ARTC 1353: Final Project - Large Scale Graphic Poster

The final project for my computer illustration class was to create a poster, something that used all of our skills  that we've learned in the class. Since I absolutely love John Green's The Fault in our Stars, I decided to create a poster for it. I used various layers and blending tools and shapes to create the finished piece. I used three different quotes throughout the piece, the main focus is on the quote "I fell in love the way you fall asleep - slowly, and then all at once" and then two other, longer, quotes that follow the paths of the clouds. I added a gradient to and a couple effects to the background, stepping away from the traditional all blue background that the book actually uses.

ARTC 1353: Website design

One of the great aspects of using Illustrator is having the ability to create a website and generate the html required, something that is great for someone like me that has zero experience in coding. While I know I would eventually like to learn how to code, I'm not there yet and I think it will be a long time before I have the knowledge to code a website. But, what I can do is create a website that I design and have Adobe generate the html. I'm sure all of you out there that actually know how to code are thinking that is lazy or whatever, but it is a lot more than I knew how to when the semester started!

Using a couple pictures from the last American Aquarium show I went to (I figure I may as well use them for something since I had over 700 pictures from the weekend), I created a very basic website. I could probably spend a lot more time actually working on the pictures and switching between Photoshop and Illustrator to make it look better, but I've been working on it for a little over two hours and I'm tired of working on it.

ARTC 1353: Concert Poster

In my computer illustration class, we were tasked with creating a movie or concert poster using the skills we've learned thus far. I had a lot of fun creating and working with this assignment. In some ways, I can't believe that there are only two classes left in the semester, it feels like this semester just started. I think, out of all of the assignments we've had so far, creating this poster has been by far my favorite assignment (and how strange is that, I actually have enjoyed the homework assignments I've had to do?!).

ARTC 1353: Graphics

When using Illustrator, the first thing that comes to mind is generally not the ability to create graphics and logos. (Although, prior to this semester nothing really came to mind since I didn't know anything about Illustrator). Tonight we spent the class dispelling this notion. We even went so far as to create logos of our own using our initials.

I stuck to using the paint blob brush for the initial design and then edited and altered it from there. I think it would be easier to use the brushes with the use of a pen instead of a mouse, but you kinda have to work with what you've got. If I really do decide to work more with drawing and creating original artwork after this semester ends, I may invest in getting something to work with at home.

Out of these final three, I think the last one is my favorite.

ARTC 1353 - Symbols and 3D

Last night, we explored the world of making 3D artwork. Well, and symbols. But mostly we spent the class working on creating 3D artwork. While it may not be a poster that any business would use, I'm happy with the poster I've created (that would actually work with my menu that I made to go over gradients and blending).  I know that I'm not ready to open up my own marketing firm any time soon, but I'm really happy with the progress I've made in this class. And while I recognize that I still have a lot of work to do, I'm happy with the progress I've made and that I will continue to make. 

ARTC: 1353 Perspective

Did you know in Illustrator there is a grid to help you create a sense of perspective and make a design feel 3D? Well there is. And its actually really quite interesting to use. We were tasked with creating a design that we used the perspective grid to create. I'm pretty sure the most basic and easiest thing to create is a street/buildings. And that's exactly what I did. There's nothing really very fancy or amazing - it really is just the basic street view.

I know at this point I should be able to make something a bit more detailed, but, honestly, I've been more focused on working on our third big assignment of the semester and didn't put too much effort into this.

Sorry

(not really, the next assignment is going to be pretty cool)

ARTC 1353: Gradients and Blending

Tonight's class was all about gradients and blending. While I knew there was a lot that you could do in Illustrator in order to manipulate these elements, I've never really looked into what all they can do. Our assignment tonight was to create a menu for a cafe and utilize the skills we learned tonight. We also had to include the following elements:

• Text
• A blend applied to an object and made into a new shape
• A menu item you have created
• A gradient applied to an object
• A menu item from the symbols palette
• A menu item showing color blend
• A menu item showing shape blend

I think I managed to hit all of the requirements. I had a lot of fun creating this menu and I'm looking forward to working on the perspective assignment.

Self reflection and another class

In computer illustration, we were tasked with creating a cover for a "School of..." In keeping with my dance theme that I have going with all of these assignments, I picked the logical "School of Dance." Not only were we working in layers, but we were also continuing to work with text and manipulating it and the spacing it has. While this assignment was fairly straightforward and easy, I think I might revisit it later in order to try and create something a bit more elaborate.

We also talked briefly about the problem that a lot of us seem to be having. I know that I personally have a lot of great ideas for various assignments. Sadly, my skill level does not seem to be up to par with what I would like to be able to do. I've noticed this a lot in my ARTS 1311 class as I've been working on our first major assignment, water sustainability. I have so many ideas for things I want to do that would look great, but I just am not there yet. This leaves me feeling very disappointed in everything I've created thus far. I've probably made four or five different projects and I've hated each and every one of them because they aren't the idea that I have in my head.

You know in Mulan when she's asking when will her reflection show who she is? I'm having that sort of problems with my computer screen.

When will my computer screen show what I see in my mind's eye...?

ARTC 1353 - Self Portrait

The second project in my computer illustration course has been to create a self portrait and color it in. It was supposed to be a bit a of a pop-art type of self portrait. Since I realized that I really don't have any recent pictures of myself, I decided to use one of my bridal portraits. I had a lot of great shots, but this is the one I decided to work on. I decided to leave the background from the original, I think it looks kinda cool with the background.

Original

Vectored self portrait

I had a lot of fun working on this project. When it was first assigned, I couldn't imagine being able to take a photograph, turning it into a vector and tracing over it to create some as cool as this. While it did take a long time to get it done, I enjoyed every moment of it.

ARTC 1353 - Midterm

Last night was the midterm for my ARTC 1353 course. Since you really can't have a test over computer illustration, our assignment was to recreate six artboards that our teacher had created then upload them. These are my six. 

ARTC 1353 - Type Tool

Last night in class, we focused on the use of the Type tool. Honestly, I didn't realize how many different things you could do with text and it was interesting to be able to manipulate it in so many ways. Not only can you do the basic like put text into a shape, but you can also put it inside/outside of an object, change the angle that it is seen, change the spacing and even manipulate the box that text is in to create an object. Our assignment was to create a newspaper type ad using the text tool to create the main image for our ad. Continuing with my dance theme from my letterhead/logo assignment, I decided to create an ad for a dancewear shop. It was a lot of fun to manipulate a simple rectangle into a dress. Who knew that you could do so much with a simple text box?

ARTC 1353 - Character

Monday night in Computer Illustration, we were to create a cartoon character using the pen tool and incorporate a pattern into our design. This is what I decided to make. I know it isn't the most amazing piece of art out there, but I'm really quite proud of how it turned out. It took a lot of work to create him using the  pen tool but I feel like I'm getting better the more I practice.

We're also to supposed to be working on a self portrait for our midterm project. After coming to the realization that there really aren't many pictures of me after the wedding, I decided to just use one of my wedding pictures. Below is the picture that I'm going to be using.

The goal of this exercise is to use the pen tool to draw over your picture and create a posterized/Warhol-esque type of picture. I really didn't do too much last week (even though I really should have) but I've been working a lot on it this week. I think I'm about halfway done, I have the main parts of my picture covered, I'm now working on some of the finer details. I also haven't decided on a color scheme... Since its going to be more pop-art than photograph, I think I'm going to deviate from the natural colors, but I haven't decided what my color scheme will be yet. So far, this is the picture I've been able to create. 

Google Glass: Innovative or Invasive?

In class tonight, we started talking about Google Glass. If you haven't heard much about it, its a pretty interesting and innovative idea.

But, is it innovative or is it invasive?

How much of a threat is it to a person's privacy? Should Google be able to have access to us living in our life as well as all of the other data they have access to? When Google already has access to our search history, pictures, videos and lords knows what else, do we really want to give them access to even more? And how safe is all of this data going to be? How much of our personal information will Google be able to sell off to advertisers?

But most importantly, would you be willing to wear them? Would you be willing to spend roughly $1,500 for them?

I can't speak for everyone, and I surely wouldn't want that responsibility, but I think that these could be really amazing. As most of you can already tell, I live much of my life online. I don't have many qualms about posting where I am through foursquare, telling people what I'm thinking at a given moment via twitter, going into detail about topics on here, posting pictures on Instagram, and even posting videos (however rarely) on Youtube. To me, using Glass isn't a huge leap from using your everyday smartphone (although it is a much more advanced product).

While privacy is a concern for me, I don't think I'm as worried as other people around the web are. Google isn't forcing you to use or purchase Glass, so how much information you share is still up to you. What they can do with that information is what scares me a little. How safe will my information be? What will Google be able to do with the information they have? What should Google be able to access from my life? If I'm sharing a personal video meant only to be seen by one recipient, will there be rules about if Google can access it? What can Google do with the videos that I create? Who will Google be able to sell my information to?

There are a lot of unknowns about what Google will be able to do with the information they are gathering from the users of Glass. There are also a lot of laws and regulations being discussed in order to answer all of these questions (as well as so many others that I haven't even thought to ask) and it will be interesting to see how our legislators try to appease the potential buyers as well as Google.

Although, I know I wont be buying them not only do to the cost, but I think they're very unattractive. So hopefully they're doing some work with designers to make them fashionable.

ARTC 2353 - Art Tiles

The most recent project I worked on was creating these art tiles. The first one is the one that I am most proud of because it was the one that took the most time to create. What I found to be the most interesting part of working on all of these images was that these were all created using basic shapes. I would have never thought to transform and distort images to the point that a rectangle or a triangle can be turned into something so... different.

ARTC 1353 - Logo Design

My ARTC 1353 course has 4 main unit projects, all spaced out throughout the semester. Unit 1 has been all about getting acquainted with Illustrator and learning to use basic tools. The assignment we has was fairly strait forward  create a logo and put it on a business card, letterhead, and a flier. I found a stock image of a dancer that was as close to the dancer I wanted, so I decided to use it. This is the original image: 

What I really disliked about this dancer was the hands. So, using Illustrator, I was able to manipulate the image to create something that I thought was a bit cleaner and followed the lines that Cecchetti teaches. Below are the examples I came up with for a business card, flier, letterhead and an envelope (I guess I wasn't paying too much attention to the directions since I didn't have to do an envelope).   

Business Card - Front  

Business Card - Back

Envelope

Letterhead

Flier 

ARTC 1353 - Interior Design

What's this, two posts in one day?! Well, I've been able to get a lot of work done during lunch today, what can I say! 

My first "real" assignment in my ARTC 1353 course was to create an interior design image.  There weren't the step-by-step instructions included in my Adobe book that detail how to create the image, it was just simply something we had to create. Luckily, I picked up quite a lot from doing the exercises in the book. While the image above isn't anything that a real interior designer would present in front of a client, I feel like it really is a step in the right direction. I think I'm actually understanding how to use a few of the tools in Illustrator.