Week 15

Flip through my complete magazine by clicking on the link on the righthand side of the page ------------------------------------------------>

Like it?

Get your own copy by clicking

"Add to Cart" button below

Week 14

Craft: For the cover I wanted to make it look very modern. I did not want a lot going on the cover so that the artist, myself, would be the main focus. This whole magazine only featured artwork from me, so it is like a portfolio of my artwork. For this reason I wanted myself to be displayed on the cover and that’s it.

Composition: The reason that I arranged my name on the cover in the size and location I did was for a specific reason. I wanted to bring the cover page text and style into the magazine. The way I was able to accomplish this was to make the first page of the magazine look almost identical to the cover.

Concept: The concept behind this idea is that by adding a repetition of the cover on the first page of the magazine is it ties everything together. I start of with my name on the cover an then bring my name onto the first page of the magazine, while also adding a little more about he magazine on the first page.

Week 13

Craft: For this set of spreads I produced an article that was similar to my last one because it features artwork from by visual communications class. This piece of work was from an assignment where I had to combine two different photographs, one old and one new photograph.

Composition: I started out this spread like almost all my others, by making the first page all about the artwork, while also adding the title of the article on the first pages. Then I would bring the same exact title onto the next page to set up my article and text. From there I would keep three columns of text on each page throughout the article.

Concept: the reason that I decided to only have three columns of text on each page was because by using three columns I could get a lot of text on each page without the page looking to full. I wanted each page with body copy text on it have a lot of white space on the page so it did not look gray and too much to read.

Week 12

Craft: For the third spread in my magazine I decided to add an article that was from one of my previous art courses. This piece of artwork was in my visual commutations class from last year. The assignment was to combine multiple pictures into one picture by using Adobe Photoshop. For this spread I decided to make every page in this spread black for a very specific reason.

Composition: The black background is important for that fact that I wanted to incorporate the little beauty physicians from the original artwork into the text pages of the article. The little physicians art white therefore the background needed to be black in order for them to be visible.

Concept: The reason that I decided to add the little physicians was that I though it would be really cool if it looked like the physicians where actually painting on the text. Also, I think it really gives a fun feeling when parts of the artwork is incorporated throughout the entire article.

Week 11

Craft: For my second set of spreads I wanted to keep the same setup and overall theme as my first splaptoure spreads. One way that I was able to keep the magazine looking the same is by starting the article on the left hand side of the page about two thirds of the way down. I wanted each spread of articles to be individual yet have certain similarities through the entire magazine.

Composition: The reason that I decided to start the articles two thirds down on the first page is because it gives a lot of room for the title so I could make it big and interesting. Also, it allows the reader to not be overwhelmed by looking at a full page of text on the opening page. In the same way I tried to keep the height of the columns the same from page to page.

Concept: The concept of this spread is to not only show all the four different illustrations of the shoes but to also so the step by step process of converting an photograph into an illustration. Page 3 and 4 is simply showing the reader how I went through every step in by artwork.

Special Edition [NEW]

Craft: Pablo Picasso. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler 1910. This patinting was completed by the artist using oil paint on a canvas. At first I was drawn to his piece because of the overall grayish color of the painting. But as I got closer to it I was able to make out some sore of person in the painting. What inspired me about this piece is that the subject had over 30 sitting in order for Picasso to get his image just right, interesting?

Composition: Obviously the arrangement of elements is key in this type of modern painting. The whole piece is made up of hundreds of different shimmering semitransparent planes all set on top of each other in order for the portrait of Kahnweiler to be seen.

Concept: The concept of this painting is basic Picasso from the modern era of painting. Picasso was the one to make abstract shapes into portraits of individuals. This style of painting was completely different from anything before. Picasso was the one who was able to put body parts, such as; ears, noses, mouths, etc. in the wrong places and get away with it by calling it abstract.

Special Edition [OLD]

Craft: Adriaen van der Spelt and Frans van Mieris. Trompe l'Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain 1658. This painting was done by using oil paint on panel. This painting is unique because two different artists completed it. One artist completed the floral section while the other completed the curtain. This artwork inspired me because it had two different artists with two different agendas.

Composition: The arrangement of elements in this piece is what really made me choose this painting as my favorite in the old part of the museum. I think that it is completed crazy for art styles at this time period to incorporate a blue curtain on top of a beautiful floral scene.

Concept: I feel that the concept of his piece of art is going outside the normal box of floral scenes. By putting the blue curtain on this picture show that although the flowers look so nice they can still be covered up by one pull of the curtain. It was also another reason why the artist decided to have the curtain pulled open other than pulled closed.

Special Shoe Edition

Craft:

First, I had to take a picture, which I wanted to then turn into an illustration. When thinking of an idea for a unique way to take pictures of a shoe, the image of fire came to mind. After looking through a closet trying to find forgotten about shoes, I came across a ratty old pair of my dad’s shoes. I figured since they have not been worn in a few years, what’s the difference if I burn them up? Also, the shoe was black, so I figured this would help in capturing a good flame in the photograph. I waited until it was dark outside so the flames would be more visible. Then, I filled up a big bucket of water for safety purposes. Next, I placed the shoe outside on the concrete patio and moistened the shoe with “just” a bit of lighter fluid. Finally, I lit the shoe on fire with a match.

In order to make my illustration, I first decided which picture I wanted to make into an illustration. After picking my favorite photograph, I then started the process of working with Illustrator. In order for a picture to open up in the Illustrator program, the picture and the illustration must always stay in the same folder. Then, I opened the Illustrator program and determined what size and what layout or orientation was best for the photograph. I chose a “new document” and selected 11x17 (Tabloid) for paper size and landscape orientation for layout. Next, to get the photo into Illustrator, I went into File/Place which allows for the photo to be in the program as long as the photo is always in the folder with the illustration.

To start illustrating the photo, it’s a good practice to open Windows / Workspace / Essentials, this ensures all tools are set to the default mode so everything is how it always works. Then, I enlarged and centered my photograph in the middle of the paper, holding “shift” down so my image stayed in proportion. Next, I started drawing with the “Pen Tool” by placing a dot around the entire outline of one shape of the shoe. I used the “tear off” feature of the “Pen Tool” so I could easily add more or less pen points. If I needed to move the location of any of my points around the object, I used the "Selection Tool" and then the “Direction Selection Tool.” After I completed one object I would choose the color to “Fill” that object using the “Eyedropper Tool." Then, I decided if I wanted the line around the object to have a “Stroke” around it. The large white box is the “fill” color, and the box underneath with the black line around it is the “stroke” color box. After all these steps were done with one object, it would become a “Layer” that could be viewed in the “Layers Panel.” When I completed a group of layers that were all in one area, I “Grouped” the layers.

In a complicated illustration, there will be hundreds of layers and by grouping them into smaller clusters it is much easier to manage all the layers. Once a layer is completed, a good habit is to turn the layer invisible by clicking the “Eye” and then locking the layer by clicking the “Lock.” While working on the illustration, it is also essential that the artwork be saved after a few layers have been completed. One way is to go into File/Save or hit “Command + S” on the keyboard. For this illustration, I started with the shoe and then made the fire and finally the background.

The use of value is what we really focused on this week, and we used the gradient, transparency, and opacity tools to do it. I used the gradient tool on almost every part of the shoe in order to make the wrinkles and lighting appear to be more lifelike. I had to add and remove different colors in the gradient slider bar as well as move the different colors up and down the sliders to make each section look as close to the real picture as possible. Then, I used the transparency on all the gradient layers to achieve a more realistic look. For the fire, I used the feather stylizer with different levels of harshness for every level. This really helped make the fire look more gas-like.

I also created three different spin offs of my first illustration, and the following is the title and descriptions of them: Pic 1.) “Shoe on Fire” To finish my original illustration, I spent most of my time on the fire and the background just making finishing touches. Pic 2.) “Shoe #666”For my first spin off, I decided to make my illustration into a dark devilish picture. I changed the background to almost all black and make the bricks in the background different by using a three lined brush. I them traced the outlines of the shoe using a different brush from the brush library. This made the shoe look more like it was drawn with a pencil. Finally, I changed the colors of the fire to green, blue, and purple and added a devils face and pitchfork to the design. Pic 3.) “Snap, Crackle, Shoe” When making my second version of my illustration, I started to play around with different Illustrator effects. I left the background colors the same as my original, but I changed the brick brush and made the lines wavy. For the shoe, I changed the brush stroke into such an extreme look that the illustration takes on an out of reality appearance. The most interesting feature of this illustration is the fire. I used an effect called Roughen, which is located under: Effects / Distort & Transform / Roughen. I also added a black brush stroke all the way around each fire layer to give the fire a unique look that really captures the eye. Pic 4.) “Put that Shoe Out!” For my final spin off illustration, I decided to add an extra image of a fire extinguisher. I make the fire extinguisher by finding an actual image off Google, importing the picture into Illustrator, then tracing the actual picture, and finally making the whole illustration of the fire extinguisher into one layer and dragging it into the shoe illustration.

Composition:

I knew with this type of picture that time was of the essence in order to get as many shots as possible before the shoe was entirely burned. For this reason, I put my camera on continuous shooting mode. I was most concerned about capturing the greatest amount of pictures within the shortest period of time. I also did some testing before burning the shoe, I used different mode settings on the camera like motion and nighttime settings, I played around with more and less light directly on the shoe, and changed between with and without the flash. After finding a good combination I was happy with, I lit the shoe on fire. I just starting taking as many pictures as I could because I knew most would be bad but a few would be great and the more pictures I took the better my chances of getting a great photograph.

In this illustration, the main focus point is the contrast between the dark shoe and the bright fire. In order for this point of focus to be enhanced, I chose colors with a much darker value for the shoe and colors with a much lighter value for the fire. Also, for the yellow and orange of the fire, I picked colors with the highest amount of saturation that I could.

I used the gradient feature the most in order to make every wrinkle in the shoe stand out. I wanted the natural curves and overlays of fabric from the actual photograph to be represented in the illustration. I also wanted the different shadowing and lighting, due to the flash on the camera when taking the picture, to be characterized in the illustration. For the fire in the photograph, I wanted to make my best representation by adding many different color layers on the fire. With a lot of different combinations of colors, layers, and feathering techniques, the fire is now much more elaborate. I started with only three base layers: orange, yellow, and white. Then I just started to make a lot of smaller layers with different variations of these three colors and put them on top of the base layers.

The three different spin off illustrations had different techniques within them. This is a little more background on the spin offs. Pic. 2) I wanted this illustration to really convey darkness and devil like characteristics. For this reason, I decided to make the whole image mostly all black. Also, I wanted some subtlety so I added the image of the devils face very lightly into the top apart of the fire, along with the pitchfork. The changing of the colors of the fire from real life to green and purple was a way for me to convey a different meaning through the fire. Pic. 3) I wanted this illustration to have the same colors and features of the original, but I wanted to change the reality form really life to outside reality. Using different brush strokes from the library really helped accomplish a more drawn or cartoonish look. Also, by using the Roughen effect, the fire took on a life of its own. The fire in this picture has more of a sound effect, like crackling and popping, which really changes from the warm glow of the original fire. Pic. 4) This picture was made more to change the original illustration in a completely different way. By adding the fire extinguisher, the idea of the picture changes from a shoe on fire to fighting the fire of the shoe in order to put the fire out.

Concept:

With this picture, I was more focused on what the flame would look like than how the shoe looked. The shoe was basically a means to get the flame involved in this photograph. Also, it is very rare that someone sees a shoe burning on fire; I wanted this factor to add a real shock value to the viewer. The main objective was to surprise the viewer with something that is not seen every day, while at the same time capturing an awesome looking flame shot.

The reason I made this photograph and turned it into an illustration is because I wanted to capture the spirit of the fire in a way that was unlike any other fire or flame I had previously seen. The fire in this particular illustration is one that almost runs ahead of its own self, instead of simply rising up in the air like normal. This action of sprinting in front of itself is the same thing a shoe does everyday it is on its owner’s foot. It goes ahead of itself with every step, and so there is a parallel between the fire and the essence of the shoe.

Simply put, this illustration is, “Shoes on Fire.” There is a unique thing about fire because of the way it moves when something is burning. The essence of the fire is what I am really trying to capture, along with making the shoe look as real as possible. The combination of the shoe and the fire is not a usual occurrence, and it is what makes this illustration really eye catching.

The concepts behind the different spin off illustrations are all a little different and have their own meanings. Pic. 2) The message I was creating in this illustration was one of a devil coming out of the fire of the shoe. I wanted the audience to get the shivers when they first looked at this picture. I also wanted the devil to be subtle so only those who have enough courage to take a close up look at the picture will be able to really see the devil. Pic 3.) The concept in this illustration was sound. I wanted the sound of the fire to really be conveyed through the use of brushes and effects. With the use of these elements, the fire allows the audience to use another one of their senses, sound. So with sight and sound, this illustration is really inviting for the audience. Pic. 4) The meaning of this illustration is turning this image into one of fire and changing it into one of putting out fire. I wanted to do a complete 180 in the ideas of fire to no fire.

Week 10

Craft: One area, which I would like to change due to the critique on Monday, is the uniform and balance of the text. The text has uneven line at the bottom of each row. In order for the overall spread to look organized each row should have the same about of text. Also, the spacing between the pull quotes need to be larger so the quote can more easily be read.

Composition: The arrangement of elements on this layout is intended to be simple and organized. The artwork is placed all on one page and all in order so the reader can look at each piece of artwork at one time in one place. This arrangement of the artwork allows for the style of my to be really clear to the reader.

Concept: I like the overall concept of this for the most part because I want the article to be more about the artwork then any other thing. By making the text somewhat boring and unchanging the artwork and my style is what is really being read.

Week 9

Craft: For this assignment we started to make a magazine using the program Adobe InDesign. We were assigned to make our first layout for the magazine using only the photos from our second project, which was about creating our own style. In order to complete this assignment we had to learn how to use InDesign. First, it is important to have all the content completed and ready to go before starting the project. After all the pictures and projects where in appropriate files we had to make a root file to hold every piece of information that we wanted in the magazine. So I had a root folder with two project folders and inside each project folder was every illustration for that project. Next, I open InDesign and created a new document, I choose letter size with 6 pages, portrait orientation. Then I saved the document to the desktop and then put the InDesign project into the root folder because the root folder is my total magazine. That one folder is my complete magazine.

Composition: For this article I wanted the artwork to be very present. On the first page of the layout I simply put my favorite illustration as big as I could with no text. On the next page I put the title, author name, a pull quote and 3 columns of text. I purposely placed all of these items on the bottom third of the second page because I wanted the reader to be able to take a breath and get ready for the biggest and most important article of the magazine. I also wanted this article to look simple and elegant at the same time so that the artwork and my style would really be the focal point of the entire article.

Concept: The making a personal style project, project 2, was the project that I felt should be the main focus within my magazine. This article will also be the longest in the magazine so I wanted to make sure that the overall feel of this article was one that made the reader feel like it was the most important. The reason that everything is simple and not really over the top is because the important information about this article is the artwork and the recognition of my own personal style. I wanted the reader to be able to clearly see the artwork and be able to really get involved with it. I also wanted the reader to be able to see all the artworks together so that they could see the style on one page and not have to flip around to see the artwork and try to distinguish the style.

Week 8

Craft: To make my artwork I used Adobe Illustrator. Within this program I was able to use the drawing tablet connected to the computer in order to draw from my hand onto the computer screen. I started to create these pieces of art by first opening Illustrator and opening a new print document. I choose to use letter size paper 8.5x11. I wanted the orientation of the paper to be portrait for the bottle illustrations and then I changed the orientation to landscape for the candy illustrations. Starting with a blank page I first created about 10 layers in the layers window and then grouped 9 of them into the top layer. I then would label each layer, i.e. outside lines, product name, style lines, color, touch up. This made each illustration easier to work on because every layer was preset for me, creating a smooth workflow throughout each illustrating because every illustration looked exactly the same in the layers window. Next, I would open the brushes window and then go into the brushes library and open Hand Drawn Brushes Vector Pack and Artistic Ink brushes. Then, I would get the bottle or candy that I was going to draw and set I on the table in front of me. To start each drawing I would use the paintbrush tool and use the 3 pt. round preset with no fill and a black stroke. I would use the drawing tablet and tablet pen, then I would click on the first layer of the group and then draw a rough outline of the product. After the outlines where finished I would click on the second layer and start the inside lines. Then on a new layer and I would draw the letters in the name or the logo on the product. Every individual piece had an individual layer. This allowed me to have a lot of control on each individual piece of the illustration. After all the drawing was completed I would choose any layers in which I tough I might want to keep white in order for them to be readable on the finished image. I would then take all of these layers and make a copy of them. Then I could change the copied layer(s) to 2pt. oval preset with no fill and a white stroke. Next, I would select every layer, except the white oval ones I just changed, and then transform them into the Hand Drawn brush. Next, I would move the white oval layers on top of all the black hand drawn lines so they would be visible. If the white 2 pt. oval could not be easily read then I would use the brush tool and draw behind the white with the black hand drawn brush. Then I would go to the color layer and start using the ink drop brush to create the color in the illustration. I would use anywhere from 2 pt. to 10 pt. size of drops in order to cover the entire image. After the I filled the whole image with ink drops I would use the color picker and color guide to choose the color that best matched the product. Finally, I would save my image and the get started on the next one.

Composition: Although I am a really bad drawer on paper, by using the tablet and very rough outline edges and letter is was able to cover up my poor drawing ability by converting my small round lines into hand drawn brush strokes. The hand drawn brush makes the overall object look very good and gives it an artistic feel. Due to my own personal abilities I did not want my final illustrations to look profession or an exact replica of the product. I wanted a final image that had abstract characteristics. The reason I choose bottle and candy was because the first assignment was to create a personal style using 5 different things. I though it would be easy for me to get five different bottled drinks from the cafeteria in a short time frame. I wanted each bottle to be a different shape as well as each bottle to have a different colored liquid inside of it. This way each illustration could be difference in terms of style of bottle and color of liquid. After my style was established I created 10 illustrating of bottles. I then wanted to continue making illustration but wanted a different product. Thus, I started with candy; I used the say exact style and created 10 more illustration with candy and candy bars. I wanted the scale of these illustrations to large in order to fill the entire page with color. So the bottles had to take up a lot of the paper because the only color that would be on the paper was the black from the brush strokes and the color from the ink drops. For these reasons I decided on letter paper size 8.5x11 because this size of paper could be full and the bottle image would be almost the same size on paper as in real life. I decided to use the ink drop brush to apply color because it works hand in hand with the characteristics of liquids. When the liquid is poured out of a bottle the first thing that hits the ground is a drop then more drops and finally every bit of liquid poured hits the ground first as a drop. I figured this would be a great way to put color on my illustrations, like I was using drops of the actual liquid of the bottle poured onto by illustration to color it. I wanted the outside lines to be as dark black as possible and then I wanted the color of the ink drops to be very bright. The contrast between the dark outside lines with the light color drops really creates a vivid appearance of the liquid color. Because I used an ink drop brush the colors where a little bit like the watercolors. I really had to play with the hue and saturation of each color in order to make it look like the actual color of the product.

Concept: This style of illustrating was something that I had to first conceptualize in my mind before I could start drawing anything on the computer. I wanted the images to look like I drew them by hand. The name of my style is “Splatoure” and the rules of my style are as fallows. My first rule was of the subject matter, every picture had to be of a plastic bottle or piece of candy. My second rule was using only the “Hand Drawn Brushes Vector Pack” for every outside line. My third rule was to only use the “Ink Drop” brush in the “Artistic Brushes” set and only one color within each entire artwork. The name of my style, splatoure, comes from two words combined, splatter and capture. The reason for this word is because my style uses splatters of color in order to capture the image. I feel that being so basic in my rules that my style is really easy to be identified. When I developed my style I wanted it to be really apparent so that no matter who saw my pictures they would quickly be able to understand the style. I felt that the more simple the style the easier I would be to recognized and the more fun I would be able to have when I was creating the artwork. Within these images of plastic bottles and candy I wanted the message to be about bright colors. I also wanted the viewer to immediately know what each images was. For these reason I only incorporated enough information of each bottle and each piece of candy so that the type of product would be distinguishable. One part of my style in which I had to work on a little was something that was brought up in a group critique. In one of my original five illustrations the cap of the bottle was left white while all the rest where colored in. The one with the white cap stood out and looked different than the others. Therefore, I decided to change my other four illustrations to have white caps as well. I liked the over theme of the illustrations better with the white caps so I kept white capes as another rule in my style. Consequently, every bottle illustrations have white caps, for the candy illustrations there was no good way to incorporate a white part into every candy image so I left that rule out for those illustrations.

Week 7

Craft: For this week’s assignment the job was to create our own personalized style within 5 pieces of art. The way in which we where to go about completing this assignment was to fallow the same 3 rules throughout our five drawings. Also, we had to use the pen and tablet tool while working in Adobe Illustrator. In order to start this project I first had to choose what objects I was going to make drawings of. I choose different types of plastic beverage bottles. After deciding the content of my drawing I then had to develop three rules to fallow. My first rule was of the subject matter, every picture had to be of a plastic bottle. My second rule was using only the “Hand Drawn Brushes Vector Pack” for every outside line. My third and final rule was to only use the “Ink Drop” brush in the “Artistic Brushes” set and only one color within each entire artwork.

Composition: The way in which these three rules formed my style was that each bottle I drew filled the entire page and every bottle was around the same size. I choose to use 8.5x11 size paper so that overall each picture was almost life size compared to the actual bottle. I decided to pick five bottle that all had a different colored liquid inside in order that I could then use a different color for each artwork. I decided to only use the ink drop tool to apply color because when a liquid is poured out of a bottle the if first forms drops on the ground that look just like the ink drop tool. Also I wanted my style of drawing to be an abstract style more so then an exact representation of the actually image. For that reason I really liked how the hand drawn brush made the sidelines of the bottles look like they where drawn with a large marker or brush.

Concept: With these photographs I wanted to really communicate my own style. When I developed my style I wanted it to be really apparent so that no matter who saw my pictures they would quickly be able to understand the style. I felt that the more simple the style the easier I would be to recognized and the more fun I would be able to have when I was creating the artwork. Within these images of plastic bottles I wanted the message to be one of bright colors and easy to distinguish each images. For this reason I only incorporated enough information of each bottle so that the type of beverage and what brand it was would be distinguishable.

Week 6

Craft: The assignment for this week was to finish the original illustration of our photograph as well as create three new spin offs of our illustration.

Pic 1.) “Shoe on Fire”

To finish my original illustration I spent most of my time on the fire and the background just making finishing touches.

Pic 2.) “Shoe #666”

For my first spin off, I decided to make my illustration into a dark devilish picture. I changed the background to almost all black and make the bricks in the background different by using a three lined brush. I them chanced the outlines of the shoe using a different brush from the brush library. This made the shoe look more like it was drawn with a pencil. Finally, I changed the colors of the fire to green, blue, and purple and added a devils face and pitchfork to the design.

Pic 3.) “Snap, Crackle, Shoe”

When making my second version of my illustration I started to play around with different Illustrator effects. I left the background colors the same as my original but I changed the brick brush and make the lines wavy. For the shoe, I changed the brush stroke into such an extreme look that the illustration takes on an out of reality appearance. The most interesting feature of this illustration is the fire. I used an effect called Roughen, which is located under: Effects / Distort & Transform / Roughen. I also added a black brush stroke all the way around every fire layer to give the fire a unique look that really captures the eye.

Pic 4.) “Put that Shoe Out!”

For my final spin off illustration I decided to add an extra image of a fire extinguisher. I make the fire extinguisher by finding an actual image off Google, importing the picture into Illustrator, then tracing the actual picture, and finally making the whole illustration of the fire extinguisher into one layer and dragging it into the shoe illustration.

Composition:

Pic. 2) I wanted this illustration to really convey darkness and devil like characteristic. For this reason I decided to make the whole image mostly all black. Also, I wanted some subtlety so an added the image of the devils face very lightly into the top apart of the fire, along with the pitchfork. The changing of the colors of the fire from real life to green and purple was a way for me to convey a different meaning through the fire.

Pic. 3) I wanted this illustration to have the same colors and features of the original but I wanted to chance the reality form really life to outside reality. Using different brush strokes from the library really help accomplish a more drawn or cartoonish look. Also, by using the Roughen effect the fire took on a life of it’s own. The fire in this picture has more of a sound effect like crackling and popping, which really changes from the warm glow of the original fire.

Pic. 4) This picture was made more to change the original illustration in a completely different way. By adding the fire extinguisher the idea of the picture changes from a shoe on fire into fighting the fire of the shoe in order to put the fire out.

Concept:

Pic. 2) The message I was creating in this illustration was one of a devil coming out of the fire of the shoe. I wanted the audience to get the shivers when they first looked at this picture. I also wanted the devil to be subtle so only those who have enough courage to take a close up look at the picture will be able to really see the devil.

Pic 3.) The concept in this illustration was sound. I wanted the sound of the fire to really be conveyed through the used of brushes and effects. With the used of these elements, the fire allows the audience to use another one of their senses, sound. So with sight and sound this illustration really inviting for the audience.

Pic. 4) The meaning of this illustration is turning this image into one of fire and changing it into one of putting out fire. I wanted to do a complete 180 in the ideas of fire to no fire.

Week 5

Craft: For this week, the main objective was to add more real life appeal to our artwork in order to achieve a more three dimensional picture. The use of value is what we really focused on this week and we used the gradient, transparency, and opacity tools to do it.

I used the gradient tool on almost every part of the shoe, in order to make the wrinkles and lighting appear to be more lifelike. I had to add and remove different colors in the gradient slider bar as well as move the different colors up and down the sliders to make each section look as close to the real picture as possible. Then I used the transparency on all the gradient layers to achieve a more realistic look. For the fire I used the feather stylize with different levels of harshness for every level. This really help make the fire look more gas-like.

Composition: I used the gradient feature the most in order to make the every wrinkle in the shoe stand out. I wanted the natural curves and overlays of fabric from the actual photograph to be represented in the illustration. I also wanted the different shadowing and lighting, due to the flash on the camera when taking the picture, to also be characterized in the illustration. For the fire in the photograph, I wanted to make my best representation by adding many different color layers on the fire. With a lot of different combinations of colors, layers, and feathering techniques the fire is now much more elaborate. I started with only three base layers: orange, yellow, and white. Then I just started to make a lot of smaller layers with different variations of these three colors and put them on top of the base layers.

Concept: Simply put this illustration is, “Shoes on Fire.” There is a unique thing about fire because of the way it moves when something is burning. The essence of the fire is what I am really trying to capture, along with making the shoe look as real as possible. The combination of the shoe and the fire is what is not a usually occurrence and what makes this illustration really eye catching.

Week 4

Craft: In order to make my illustration I first decided which picture I wanted to make into an illustration. After picking my favorite photograph I then started the process of working with Illustrator.

In order for a “.jpg” picture to open up in the Illustrator program, the picture and the illustration must always stay in the same folder.

Open the Illustrator program and then determine what size and what layout or orientation is best for the photograph. I choose a “new document” and selected 11x17 (Tabloid) for paper size and landscape orientation for layout.

Next, to get the photo into Illustrator, go into File/Place this allows for the photo to be in the program as long as the photo is always in the folder with the illustration.

To start illustrating the photo, it a good practice to open Windows/Workspace/Essentials, this makes sure all tools are set to the default mode so everything is how it always works. Then I enlarged and centered my photograph in the middle of the paper, holding “shift” down so my image stayed proportion.

Next, I started drawing with the “Pen Tool” by placing a dot around the entire outline of one shape of the shoe. I used the “tear off” feature of the “Pen Tool” so I could easily add more or less pen points.

If I needed to move the location of any of my points around the object I used the "Selection Tool" and then the “Direction Selection Tool.”

After I completed one object I would choose the color to “Fill” that object using the “Eyedropper Tool."

Then, I decided if I wanted the line around the object to have a “Stroke” around it. The large white box is the “fill” color and the box underneath with the black line around it is the “stroke” color box.

After all these steps where done with one object it would become a “Layer” that could be viewed in the “Layers Panel.”

When I completed a group of layers that where all in one area I “Grouped” the layers.

In a complicated illustration there will be hundreds of layers and by grouping them into smaller clusters it is much easily to manage all the layers. Once a layer is completed a good habit is to turn the layer invisible by clicking the “Eye” and then locking the layer by clicking the “Lock.” While working on the illustration it is also essential that the artwork be saved after a few layers have been completed. One-way is to go into File/Save or hit “Command + S” on the keyboard. For this illustration I started with the shoe and then made the fire and finally the background.

Composition: In this illustration the main focus point is the contrast between the dark shoe and the bright fire. In order for this point of focus to be enhanced I choose colors with a much darker value for the shoe and colors with a much lighter value for the fire. Also, for the yellow and orange of the fire I picked colors with the highest amount of saturation that I could.

Concept: The reason I made this photograph and turned it into an illustration is because I wanted to capture the spirit of the fire in a way that was unlike any other fire or flame I had previously seen. The fire in this particular illustration is one that almost runs ahead of it’s own self, instead of simply rising up in the air like normal. This action of sprinting in front of itself is the same thing a shoe does everyday it is on its owner’s foot. It goes ahead of itself with every step and so there is a parallel between the fire and the essence of the shoe.