ArtG241Illustration2

Shaheer Q's illustration blog

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For this final illo, I chose to challenge myself by bringing an idea I had thought of a while back into fruition. I chose to convey principles such as Asymmetry, Texture, and Hierarchy. Though these are not all, they definitely are the most prominent. I must say that striking a good balance between the axe and Absolute Batman's suit was quite the challenge! All in all, this piece definitely encompasses most of the illustration techniques/skills I learned this semester!

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For this illo, I was to convey concepts of texture and individuals performing actions. These notions are prominent as the fries have spice sprinkled on them along with the burger having contents—such as the patty—which give it texture. Alongside this, there are various other elements which effectively convey this notion. When it comes to an action being performed, the burger is personified in a sense as it climbs the ladder on a quest to acquire the french fries to use as limbs, while the Mcdonalds fries watch their betrayal!

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The prompt with this piece was essentially just raster and color, so I decided to capitalise on that by emphasizing how Adobe Photoshop is a raster/pixel based software. This notion was achieved through somewhat redesigning the main icon in an 8 bit pixel aesthetic, "boxing" its round corners to convey a more retro look and feel. One challenge overall with this piece though was making sure the .psd pattern in the background was not distracting from the main focal point while also not obstructing it in any way. This predicament was overcome by lowering its opacity and ensuring proper and smooth placement.

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This piece uses visual tension as its main appeal since the almost hypnotic effect created by the squares not only establishes a sense of depth but also slight unease as this effect messes with the viewer's vision and perception. The focal point, namely the red sphere in the center, is emphasized by the leading lines of the composition as well as its "heavenly" glow, further solidifying it as a prominent subject. In terms of challenges, I found myself occasionally getting lost in the effect while working on this piece, which shows how effective it is!

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I actually recycled an element—the sword—here from a passion project that has been on hold for a while, so it was nice seeing how that lent itself well into the visual tale of good against evil that I was trying to conceptualize. This piece depicts a battleground consisting of two opposing factions of the same breed: the Triangilites. This opposition also alludes to the overarching message of the illustration. Not only this, but there is also a slight element of betrayal depicted in the piece in order to somewhat surprise the viewer! When it comes to technical skills learnt through this piece, I found that if you select a layer in Adobe Illustrator and paint over it, it essentially serves the same function as painting over a layer mask in Photoshop!

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For this piece, I actually took slight inspiration from the opening of the film Evil Dead Rise as it featured a zombie rising up from a river in the most horrifying sight. Here though, it's less graphic but moreso eerie and ominous as one feels the looming and inevitable threat of this witch. The ghosts were something I thought I'd add as to further sell the supernatural element. A new asset I learned here is the Wrinkle tool, as this helped in giving the water the blood moon's glare as well as establish the highs and lows of the hill on the side.

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They're Watching

For this piece the brief was rather open-ended; no design parameters besides incorporating ink and/or paint. I accomplished this by utilizing Calligraphy ink for the eyebrows, mouth, and teeth of these monsters; whilst using brush pen to color everything in on paper. Also gave the background this television static-like effect to further solidify the eeriness of these nightmarish creatures staring down your soul! A challenge with this piece was definitely the amount of iterations it had to go through with how each specific monster was supposed to look, trying to accomplish a varying factor of creepiness with each design. The concept around this piece truly does capitalise on the fear of being watched, especially at night while maybe laying in bed. Sounds straight out of a horror movie, doesn't it?

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For this illustration I was tasked with conveying the Design principles of Scale and Composition; initially I was thinking I'd do an illustration with some squares but that felt like a lackluster idea so I chose to convey some sunflowers. Not much of a drawer so I actually didn't know how to create the sunflower shape digitally before Youtube helped. I wished to convey a sense of realism with this piece so I chose to use the Mosaic effect in Illustrator for the disc florets along with giving the sky in the background a sort of canvas like texture for added depth. Additionally, I also blurred out the flowers in the back, essentially showing scale through distance!