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.