Primary research and examples

This is the start of the Alphabet soup brief. My chosen letter is T and my word is Extract. I woke up during the night after I was given the Alphabet soup brief and quickly drew this half asleep. Its messy but I managed to get the idea out of my head which is the main point.

These are my design sheets. I need to improve my quality of mark and drawings skills but I still understand what it means. Just trying to make a start. I have defined the word Extract:

1. v. t. - To draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc.; as, to extract a tooth from its socket, a stump from the earth, a splinter from the finger.

2. v. t. - To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process; as, to extract an essence. Cf. Abstract, v. t., 6.

3. v. t. - To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.

4. Noun - That which is extracted or drawn out.

5. Noun - A portion of a book or document, separately transcribed; a citation; a quotation.

6. Noun - A decoction, solution, or infusion made by drawing out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue; essence; as, extract of beef; extract of dandelion; also, any substance so extracted, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained; as, quinine is the most important extract of Peruvian bark.

7. Noun - A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant; -- distinguished from an abstract. See Abstract, n., 4.

8. Noun - A peculiar principle once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; -- called also the extractive principle.

9. Noun - Extraction; descent.

10. Noun - A draught or copy of writing; certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgement therein, with an order for execution. http://www.dictionary.co.uk/browse.aspx?word=extract

Quite broad and a bit obscure but it does help and gives me different ideas.

 

My idea for the first T was to create a shadow and somehow capture and transfer that into a illustration ,but after realising drawing a shadow could be quite difficult I instead took a picture of the T cut out and stuck up and then drew around that image as you can see in the third image bottom left corner.

The top right image was a failed attempt of trying to create layered shaded t's but I now know I'm useless at shading. A bit of practice is in need maybe.

The bottom right corner was a failed attempt to use negative space and extract the t from the paper but instead of using ink I used food colouring as this was the only dark substance my flat mates had. I didn't like the result so i canceled this out.

 

The trace the letters from my laptop screen as I find it easier and faster then printing off the images and using the light box. These are the roughs for four of my final images. When I draw I don't feel that comfortable as my hand shakes and my lines are not as neat as I'd like them to be but hopefully it will improve with practice.

The bottom left image took so long to trace and re-trace, then when I cut the individual little dashed line out with a scalpel my hands felts horrible and cramped! Dedication.

I used a bulldog clip to hold the right T under my square then I traced it. I repeated this moving the T in different places to create a 3D effect. I found this easier then trying to visualize it in my head.