Clock mechanisms

One of the themes of the book that drew me to it so much in the first place was the juxtaposition of the real and mechanical with magic. Herr Thiessen is the clock maker in the book that creates fantastical rotating clocks in his studio in Munich including the impressive monochromatic clock for the circus that depicts miniature characters and scenes from the circus as time passes. His presence is important in the book both as the clock maker and also as the founder of the reveurs; a group of circus followers and enthusiasts. Therefore I want to bring in that mechanical element to my illustrations so I started thinking how I could do that and the interior workings of a clock seemed the right choice. I find the cogs and metal constructs of a clock intriquing and visually appealing because of the variation of scale, shape and pattern and the possibly to scan and paint with them and also construct them somehow. I went online to try and find out where I could find some and found a 30gram collection of timepiece mechanisms on Ebay for a good price, and when they arrived there are some fascinating pieces of cogs, clock faces and hands.

I have only just begun to experiment with them but here are some of my scans of the pieces so far:

Scan through tracing paper

Scan of cogs in colour

Scan of cogs in black and white

I intended to scan and photocopy them in black and white but it seems a shame to lose the wonderful gold and silver tones that come through on the mixture of smooth and rusty surfaces, so I may have to rethink my colour scheme. I tried scanning the pieces through tracing paper at first to give it a more subtle, dreamy feel which is quite like to not allow them to take over the image but at the same it dulls down the colours. My next steps are to play around with layering and cutting out my scans and looking at using the actual pieces some how.