Lottie Smith

Before I can start making the poop packer itself I need to recreate the drawing of Richard’s dog so I can make sure i make it to fit.

Making curvy animal shapes from flat cardboard can be tricky so I start with rough shapes and tend to use tape at first so I can edit and play about with them while I make decisions, then later go in with glue. I have to work looking at all the additions I make from all sides so the angles and parts look right from all directions! Lots of trial and error.

Key thoughts when starting are:
- I want to make sure it looks as much like a real dog as cardboard can and not like a robot dog.
- I also want to try and capture some of the happy and in motion wee dog energy the drawing has.

I started with making a stable weighted base as I knew I wanted to make the Light Bird tall but especially with cardboard this can lead to a lot of wobble!
I made the base so it looks like a section of pavement by the edge of a road to show where these Light Birds would actually be placed.

I then started on working out the wings and how to model them both up in position and  folded down, we’d discussed the usefulness of them being able to this in stormy weather to make them safer. This would also give the option for maintenance of any features that sit on the wings themselves by bring them closer to ground level for the humans fixing them!

I drew some ideas of how I’m going to approach Erem’s design before our scheduled meeting so I could talk her through my approach and make sure I had things right. In her invention drawing I was intrigued by the fainter curved lines that I felt represented the birds wings and had an idea as to how to incorporate these into her design and make them work in reality. I showed her these along with some basic beginnings of shape and texture to check I was going in the right direction before I got started!