Photo Illustration
This project is designed to help the student learn to use the Pen tool in Illustrator, as well as some other things, like gradients, clipping masks, etc. The pen tool is very frustrating and hard to understand for most beginners, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes extremely powerful.
Here are some good internet resources.
PDF explanation, with detailed instructions, practice files, etc.
Video on YouTube, about twenty minutes long.
We'll go over all of this in class, as well. It can be hard to follow on paper, or even with the video, but you may also find it easier than our in-class demo.
Start with simple shapes
As we go over the lesson, we'll start with some simple shapes. First try to trace these three images.
When you get this done, change the color of the objects, and add a stroke, so we can see that you have traced the image correctly. Your finished file should look something like this: (but feel free to use other colors)
Once you have a handle on basic pen tool techniques, you will make a more complicated illustration, by tracing a photograph, and filling it, adding textures, text, effects, etc.
Your Photo Illustration
Start with a photo that you would like to work with. You'll have to decide how complicated and detailed your photograph should be. You are going to have to abstract and simplify at least a little bit. At first, you'll think that you can only make simple shapes, but after a bit of practice, you should be able to make fairly complicated shapes, like this illustration a former student made.
You don't have to make anything this ambitious for your first illustration, but your illustration should have all of the following elements:
A background color
At least one gradient
At least five layers of illustration on the main figure
At least one word of text
Texture
Transparencies and blending modes
At least one effect
A Clipping Mask
When you have finished, paste up the original and the photoillustration side by side in one file as "photo_illustration_astudent.jpg".
What you need to turn in:
Your completed completed photo illustration, beside the original photo, saved as "photo_illustration_astudent".
What I will be grading:
You will get credit for submitting the correctly completed assignment on time.