Dumbo Silhouette

To keep practicing our skills of the pen tool, we traced the outline of an image to make it into a simple black silhouette. I traced the Disney character, Dumbo. I loved the movie as a kid and I wanted to use something to help me practice multiple curves. Since learning the pen tool it has gotten easier to adjust curves as I am going instead of just drawing a bunch of points and fixing them after.

The Bitten Pear

After learning the pen tool and testing out our skills, we were asked to trace this bear and make it uniquely our own. I wanted to make my pear my own so I used different colored gradients for the leaves and I even used a gradient on the pear itself. 

Pen Tool Paths

We started to learn about the pen tool and how to create curves with this tool. At first, it was hard to get the hang of when the curves were on the same side, but after practice it got a little easier. This assignment really showed me that it takes some time to use the pen tool when even creating simple lines or curves.

Perry the Platypus

Even without knowing much about Illustrator, I created Perry the Platypus, a character from the show Phineas and Ferb, using the pen tool and the shape tools. It took me a while to get the beak of Perry exactly how I wanted it. The pen tool was knew to me so that specific part took me a while. 

Color Wheel

Johannes Itten and Josef Alber were two artists that understood the theory of color. They knew how the differences in colors changed the perspective of the image. Josef Alberg used squares with different shades and tones of colors to show how the perspective changed; some combinations made the square look small and far away, while others made the square look front and center. Johannes Itten taught how different colors make unique contrasts. Primary colors show bright contrast as well as the different between a warm and cool color. These two artists are the reason why we able to use color to direct the human eye, while also challenging it.

I designed the color wheel below which goes along with the color theories of Johannes Itten and Josef Alber. Depending on location and the contrast of color, some parts of the image look further or closer with the human eye.

Understanding Illustrator

We learned how to create objects using the pen and shape tool in Illustrator. Our professor asked us to create a pencil and place the pencil somewhere. I decided to place the pencil on a piece of paper. I placed the pencil as if it had just written something. I decided to use messy handwriting to make it look as if a little kid were writing it. I had a lot of fun with this assignment because I was excited to learn about Illustrator and all it has to offer.

Final Photoshop Project

After learning all there is to know about Photoshop, we were asked to create an event poster. I decided to create a music poster for one of my favorite artists, the Dave Matthews Band. I used every aspect that we learned throughout the semester: layer masks, selections, retouching, and gradients. At first I was a little confused as to what direction I should go in, but then I found a great inspiration.