Animation Cell

By adminFri, 08/07/2009 - 17:23

The Dragon Jigsaw gave me an idea - I think that icing the individual shapes, then carefully laying them onto the cake is making life harder than it needs to be.

 

Have you ever see pictures of how they made cartoons before computers? Rows of artists painstakingly hand-painting each individual cell, starting with the detail then working up washes of each colour behind. It seems to me that the same technique could be used with chocolate or icing so I thought I'd give it a go (with chocolate.. in this case)

 

First problem - what to construct this on. Looking around the kitchen I saw a couple of options: Silicone mat, and greaseproof paper. I didn't end up using either - the silicone mat, whilst having both glossy and matt sides to it, is opaque and I'm no good at free-hand drawing. The greaseproof is translucent, so I could trace, but it's a matt finish and I'd really like my chocolate to be glossy. Then inspiration struck - overhead projector slides from the office - it's both glossy and transparent. I guess if you can't get hold of one you could use a thick plastic board, or bookcovering film, or maybe clingfilm (saran wrap) stretched over a chopping board.

 

This all set up, it's time to choose a picture - something with bold lines, relatively simple for my first try. Notice how I reverse the text because we're creating this from the back.

 

Now I melt and colour the icing (I'm using Royal Icing), and put it in my little piping bags.

 

Starting with the detail (just like a cartoon cell painter) I apply the outlines, the little shine marks on the cherries etc (if this were photoshop, I apply the top layer first, then work my way down to the background layer).  

Make sure you put something stiff (like a chopping board) under the film/greaseproof and move the whole board, not just the film/greaseproopf- otherwise the page will bend and the detail will shift/pop off the page while you're moving it.

 

Tape down the picture you're tracing, and the film/greaseproof (not that tape likes sticking to greaseproof) or it'll shift part way and your picture will look wierd.