While attending BCTC for a Design degree, it was obvious that I would eventually have to stretch my artistic muscles once again, but this time through various styles and programs.  Using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and others would help me reclaim a glimmer of artistic talent that was dormant for many years, prior.

Like with the landscape composition I did prior to this one, I was tasked with creating another scene; however this one had to be a bit more “synthetic,” creating a cityscape using, yet again, only the most basic of tools Illustrator offers us.  I had a picture in my arsenal that I really liked (which can be viewed here), and thought that it was both very doable (at this stage of my “development” with illustrator) and would also provide enough of a challenge to get me to think and try to do things differently than I had before.

Taking into account the shear density of the city below the majestic pool that floated above, I knew that if I were going to make the deadline for the project, I would have to “cut some corners,” as it were, and minimize the scope a bit (both in the scene itself and how I would actually be creating the objects, themselves).  During a game jam I participated in a year prior, I had to create various concept art of various worlds, some having cityscapes on their surfaces (however, those were of a smaller scale than this one).  I created different techniques for duplicating and distorting a handful of objects into half-a-dozen or more, and implemented those techniques into this piece; as you can probably tell, there is only around 5 unique buildings scattered about, while the rest of them are changed-up duplicates.  I tried to spread out the objects to make sure there was no monotony or too much repetition anywhere to be found, and felt I came away with a better knowledge on a few things, mostly including how to use space and negative-space accordingly!

While attending BCTC for a Design degree, it was obvious that I would eventually have to stretch my artistic muscles once again, but this time through various styles and programs.  Using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and others would help me reclaim a glimmer of artistic talent that was dormant for many years, prior.

Being my very first, “fully realized” art piece, attempting to create a still life landscape using only the most basic tools of Illustrator, I feel it came out better than expected and actually keeps the expression of the photo that this inspired.  Using only the pen tool and some basic shapes (utilizing the wonderful pathfinder tools), I found myself working on this for two days: playing around with what could work, how I could create a stylized shading for the entirety of the piece, and trying to bring it all together with cohesion and a nice balance of color and density.

Even though I can only take so much credit for this piece (considering, like I said, it was a reworking of someone else’s photo, which can be viewed here), I came away with a newfound confidence that I could, indeed, create a complex work of “art” using something more than just rudimentary shapes with gradients and subtle strokes (even though that is definitely a sound way of doing things, haha).

While attending BCTC for a Design degree, it was obvious that I would eventually have to stretch my artistic muscles once again, but this time through various styles and programs.  Using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and others would help me reclaim a glimmer of artistic talent that was dormant for many years, prior.

While learning how to use more of the tools in Illustrator, I began to utilize various techniques to create either stylized or realistic (even to the point of using the 3D Revolve tool to enhance my objects) still lifes, encompassing the beloved “bottle and fruit” pairing.  I feel compared to my very first piece (which, again, was simply the outline and fill of four different fruits), and even the second one having to do with the boats among a lakeside, I have developed considerable knowledge and foresight into how to create “works of art” by using very simple, yet broad techniques.  Here soon, I will be developing some composition pieces, and hope to create even better pieces!

While attending BCTC for a Design degree, it was obvious that I would eventually have to stretch my artistic muscles once again, but this time through various styles and programs.  Using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and others would help me reclaim a glimmer of artistic talent that was dormant for many years, prior.

Other than having to draw still lifes of people, objects, sceneries, etc. in art class during elementary, middle, and high school, I rarely ever cared about drawing anything other than fiction in my off-time.  However, more recently, I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for what makes a piece of work either good or in need of much help.  During many of my classes, I also have had to create my own pieces from either scratch or to mimic the work of someone else.  This piece, in particular, is based on a photograph of a lake with people sailing their boats to and fro; I, however, decided to stick with the essential objects in the picture, and drew up the background scenery and sky, the middle-ground water, and the foreground boats and grass (which were the elements that stood out for me the most) using Illustrator.  Up to this point with Illustrator, I had only drawn out basic shapes of fruit without any details or embellishments, so considering this is my second attempt both at still life (recently) and creating something harmonious instead of haphazard.