Ice breaker - idea development + Artist research

This week as an ice breaker we are creating a 3D self portrait. Last term we were doing one in 2D and I did a digital portrait using the paper-cut effect which I found really interesting. This term I decided to experiment with media I really like, which is food. I decided to create a sugar cookie that will look like me. 

This is a sketchbook page explaining my thought process for this project and why I decided to do a sugar cookie. 

Generally I decided to do a sugar cookie for two main reasons, the first one is that I love to bake. I really admire baking cakes and decorating them with frostings and with fruit and meringues and I just really enjoy that creating process. For Christmas my family and I always bake gingerbread cookies and we decorate them with glaze and sprinkles and it always really makes me happy. I also decided on a sugar cookie because a sugar cookie is very sweet and that is the sort of sweetener I need in my life right now. I think combining the visuals and a craft I enjoy with the mental side of it makes the project really interesting. 

For an artist reference I decided to look at Andi Kirkiegaard who creates beautiful sugar cookies. Andi created Kirkie Kookies, and those cookies are really magical in the way they look. The frosting, the designs and the attention to detail is absolutely incredible. 

Here are a few of Andi's creations I have found on her website. 

Coco Kirkie Kookies

Travel Kirkie Kookies

Cartoon Kirkie Kookies

The attention to detail in those creations is really incredible and I do not think I am able to succeed with a project this complicated, but I think if I make my cookies with less detail, they may be easier to achieve. I also really like how vibrant the colors are in those creations. Whenever I make my own frosting, I find it difficult to make a very vibrant color using the food coloring but this is definitely something to experiment with. Generally the colors I will use is something to think about. I do not want my creation to be very realistic, I like all I make to be cartoony, however as I mentioned on the sketchbook page, I want to do it in a little bit different style than the one I always work in. 

I decided to firstly take a picture of myself and create some basic surfaces that are on my face in Procreate. I knew this would help me to establish how I want to decorate my cookie and how should whe shapes I am cutting out look like. 

I started by taking a picture and putting it in procreate. Then I established the main surfaces: my face, my eyes, my glasses, my hair, my lips and my eyebrows. 

I worked on the layers in Procreate to create a base for my cookie. At this step, I have decided not to make one cookie and color it, but to make a separate cookies for: my face and hair, my glasses and eyes, my eyebrows and my lips. I think making this portrait out of 4 cookies and stacking them on each other will make it more interesting and more 3D. I also think it will be more like a mosaic and this is really interesting in my opinion. In the sketch I have made my hair light pink but it is not something I have established on yet. I think I want to make my hair very colorful and bright to show the creativity I have and how woke my mind always is. 

I have printed out the image: 

I am going to put this image in a document sleeve and shape the cookies on the image to make sure I have all the shapes right. 

The cookie dough I will make from a simple sugar cookie recipe and the process of making the cookie dough, baking and decorating the cookies will be explained in my next post.