Week 7

Craft: With these illustrations of guitars I used a "pen and pad".

Composition: For these 5 illustrations of guitars I come up with 3 rules to follow ( i.e., Use 3 different colors, different brush strokes, and some sort of border or background) I decided to use these rules because they are fairly simple, but allow for a lot of interesting variations.

Concept: I was trying to convey the idea that guitars or any musical instrument for that matter has a sort of personality. This "personality" usually fits with the type of music being played on a particular guitar. I feel that I successfully showed different personality's a guitar can take on.

Week 6

"Creative Dreams"

"Fill it in"

"Lights out"
Title: "Lights out"

Craft: This alteration to my original illustration was fairly simple. I selected everything then used the pixelate effect, which blacked out everything but the textures and outlines.

Composition: The composition didn't change much in this alteration.

Concept: I really like how the texture stayed in the illustration. It was right at this point that I was able to give this a title. Even though the detail is all still present, it is not very clear, almost as if you are looking at this in a dark room.

Title: "Fill it in"

Craft: This alteration to my original illustration involved taking all of the color out ( i.e., replacing the background color of each layer with white), making the outlines of each trace/layer darker and or black, and then added text into each object with a very brief idea of what/how to "fill in" each open space.

Composition: The composition of this alteration has not changed much.

Concept: When thinking of how to alter my illustration again, the idea of an coloring book came into mind. I wanted to give my view a chance to alter my illustration in their mind ( with some guidance as to what should be where). To mentally color in my illustration.

Title: "Creative Dreams"

Craft: This alteration to my original illustration involved the use of a lot of effects, such as neon, 3D, scribble, artistic brushes, and graphic designs.

Composition: The composition pretty much stayed the same, I didn't move anything around.

Concept: I really just wanted to experiment with some of the various effects in this software. This essentially lead to the title of my alteration.

Week 5

Craft: I decided to change my illustration picture to something that would allow me to work the software better. My last picture was a fairly difficult and lead to me not really enjoying everything about the software. Now I really wanted to make sure I could illustrate the depth of the photograph. I did that with the feather and transparency effect. I used those main effects for the entire back ground and it really helped allude/give depth to the illustration. Since the back is all blurred out I really wanted the foreground to be crisp, clean, and show all the detail I can, after all it is the main focal point. I managed to successfully trace the all star logo with the pen tool to show the raggedness of the shoe. As for the smuggles and highlights I used the brush tool.

As for the shoes, I had a really hard time with those. The shoes in the photography are plaid. I did try to express this in the illustration, however it was occupying a lot of time that could be put into other details of the shoe. Since Converse are really not know for/recognized for the "plaid canvas'" I simple made the canvas one color, and put as much detail as I could in the rubble bottoms of the shoe.

Composition: The arrangement of this illustration worked out a lot better then I thought it would. The depth is great and so is the clear detail in the front.

Concept: My concept has not changed much, I am still striving to show the idea of " here are some old beat up shoes on my studio/apartment".

Week 4

Craft: With this beginning illustration I worked from back to front. I started with my shoes canvas. Outlining the tongue of the shoe, then working to the flats. I made these shapes by using the pen tool and outlining the tongue and flaps (by clicking the mouse once) completely around until I came back to the first dot, connecting to close the shape. Once I got all of that done I realized that i had a lot of layers and had thought about possibly putting them into groups, however that was only a thought. I will at some point but them into a group just to better organize the lay out of all the layers I know i am going to have. So lets hypothetically say that I put the canvas/plaid part of my shoes into on group called "Canvas Left" and " Canvas Right".

From that point I went to work on the rubber front of my shoes. Again I worked from the back to the front. I shaped out the tops of the shoes where the designs are first then moved on the to the next 3 layers. Over lapping the shapes to make sure I get a clean line. Again I used the Pen tool to make these shapes. I did not make a group for this section of the illustration, but when I do i will most likely call them " Rubber Left" and " Rubber Right". Once I got all of that done, I started to work on the basic designs/details/doodles that were on my both my left and right shoe. I used the pen tool to trace, and to smooth out the lines. I didn't want to make the start perfect to I didn't perfect them/smooth out the lines as much as a I could have. I like how hey are a bit off, and they are not perfect on my shoes either, so why make them perfect on the illustration. I should and will have to group these designs.

Before color, the last shape I made was the background. I Guess this could have been done first, but the composition of my photograph doesn't really call for it. Color, because I got slightly overwhelmed with illustrator being that it was my first time using it, and I am still learning and experimenting with all of the tool and what they can do, I didn't really send too much time on color. I had planned on going back and getting a more accurate depiction of the actual colors, but time just didn't permit. The main tool I used for the color was the eye drop color match. I used this tool because it was fast, and I was more focused on getting the shapes of the objects down, then making sure I had the right colors.

Composition: The composition of this illustration is really a sore subject at the moment, on a count that I have not thought about it much. I feel that I have mastered making the basic shapes, I just need to go back, smooth out lines fix the colors and try to move form dark to light, and match them better to the actual photograph. In all the placement of everything it right on, I just need to focus more on detail.

Concept: My concept hasn't changed much, However the colors do give it a different feel. The lack of detail can really change the "concept" of the illustration. I do not want to change what I am trying to say with this illustration, So I just really need to go back at fix the colors and add more detail.