draw your favorite candy challenge

[brynn]

Hi Friends,
If you live in the US, there's a good chance you have a bunch of candy around your house right now, which inspires this challenge.  Draw your favorite candy or your favorite Halloween (or any holiday) candy.  It could be your current favorite candy, or a childhood favorite, or maybe you'd like to invent some new kind of candy.  It could be the candy itself or the candy wrapper/container, and it can be in any style you want.

My current favorite candy is actually sugarless (sweetened with xylitol) (which is good for the teeth) and comes in a cute little container.  So I think I'll draw its container, and maybe a couple of individual pieces.

Happy drawing, and let's see your results (if you like) 

[Inkspots]

Hi brynn,
I like the bright colors and interesting textures and shapes of many candies, so I think I'll give this a try.
I'll see what I can find to use as a model, and post again when I've decided what to draw.

[brynn]

Yeah, I hope to be able to draw a piece of that old fashioned (but still readily available, lol) ribbon candy, that I often see around xmas.  But first, I'll have to find some so I can buy a few pieces to use as a model.  My memory does not contain enough details to make it realistic (which is the style I prefer to draw).  Meanwhile, I'll just draw this cute little candy container.  The actual candy is fairly simple round pieces, but I might add a few of those scattered around the container.  But I'll definitely be looking for some ribbon candy, so I can draw that too, later!

[Inkspots]

O-my, Ribbon candies!
I started drawing a Ribbon Candy over a year ago, and I still dont have it looking like I want.
that subtle diamond grid texture on the surface of this kind is a pain to draw, but vital. Most people might not be consciously aware of seeing it but, leave it out and they notice immediately that something isnt right. I've got lots of comments from family, like " why bother with that? no one will ever see it anyway." but I know its there, and I know the drawing isnt right without it. maybe I've draw it too subtly, I dont know. I have a bit of a problem trying to depict the way light passing through the thinner parts of the candy affects the colors to, but I havent given up.

Maybe we should do Christmas candies around holiday time.
p.s I also tried drawing candy Santas, but failed dismally.

[brynn]

diamond pattern?  Wow, that's a detail that my memory left out, lol.  I'm sure I've seen ribbon candy with smooth glaze though.

Since these challenges are not time dependant, people can post candy from whatever holiday it happens to be, when they see this topic and decide to draw.  Hopefully we'll get all kinds of candy, over time!

[brynn]

Ok, I've got a wip ready:


So hopefully that looks like a tiny tin.  It's roughly the size of the old fashioned chewing gum packages (the kind that had 5 sticks of gum....idk, maybe they're still made, I don't chew a lot of gum anymore).  That tiny lid flips up, something like Pez candy containers (if anyone remembers those).  It will look a lot more like what it's supposed to, when I put the reflections in.  Possibly, the lid is too large -- I'm not sure if it's too large, or if it's just the perspective that does that?

Those aren't the final colors at all, I'm still playing around with those.  Actually, the tin is still in the original 3D Box tool colors.  I'd like to be able to combine the Inkscape logo, with the text on path around it, and "sugar free", make them a lot smaller, and put them inside a shield shape, or star or something similar, so that the whole thing is like the logo for the Inxcape brand.  But you wouldn't be able to read the text, at the size it would need to be.  But I still might experiment with that idea.

I'm thinking of adding some kind of an oval shape, like shown with just a stroke, in the non-perspectivized version (on pink bg).  I'm thinking of giving it the appearance that the inside of the oval is sunken in (like looking into the tv/movie concept of a wormhole) so that it looks like the words are shooting out of it.  But I don't have a complete concept about that.  It might work to just make "Inxcape" quite a bit larger.  Any comments or suggestions about that would be welcome 

Another idea I'm considering, is a sunburst for the backgroud, where the Inkscape logo is the center of the sunburst, and the rays extend around the tin.  That would be tricky, since it will have to be mostly freehand, to make the rays appear to wrap around.  Although Bend LPE could be very helpful.     I should also say that I do not have any professional experience with branding or advertising, or even graphic design (since I only use Inkscape as a hobby).  So I'm only drawing what I might have seen somewhere -- I don't know anything about the concepts behind branding or advertising graphics.

So I guess that's about all I can say.  Questions, comments, suggestions welcome 

PS - With my ribbon candy idea, I'm thinking of putting together a little "still life" of a bunch of different hard candies, for another drawing.  Might have to visit a candy store     

[Lazur]

Ha!
So there might be a place for creating fast branding contests,
if anyone interested in how to summon and steal the customer's soul with eye candy.

You mentioned pez -made a silly image based on that some time ago for another "contest".
Just for fun, nothing serious.

[brynn]

Ok, after a lot of virtual crumbling up paper and starting over (i.e. deleting), I'm finally at a close, good enough for me, wip, that's almost finished.  I'm really not good with the advertising part of this.



What's left to be done?  The little dimple in the lid, that makes it snap closed and not fly open, needs a bit more realism.  Still need to add major reflections, and I guess some shadows too.  Already made some shading for the top of the lid.  Hopefully the reflections will help it look more "tinny".

Something still seems "off" about the lid, so I'm still pondering what I can do.

I'm not sure what kind of surface I'll make, that the tiny tin is sitting upon.  That's something I struggle with, as far as what's artistic and together with my personal style.  I'd like to make it look like it's sitting on some surface, without actually having to draw that surface....and also not to look like it's floating in space.  If anyone has any tips or examples, I'd appreciate it   

Or of course comments or suggestions about the rest of it, are welcome as well.

[Lazur]

Hi,

maybe you should put a candy right next to the package? Without that it's just a box that could hold anything.

One of my favorite candy is cream fudge, but couldn't find a good photo referrence for it.
It had quite a huge popularity for decades, and still is an important part of local sweets.
It has it's most well known form's roots in Poland.
The yellow colour, the picture of the cow, and the inner paper preventing you from getting sticky everywhere
-which you will end up, if you open it anyway- and the actual size makes it's appearence "iconic".







Maybe a bit late for Christmas but here is the other one:
szaloncukor.

Szaloncukor (literally: "parlour candy") is a type of sweet traditionally associated with Christmas in Hungary. It is usually made of fondant, covered by chocolate and wrapped in shiny coloured foil, then hung on the Christmas tree as decoration.
Every year, almost a kilo and a half of it are consumed per household during Christmas season.
The tradition of hanging these candies on the Christmas tree started in the 19th century. It was named szaloncukor because the tree usually stood in the parlour (szalon in Hungarian; Cukor means "sugar" or "candy").
The name comes from the German-Austrian Salonzuckerl, this is why the original name was szalonczukkedli.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szaloncukor

It is a small filled chocolate, with a special wrapping.
There are many flawours, and there are recipes available too, not just factory made sweets.
The classic wrapping consists of a flimsy paper trummed at its end, and a shiny stanniol -tinfoil.   
The foil has changed to aluminium, and nowadays most covers are made only of one piece of plastic foil.
At least the shiny appearance and the trumming is kept mostly.
Each flavour has a different colour usually.

Some images:






Here are handmade ones:



.





Here is my first sketch:



Will be challenging to add a realistic look as I'm not planning to use filters.

[Lazur]

Some details added:

[brynn]

maybe you should put a candy right next to the package? Without that it's just a box that could hold anything.

Oh yeah, that was actually my original plan, and I had totally forgotten about it.  I'm anxious to finish this one, and start on another.  The candy itself is not really exciting in its appearance, which is part of the reason I wanted to draw the box.  Actually they might come out looking like pills....high on Inkscape, right?!!  Or I could just make up something, I guess.

Oh nice -- all of that candy looks yummy!  The cream fudge sounds delightful!  So do I understand correctly that there are different flavors for the filling of the szaloncukor, inside the chocolate?  Mmmm!

Yes, I think those little scratches on the chocolate surface will be tricky....also the texture of the filling.  Are you going to try and draw the foil?  Omg, that would drive me crazy, trying to make the foil realistic. 
 

[Lazur]

maybe you should put a candy right next to the package? Without that it's just a box that could hold anything.

Oh yeah, that was actually my original plan, and I had totally forgotten about it.  I'm anxious to finish this one, and start on another.  The candy itself is not really exciting in its appearance, which is part of the reason I wanted to draw the box.  Actually they might come out looking like pills....high on Inkscape, right?!!  Or I could just make up something, I guess.

Oh nice -- all of that candy looks yummy!  The cream fudge sounds delightful!  So do I understand correctly that there are different flavors for the filling of the szaloncukor, inside the chocolate?  Mmmm!

Yes, I think those little scratches on the chocolate surface will be tricky....also the texture of the filling.  Are you going to try and draw the foil?  Omg, that would drive me crazy, trying to make the foil realistic.

Maybe if you want to keep it from looking it floats in sapce, you should draw something next to it, holding the box in that position.
Otherwise it would fall to the side I guess.
Drawing a hand that's holding it? Hmm that won't make it easier.

Yes, each flavour is covered in the same chocolate. Without the foils being "colour coded" you cannot be sure.
The most common colour is yellow, with a "jelly" flavour usually,
a bit closer to orange is caramel, blue is coconut, the red is marzipan.
Other flavours include nut, and sweet chestnut.


The original plan was to make one with the foil too.
I'm not sure about this technic though.
The current details were made by adding transparency to the objects -which is good for an artistic view, but I would like a cleaner solution.

[brynn]

I think those handmade examples you showed, would be easier to draw than the top example.  The handmade ones look like they are wrapped in something that's part foil, part waxed paper, or just paper.  They don't seem to be as crinkley.

I'm not sure what you mean by a cleaner solution.  But it seems like in your drawing, a lot of those little marks on the chocolate surface (that I call scratches) are much bigger than in the photo.  I often zoom in until I can see the pixels, to get tiny details right.

The part that always fouls me up, is that I can get all the details just perfect, while I'm zoomed in.  But then when I go back to 100%, it doesn't look the same anymore.

I think on a lot of those tiny marks, you can avoid the transparency, and just use solid color.  Especially those that are essentially just tiny dots.

I'm looking forward to see how it works out!

[Lazur]

Started it again, here is a comparision.
The new version is much "rotoscoped", without any transparency.
There are at least three times more node used.

[brynn]

Lol, I don't know what "rotoscoped" means.  But I think if you are going for realistic (which is not a requirement for the challenge - any style is ok) the 2nd more detailed version will give you more choices, in the end.  Realism work with Inkscape almost always involves tons of nodes!

Looks like a good start!

[Lazur]

Took it easy this time: auto-trace with 64-63 colours, with a little adjustment here and there.



This makes photorealistic look to be achieved manually a bit pointless with the previous process.

[brynn]

This makes photorealistic look to be achieved manually a bit pointless with the previous process.

Lol, photorealistic a bit too much for you?  Once you start looking at those photo pixels, it's all an exercise in sanity, lol!

Pointless only if the end result is your goal.

That Trace Bitmap tool is indeed awesome.  And there are a few others around.  I hear Illustrator has an unbelieveable one....live trace, or something like that?

I just like the challenge of realism and photorealistic.  There are a couple of IF members who do awesome photorealistic work.  I just don't know how they do it so fast!

And I do see that there's a difference between realism and photorealistic.  Realism looks almost real.  Photorealistic looks just like a certain photo.  So those seem to be my current style interest.  Who knows, maybe will change someday.

But it's just a hobby for me anyway.  Of course if it's your job, you'd never use Inkscape to manually make a photorealistic image, if you can just use a camera and take a photo, or use Trace Bitmap and trace a photo.

[Lazur]

Photorealism won't make it better on an artistic scale in my opinion.
Nor would a process going on forever would be useful for challenges I guess.

And if I wanted a photo, then I wouldn't autotrace it -the original raster image would be fine for me.

So this time, adding a new flavor to it, with hatching:

[brynn]

Photorealism won't make it better on an artistic scale in my opinion.

True, I agree!

Very nice, I like that effect 

[Lazur]

Thank's!

[brynn]

Ok, all but finished on the candy tin.  Now for a background.  I guess that's going to be like a placemat on a kitchen table.  Although I do wish I knew a way to have just the candy tin, and maybe some shadows, where the surface it's sitting on is implied, rather than actually drawn.  I'll have to do some brainstorming, lol.

Comments welcome 

[brynn]

Ok, unless I or someone notices something that I need to change, this is going to be my final version.  Rather than try to draw the table and the napkin underneath it, I've just left that mostly to the imagination.  But I did add a few candy pieces.



The only thing I'm not real happy about is the shadow behind the tin.  The problem is that I'm not sure what's bothering me about it.  So I don't know what to fix.

Comments welcome.  And meanwhile, I'm now working on a drawing of ribbon candy!

[Lazur]

The lid's highlights show a different light source direction than the remaining part of the box.
Which wouldn't make such casted shadows.
If the height of the box was all the same -and no ring involved on the lid- you could construct roughly how the shadow would look, with the lightsource in the distance, like sunlight.

Here is how it would look with all parallel projected and parallel light:

The cast shadow is parallel with the top of the box in this simplified version.
Even the otiginal has that ring around the lid, it doesn't make for such an angle of the shadow.

Also, the lightsource direction makes it clear that the highlights are at where the light hits the surface closest to perpendicular.


Oh and I thought before the candies would look similar to pez or mentos, now it all came clear!

[brynn]

You know, I didn't quite believe what I was seeing, myself, lol.  But I was working from a physical model.  The highlight on the lid is a reflection from a nearby lamp, which light is roughly 45? angle to the long, front side of the tin.  However most of the light comes from a window, which is 3 (or 4) times the distance from the lamp, and more like 10 to 20? angle to the long, front side of the tin.  1 highlight on the body of the tin is also from the lamp (lower stronger reflection).  The upper weaker reflection must be the window.

Too bad I don't have a....well actually I guess I could use my phone to take a photo....  I'll wait a few more hours to take the photo, so you can see what I tried to draw, which was the mid-day light (still morning here).



So the darker part of the cast shadow is from the lamp, while the more blurry part of the cast shadow is from the window.  I used interpolation to create the complex cast shadow.

[Lazur]

If you know the exact dimensions of the box then it can be modelled in 3D.
Setting the lights up in blender is the only tricky part, but I may try to reproduce the scene.