Illustrated Movie Poster

Here's another project I did at Full Sail.  I had to recreate this Wall-E movie poster in Adobe Illustrator... but there was a catch!  We could use nothing but the basic, somewhat cartoon-looking pen tool (see my previous tutorial on how to use it), and we were limited to a five-color color scheme (plus white).  The result was an image that was relatively close to the original poster, but stylized.

The original poster (left) next to my recreation again (right).

 

As you can see in the wireframe view below, everything in my Wall-E recreation was just plain shapes. (No gradients, meshes, blends, opacities, etc.)

I tried to give the illusion of the junk around Wall-E by making lots and lots of strange shapes (which took far more hours than I care to think about!).  I used shapes I saw in the original poster as a guide.  However, my professor thought all the shapes in the junkyard were too "busy" (a.k.a. messy, cluttered), and they took away from Wall-E, who should have be been the main focus.  What do you think?

Zoom in to the junk around Wall-E

Designing a Concert Flyer

A few months ago, I designed this poster in Adobe Illustrator for a Full Sail assignment.  The assignment was, in a nutshell, to turn an assigned, roughly-sketched-on-paper (or on-napkin) concept from a fictional client into a fully-designed, digital concert poster.  The project I chose was a poster for violinist "Ira Kozlov" from Ukraine.  This Ira Kozlov wanted the poster for his concert, which he allegedly scribbled out on paper for me, to evoke the style of Russian constructivism.  So, I did some research on this style.

Examples of Russian constructivism from Google Images







There were a few things I noticed throughout all the pictures I saw.

1) The posters were all very simplistic, using lots of geometric shapes and silhouettes.

2) Their messages were clear, bold, in-your-face militant, and easy to understand in a glance.

3) There was a pretty consistent color scheme of black, red, white, and yellow.

4) The posters generally followed a minimalist design, with an effective usage of blank space.

I kept these styles at the forefront of my mind as I turned Kozlov's poster concept into a clean, minimalist, bold design.  Choosing the violinist silhouette, conductor's hand, Kozlov's signature, and text at the top were all "Kozlov's" ideas.  But there were several decisions I made along the way to make this design work in the way I thought it should.

Wireframe view in Illustrator and normal view

First, I chose to make the background red, both to relate it to the Russian constructivist style, and to allow the black silhouettes to stand out.

Second, I decided to use yellow to draw the viewer's eye to what was important, and to allow those elements to pop off the page.  Ira Kozlov's name was most important, and also the silhouette of him playing violin was one of the focuses of the graphic. (You may notice, even the angles of the shadow, the conductor's hand, and the slanted text boxes draw the viewer's eye toward the violinist.)

Third, (speaking of the text), I chose to slant all the text to help give the flyer a sense of movement and interest, a technique I observed a lot in examples of Russian constructivism.

Fourth, I placed the info in black rectangles (again, constructivist style, and also very minimalist and modern), using white text against black to make that text pop - but still not popping as much as the yellow text, which is where the viewer's eyes would travel first.

What other design techniques do you see used in this flyer?  If you are a designer, is there anything you would have done differently, had you been the one in my place?  Leave your comments below!

How to use the pen tool in Illustrator

Today I have a video tutorial for you on how to use the pen tool, one of the most essential tools for digital illustration within Adobe Illustrator. Enjoy!

EDIT:

After making this video and learning more about the pen tool, I realized that I was doing something wrong in this video. You see me clicking on points as I make them to delete one of their anchor points. I never explained why I was doing this, but it was so that Illustrator would allow me to make larger, more flexible curves.

DON'T DO THIS!

While deleting anchor points does give you more flexibility, it also limits the smoothness of your curves, and creates "kinks".

This is an example of an illustration I made - can you see the kink? One side of the flame is very smooth; the other side has a jagged angle.

You don't want your illustrations to look like this!! :-)

Only delete anchor points if you want a jagged angle like that, if you're making a sharp corner or point. (For example, the tips of the flames in the above illustration.) If you're trying to make smooth arcs, practice making more points and smaller curves. This will eliminate the problems that come with making curves that are too large.

A word of caution: Don't use too many points. You want enough that you can make your shapes look natural, but you don't want any more than you need. The more points, the larger the file size. Just something to keep in mind.

Well, now you know how to do it correctly... so, happy pen-tooling!

A Tale of Two Chocolates

 

Once upon a time, there were two packages: Package Modern, and Package Exotic. These packages contained the exact same ingredient: Organic cacao powder. However, not all organic cacao powder packages are created equally. These two rivals each told a different story.

Package Modern, as indicated across the top of his groovy bag, tried to appeal to the "modern lifestyle"; to busy moms and families seeking a powerful health boost as they rushed between sports practices, classes, and workouts at the gym. His appearance shouted a message loud and clear, even if his beholders only perceived the message in their subconscious: I am modern; I am pure. The plain block shapes, the basic sans-serif fonts, the limited color scheme, and the simple silhouette illustrations all contributed to this message.

Package Exotic whispered another tale. Her design spoke of other lands, sparking connotations of places rustic and wild. The loose "Dagoba" title, the strong serif fonts, the seemingly stained and ripped banners, the calm and earthy color scheme, and the faintly seen, elegant, detailed illustrations all suggested a message of exotic value, as if the contents were obtained through careful trading with natives in a country far away. Package Exotic invited her beholders to travel to an adventurous place of their imaginations, and to partake in something old and clean of unhealthy modern pollutants.

Two packages told a different tale, yet each had the same audience and the same mission: To convince a consumer to purchase one of them, and not the other. Which package design do you think was successful?

If you were walking through a store, which would you buy?

Graphic Design Nails

Frequently, a well-executed design stands out to me. A couple weeks ago, I was especially struck by the cover design for David Platt's book, Radical.

The powerful simplicity of the overall design and the irresistible, bold colors inspired me to do something a little "radical" myself... to paint my nails according to the book's design! And so, I'm doing something a bit unconventional for this blog, by sharing with you how I turned a book design into a nail design.

Step 1: After applying a protective undercoat, (any clear nail polish works), I painted my nails a solid orange color.

Step 2: I painted a black band at the tips of my nails, resembling the band that runs across the top of the book cover.

Step 3: Using toothpicks to achieve the minor details, I added the shape of the upside-down house in white, then applied an orange dot and orange line to represent the window and door.

Finally, I added another layer of clear nail polish as a protective topcoat, giving my nails that glossy, shimmering look.

And that's it! Here's the final result:

A closer view of the nails:

Is there a book cover design that you really like? Comment below!

Art History

I know this isn't exactly a "digital art tutorial", but having a knowledge and understanding of art history is important even for digital artists. It's also incredible for inspiration. Already, reading the textbook for my Art History class has given me so many ideas for digital pictures and models to create, both of a purely historical sort and a fantastical sort... (if only I knew the software well enough to produce them!)

Here are just a few random, miscellaneous things I've learned so far in Art History:

* Post and lintel architecture consists of two upright beams with a beam sitting on top. Stonehenge is an example. Some doorways were also formed this way.

* In Ancient Egyptian art, people were portrayed in stiff, unnatural poses. Heads were in profile; eyes are seen from the front; shoulders were seen from the front; and legs were in profile, with one foot in front of the other.

* A relief sculpture is partially carved out of its background material. ("Whew, what a relief I don't have to carve the whole thing!") A sculpture in the round is entirely carved out and free-standing. (You can walk all the way around it.)

Example of a relief sculpture

Example of a sculpture in the round

* In Medieval Spain, the combination of Christian and Islamic influence resulted in a style known as Mozarabic. 

* Ottonian art consisted of many carvings made from wood and bronze. The name "Ottonian" came from the rulers of that time, Otto I, Otto II, and Otto III. (That's a lot o' Ottos!) (Say that aloud three times fast and you'll see how brilliant I am. Okay, okay... it's not actually very funny. I'll go retreat into a nerdish corner now.)

* In the Romanesque period of art in Europe, many beautiful castles and churches were built. Some churches would have columns with zigzagging "v" patterns called chevrons.

Chevrons (image from paradoxplace.com)

* Some common features of Medieval churches:
(a) Mosaics on walls
(b) Stained glass
(c) Domes
(d) Political as well as religious functions
(e) Used as a site for pilgrimages

Medieval church with stained glass

Now, I want to hear from you! What are some aspects of art history that inspire you? What is your favorite historical piece of art? Do you know an interesting snippet of art history that you'd like to share? Or, do you have any other comments related to art history? Answer one or all questions in a comment below!

Photoshop Cave Painting

Today I finished my first digital art assignment at Full Sail University. For my Art History class, I was assigned to make a "prehistoric"-style cave painting in Photoshop.

This activity taught me a few things about Photoshop. I'll briefly show you how I made the rock wall, added texture, and created a light source.

1. Rock Wall

First, open a new document in Photoshop.

Then, set your foreground and background colors to a light and dark color for your rock wall.

Go to Filter, Render, and select Clouds.

To add a touch of realism, add some noise.

2. Add Texture

Switch over to channels.

Create a new channel. It will be called "Alpha 1". 

Go to Filter, Render, and select Difference Clouds. Then, continue to select Difference Clouds until you get a pattern you like.

This texture will be applied to the rock wall in a second; but first, we need to add a light.

3. Light source

Switch back over to layers. Then, go to Filter, Render, and select Lighting Effects.

This cool lighting tool will then come up. You can adjust the size of this light, its intensity, its shape, its color, and more, until you get it to the effect you want. 

Then, before you hit "okay" on the light, go to the properties panel, click on "Textures", and select "Alpha 1."

You will then have a very rocky-looking texture from your Alpha 1 channel. You can adjust the height to make it very subtle, or very rough. Play around with it and see what you can make!