Illustration Experiments

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Project 3: Final Portfolio Illustration

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Project 3: Portfolio Illustration

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Illustration Experiment #9: Scale & Composition

Rationale:

I had no idea how to start this illustration experiment, I sat in front of my computer, then with a sketch book and pencil. After a bit of thinking, I took inspiration from the objects around me and began to create my illustration. 

I created my illustration in Illustrator and touched it up in Photoshop. I think it turned out alright! I decided to keep it black and white, I think it looks better than with the colour I tried to add. 

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Illustration Experiment #8: Celebrity Portraits

Rationale:

I really enjoyed doing this experiment! It was challenging to get the features of Scarlett Johansson’s face to scale. I think one of the most important aspects to portraits is getting the persons facial structure correct. There are a lot of art styles out there, which means portraits can be abstract or in my case realistic. 

I used watercolour paints to colour my sketch and worked on it for two days to build up layers. I know its not perfect, but I'm proud of it! I don't think any of my portraits have turned out this well before! 

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Illustration Experiment #7: Landscape

Rational:

I began this drawing with led pencils to get the over all layout. The I started in with black thin tipped ink pens. Next I added textures and designs within the original lines of the drawing. My mother bought me some new markers which I've been making frequent use of in my illustrations. Once I was finished with colouring my illustration, I brought it into Photoshop and bumped up the brightness and contrast. Finally I added an oil painting filter effect to smooth out the marker lines. Unfortunately when I brought the image into Tumblr, it lost some of its colour and clarity. 

Overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

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Museum Project: Thumbs

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Illustration Experiment #6: Inks

Date: Oct, 23 2020

Rationale:

These are Vancouver Island Marmots! I have written reports on these cute creatures and yesterday I had the chance to learn how to draw them.

I participated in an online Zoom webinar, teaching people how to draw the endangered Vancouver Island Marmot. I began this drawing using a pencil and finished it with a handful of different tipped ink pens.

I am super happy with how these chubby guys turned out! 

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Illustration Experiment #5: Texture

Date: Oct. 14th 2020

Rationale:

In my past illustrations, I have done most of my work beginning in my sketchbook and ending in illustrator. This time I wanted to do something a bit different. And with that came, what I like to call “artists block” its like writers block, but with drawing. I kept thinking of ideas and attempting to create them, but nothing was clicking together. So I decided to use photos from Unsplash. I searched up images with textures and found a photo of fall coloured leaves. I then found a photograph of a girl sitting in the forest. I brought the two images together in illustrator and began tracing them. 

To make a very long process short, I was able to manipulate the images (vector art) and create a composite illustration from the two original images. I used a variety of colours, most are colours I made myself rather than using the presets in illustrator. Once done in illustrator, I then moved into photoshop to smooth out and refine any areas. And once done that, I resized the illustration and exported it as a JPEG. 

Overall I am satisfied with the outcome, plus I tried out a different way of creating art! 

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Illustration Experiment #4: Vector

Date: Oct.7th 2020

Rationale:

I really enjoyed doing this illustration. I took my time and let any expectations of myself go. I used an outline as a template and then started my illustration using the pen tool. I thought I was going to add colours or at least one accent colour to this piece, but in the end I think the simplicity of the black and white are more powerful together and create unity and contrast. Overall I am very happy with how it turned out and I'm excited to continue illustrating! 

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Monsters: vector outline B&W/Coloured

Date: 0ct.5th 2020

This was my third or fourth try at drawing a page full of monsters. I finally settled on this one with a little assistance from my friend. I think I probably would still be at the drawing board (my sketch book) if not for them! Sometimes it can save you time, energy and a lot of frustration, if you can receive feedback!

I also went ahead and coloured in my pen drawing after I had photographed it. I used an assortment of coloured pencils and then cleaned it up using Photoshop and Illustrator.

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Illustration Experiment #3: People Doing Things

Rationale:

I really love drawing portraits, but this was on another level of difficulty for me. It took me a while to complete, but I am happy with how it turned out in the end. This is actually my second try of illustrating people doing things. The first one was more abstract and there wasn't as much detail. I think I did an alright job at portraying two girls out shopping! And yes they do look a little scary, I did not intend for them to be so.  

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Monsters: Illustration Roughs

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Monsters: Thumbs/Ideation

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Illustration Experiment #2 - Colour

Rationale: This was a super fun piece to create. I began with simple doodles on a page and built the piece around. Many of the elements depicted in this piece are of things I like. I wanted to challenge myself by using a single colour pallet for the entirety of the drawing. My original was done using a marker with a thin enough point to do minimum detail. I then brought my outline drawing into Illustrator and created a path trace/outline. I then carefully selected each section of the illustration and filled them with the respected colours from my chosen colour pallet.

Although my illustration is silly, bright, colourful and a bit hectic, I am pleased with how it turned out, and I am feeling more comfortable using Illustrator! 

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Illustration Experiment #1: Word Pair

This was a lot of fun to create. I made this using Illustrator, which I've used quite a bit for school, but have never actually done something on this scale just from two words! The words I picked were MAGIC and BALL. I was a bit daunted by the blank screen and didn't know where to begin. I decided to start with some simple shapes and work from there. I honestly am super proud of myself for sitting down and just enjoying the process instead of stressing over it as “homework”! 

Rationale:

The spheres represent the word BALL. I used a colour pallet that I associate magic with, to incorporate my second word. The claw in the bottom left is also representing the word MAGIC. When I think of magic, I think of mythical creatures and unearthly beings, also glowing orbs and bright (dark toned) colours. I thought the human hand reaching out towards the claw would bring interest and contrast as opposed to having only the one claw or more. 

Overall I am super happy with how it turned out, and excited to keep learning and experimenting!