Infographics

The topic I chose for the info-graphic project was 'How to Take Care of a Pet'. Naturally i chose a cat.

I started with sketches of what I've researched on how to take care of cats/kittens. Most of the tips came from ASPCA (for some reason) and petco.com

Many ideas went through my head and lot of paper wasted on my sketches. After talking to my classmates I finally decided on which sketch to use.

After this was bringing my final sketch to the computer and turning it into a digital sketch that served as a template. I had a quick layout and notes on the paper that i could easily turn off the layer. I first traced the image in photoshop then dragged that file into illustrator where i finished it up and added the information I've simplified.

This is the final print. I'm actually pretty happy on how it turned out. I was going for a pretty simple look and maybe a bit elegant from how I vectored the cat and made the lines bolder on some areas. It gives it this heavier feeling especially to the tail.

The hardest problem I faced was during the vectoring process. I've never really been good at it but this is something that I went over so many times trying to get it perfect. I did ask for some help from people who were good at it and I asked for a lot of feedback too. I switched a lot between photoshop and illustrator and lost a few thing along the way but i thankfully found them again. If I was to do this again i would change the animal or change the topic. Instead of going for a simple look I would go for more of a lively and colorful look. 

VML Field Trip

Yesterday we took a trip to VLM near the KC Airport. We got to meet Executive Creative Director  Aaron Evenson and he talked about his job and answered our questions about the industry. 

For the time we were there, I got the just of the entire industry; 

• The entire industry is based on opinions, if your design is good or not
• You need to stand out
• There is no right or wrong
• This is a skill you need to build up over years of work
• Experience is something of a must have
• Keep track of all your experience 
• Need to know whats cool so you can choose the right design
• Maintain a blog or website
• Its better than books or print
• Fastest way of getting your name out to the world
• Basically your portfolio
• Teams will be interchangeable and can work on one or more project
• You get to travel a lot and meet people
• A team should only have one leader
• Needs to be crystal clear on instructions
• Draws boundaries but can still be leniant 

Also during the trip we got a tour of the department. I would really like to work there, everything looks so cool and the office cubes are all unique, some aren't even cubes, they're bubbles. The entire work place looks like a playground  for adults and all foods and drinks are stocked in the cafeteria.

Painting With Photoshop

Painting in Photoshop is my specialty. I'm pretty good with traditional art and I can draw pretty well with a tablet too. 

But landscapes aren't my style but I tried my best.

Above is the landscape we had to do. It was boring work so I played with the brushes throughout the process. You can see on the tree on the left when I really changed the brush styles. 

Next is the paint palette. We just had to mix some colors together which was pretty easy work. Clean the brushes, mix the colors, blending; these are all things you can do with traditional art just not as messy. 

This is my favorite painting we had to do. the calico's fur was set with water color and wet edges. Unfortunately the pixels on this was set really low compared to the kitten on the right. With the kitten on the right, he was painted with custom brushes that I've set on my computer.

10/24 Field Trip

Last Friday we took a trip to downtown KC and went to the Bill Brady Gallery. They had this really awesome display up. Literately up, hanging from the ceiling. The artwork was called 'WILD FUSION" by Michael Manning. What I really loved about this art was that it was a all on a screen with smaller 'worlds' around it. The worlds were made of small glass open orbs filled with sand and something else to make it look like it was living. 

You can see above of the hanging screen and the huge painted canvas all suspended by wires. The entire exhibit was huge.

Above, this is one of my favorite things I saw last week. It looks kind of creepy but I just thought it was so cool. This was un-named at the Unplugged  project where we went back to their back rooms where they conduct their meetings. 

Gradient Mesh

An apple and a rose gradient mesh created in Illustrator. 

I vectored to my greatest ability, but I've never been good in Illustrator. 

The gradient apple was created after I watch a tutorial online, I tried from a book but that doesn't work very well and can be confusing. It's best to watch from a video so you can follow an example. When choosing to vector something that you know that you'll have to color, try something simple first, something that doesn't have that much bends and shadows to. Trying to add a gradient mesh to something like an apple is rather difficult and I don't recommend doing. Its harder than what needs to be. Secondly, make sure you know what you're doing. Read ahead or watch the video ahead before you go in, and make sure you know your keyboard short cuts cause that will help a lot. Ask for help, I mainly asked people I knew sort of what they were doing, this was a really challenging project for something we've never done before. I tried this project to my best ability but this doesn't come naturally to me at all, especially trying to add a nice highlight. 

  The next project worked better. Something that was flat but still looked nice. The rose was a bit hard to vector but I simplified the petals to what you see below. 

       

I spelt my name out in a font I've seen that i really like. Actually, instead of just typing the words out I created them. I replaced the 'i' in my name with the rose itself. It gives the whole thing a more dramatic flare. To convert text to outlines, simply select your text and go to FILE-CHOOSE TYPE-CREATE OUTLINES expand the group and then you're free to play. I added extra anchor points with the pen tool and shaped them however i liked. 

I don't really know why I chose a rose, I just thought that i would try a different style as I usually do and simplified the lines. I've always liked the quote "Every rose has her thorns" and I guess thats how I ended up creating this. The font I wanted to model my text after was from a show called RWBY. I trie to make the flower look like some areas are glowing too. 

Anatomy of a Font

We took a perosnality test on font types, and I got the font Bifur.  Someone with the bifur font type is rational, assertive, progressive, and relaxed. Some of these i can agree with but other don't sound like me.  I don't really like this font mainly because its hard to read (the numbers), some letters are just fine. 

I typed my name out after downloading the font and it looks pretty cool. It's a bit hard identifying some of the font parts. I did the ones i was pretty confident about. Whatever you type this font on it defiantly shouldn't be on anything busy, the text itself is already a lot to look at. Again, like i said before, the font is a bit hard for me to read but it does catch eyes. 

Studio Gibili Posters

If you have ever seen these two faces, you know exactly what the movie is even before  you read the title. 

A friend asked me to create the Anime Club poster for this school year, the first meeting will be showing one of my personal favorite Studio Gibili films. Something easy that if anyone has any idea of anime, they'll at least recognize this mask. It's one of the simplest ideas i could come up with that has a fully recognizable face, or in this case a mask. 

This is one of the most famous animated films ever, its called Spirited Away that was created in 2002 by Studio Gibili , a Japanese animation company.  

The poster does not have a room number to it because my client asked for a drawing with the words "Anime Club" written on it, and asked to be sent without the room number. 

This poster has 6 colors, but the design is so simple one of the posters in the room in front of me that has 3 colors looks busier. 

I love how simple the poster looks. I love when people haven't even seen the movie, yet they recognize this face. 

This poster I just did for fun. Another one of my favorites and a good one at that. I wrote in light green the name of the film in Japanese. My Neighbor Totoro, created in 1988 by Studio Gibili, is a spirit who protects children, but the original story like most turned movie, has a dark twist. 

This poster was just for fun but I just loved this so much I also wanted to post about it.