Familiarising Myself

In order to "get to know" the toaster, I started off with the two most basic ideas I could think of - research, and some quick studies.

The research was fairly simple - I wanted to take a look at the history of toasters. How far back does toast date? What became before the toaster as we know it today? What sort of creative things have been done with toast so far? All of these questions were answered as a part of my project proposal, which can be downloaded from the "Introduction to Object Sustained" blog post.

To start off art-wise though, I chose to do some basic studies and sketches of the object. I did three of these.

The first drawing I did was using black pen, using hatching to shade it. It was a bit of a challenge for me, since I typically prefer smoother transitions to get a slightly more realistic look. I didn't want to do that for this object though, since it is older and has imperfections and tarnish. The rougher, sketchier look helped to reflect that better, in my opinion.

The second study I did was using gouache, and it was a close up of the cord. I'm not 100% satisfied with how it turned out, and I think it would've been a better choice to have used acrylic or watercolour instead. I wasn't able to get the level of definition that I had really wanted since the darker, "base" colour reactivated, as gouache naturally does.

Lastly, to try to capture it in a much looser way, I dew it out in differed colours of brush felt tips. While the "style" isn't what I usually go for, I'm really happy with how it turned out. Since I didn't sketch it out beforehand with pencil, like I usually do, it required me to look at the object and be confident with my strokes. I do think that, after the previous two activities, this helped me loosen up a bit and relax.