Sometimes the me who designs Pippin and the me who paints paintings to hang on the wall have little tug of wars in my head. Sometimes the painting side tries to creep into Pippin and exert a shadow or a perspective or a … shudder… straight line.
Mostly they have these little skirmishes in a very friendly manner, where Pippin Jenn says, “Ha ha, thanks very much Painting Jenn, I’ll definitely think about that” as she (me) grins and nods and mentally reminds herself to pick up milk.
For such a long time, I’ve wanted Pippin to have a bubble gum machine design. I hankered after the real thing when I was young but my parents wisely knew that my world would continue to spin even if I didn’t have one, and probably spin a little too fast if I did. I’m a bit of a sugar fiend. But now I get to make one.
On the first go my painterly self leaned in a little too close over my shoulder. How do the circles of the gum fit together? How does the thickness of the glass look and interact with the gumballs? The parts of the gumballs showing behind the ones in the front should be darker, right? Should there be little highlights on each ball? Where is the light coming from?
I got quite far into painting that design, sort of anxiously listening to opinions and advice and direction and trying my hardest to figure it all out, on 13 count needlepoint canvas, before my dear Pippin self said “Argggggg!”, pushed back the chair and shook it off in wet dog style.
Pippin world doesn’t have to think about shadow. Or highlights. Or gravity! Pippin gumballs can… wait for it… float! It is declared. Pippin gumballs float. It’s a fabulous thing.
Available next week!
(As an aside, when I go too long without writing anything here when I come back settings and how to do it have all changed a bit. Serves me right! Please excuse anything goofy and put it down to a gumball effect.)
And just one more thing, it’s a cruel thing I think that such a colorful fun thing as a ‘gumball’ autocorrects to ‘gumboil.’ I’m not sure what a gumboil is but I’m pretty sure I don’t want it!