Illustration and Visual Narrative — Project 1 & Exercises

Week 1 — Week 4 (31.8.2022 - 2.9.2022)
Rachel Madeline Purwanto / 0356994 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Project 1 

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❥LECTURES 

Week 1 — Introduction to Adobe Illustrator 

On the first week we got to learn how to use adobe illustrator by watching a pre recorded lecture. We were introduced to different tools and their respective functions with shortcut keys to create shapes and we utilized those keys to make a lemon shape. 

Fig 1.1 "Exercise 1, attempt on making lemon type expression" (29/08/2022)

Week 2 — Usage of Pen Tool

On the second week we were tasked to experiment with the pen tool and trace a couple of shapes, as well as play the bezier game. We were introduced to more features on the pen tool and how to use each of them and we tried tracing and making the outlines of several shapes by experimenting with various pen tools provided in AI. 

Fig 1.2 Exercise 2, attempt on tracing with pen tools

Using the pen tool 

• Editing Anchor Points
• Creating Curves and Corners
• Create clipping mask
• Use Curvature tool

Week 3 — Honor and Pathfinder

Pathfinder & Shape Finder 

Third week requires us to do some practice and experimenting with the pathfinder and the blending tool.

Fig 1.3 Exercise 3, experimenting with blending tool

Fig 1.4 Exercise 3, experimenting with pathfinder tool

Week 4 — Shapebuilder

On week 4 we were introduced to the tool called shapebuilder and we also got to use the gradient tool as well as the pathfinder tool to create vector shapes and give them shadow.

Fig 1.5 Experimenting with Shapebuilder attempt 1 

Fig 1.6 Experimenting with Shapbuilder attempt 2

Fig 1.7 Experimenting with Shapebuilder tool and pathfinder to create shadow

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❥INSTRUCTIONS

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❥TASKS 

Week 2 Project 1 — Vormator Challenge

This task aims to challenge each student's creativity with limited knowledge on the tools of Adobe Illustrator. We will be given a set of shapes to work on to create a character design within a strict set of rules.

Rules : 

- allowed to rotate, flip, duplicate elements

- use of colour is unrestricted

- can create your own colour schemes

- allowed to use gradients

- use of strokes is allowed

- allowed to use filters or effects

1. Visual References

Fig 1.1 Shapes provided to design character

Fig 1.2 Various character designs from game called Sky https://sea.ign.com/adventure-14302947/126190/gallery/art-from-thatgamecompanys-sky-ign-first?p=1

I liked the artstyle of the characters from sky since each of them display an expressive shape that reflects their identities, so i took inspiration from them for my vormator character.

2. Process

Fig 2.1 Sketch Idea of Vormator Character 

This was my original sketch idea for the vormator character design, the patterns and details on the cape was added later on during the design process. I was planning to make a character that was associated with the moon or night time and they were also given genie characteristics.

Fig 2.2 Outline and Silhouette of Vormator Character

I mainly used pen tool to form the shapes and used pathfinder to remove the unnecessary areas of the design. 

Fig 2.3 Monochrome and Coloured Character

For the colours, I decided to use a purple-violet colour palette to match the character's identity as stated above.

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❥REFLECTION

The project and exercises were a good method of encouraging students to explore and experiment with different aspects of Adobe Illustrator as we got to understand and learn more of them on our own, especially having a limited amount of skills and knowledge to design a character.