drawing animals and bugs, personally I think its one of my stronger points because I'm not very good at drawing people. I knew the animal I wanted to do from the word go, Penguins. This is because I know a lot about them and I have a real passion for them.