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.