Another illustration assignment, "Bells and Whistles," was based on taking something that is simple and making it not so simple. Whether it's a car with too many tires, or a pet store filled with way too many animals, the idea is to be extra, and I wanted to go with grills. For the reference photo, I actually took my professors advice and held open my mouth in the same position you see in the illustration, but it had to be modified. I also researched references of real grills that people wear, how they wear them, how far back on the teeth they go, many specifics pertaining to the grills themselves. To finalize, I chose to use colored pencils and graphite for the shading of the face, which helped give a much more convincing point of view and focus viewers on the teeth of the mouth.
