10 Week - Low-Poly

For my low-poly assignment I chose an orange.  I had a very hard time with this project, trying to make it look like an orange rather than a large orange ball.  I want to add some smaller triangles in areas that could use more shading or highlighting.  I also plan to add a leaf and stem so that it's more apparent that it's a fruit rather than a ball. 

I understand the concept of adding movement using triangles and lighting, but I'm not sure how to do that with my fruit choice.  I tried to add some around the edges moving inward to the dark center.  I will play around more with the tessellating triangles to see if I can adjust that, maybe add more pattern rather than random triangles just to fill the space. 

I'm afraid that my vision for this fruit is going to be disappointed in the actual final outcome!

09 Week - 04 Low-Poly

Low-poly is a visual effect that uses polygons to create a clear picture despite the abstract view due to the polygons. A polygon has no curves and no open spaces, they are connected on all sides.  Varying sizes and shapes of polygons can be used but triangles tend to be the most prominent.

Low-poly is a design that was used originally in computer graphics to make 3D models for video gaming.  Recently it has become a 2D trend used by artists and illustrators to create abstract pictures. The gaming models use more polygons and become more detailed than the 2D art but both can be very intricate.

The size and shape of the polygons help define the details of the picture.  Smaller shapes are used for the more detailed areas and larger shapes for the less defined areas.  Artists can also create focus on a certain area by using different shape sizes, exaggerating important features and adding more detail to that focusing point. Different colors can be added for shading and highlights and to show movement in a picture. Texture can be used for movement as well and to add depth.

Below are some examples of low-poly art.  You can see how by varying the sizes, colors and textures of the polygons, different styles are created by the artists.

Fruit Icons

I finished my fruit icons, all drawn using Adobe Illustrator. For the first set we had to use only black, gray and white.  For the second set we could only use complimentary colors.  For the final set, we used natural colors that the fruit should be.

05 Week - Project 3

In reading about icons,  I learned that there are 6 styles.

1. Outline - just a simple line drawing of a design
2. Filled - still a simple line drawing but now with color
3. Glyph - a solid design, almost like the negative of a picture
4. Flat - similar to the filled icon but usually uses flat colors
5. Hand drawn - made to look like they've been drawn by hand
6. Skeuomorphic - made to look very realistic to an actual item.

I also read about tips on how to design your own icons. Before beginning you should start by sketching out some ideas.  This saves time later when you're actually working on the computer. For designing its important to use a graph to keep everything lined up, even, and spaced equally.  Spacing and size proportion are very important in the look and cohesion of the icons. 

The icons should be simple and made in the size they are intended to be used.  If they are too complicated then it loses the attention of the user or becomes too hard to understand at a glance.  Which means that each icon should also be easily recognizable. 

Color is also extremely important.  When choosing a color palette, keep it simple and make sure that the color scheme looks pleasing to the eye. Although color isn't required and even one color can be used as long as it fits the theme of your icons.

 While researching different styles of icons, there were three that caught my eye as I looked up some of my own interests.  

"Knitting" was first, as that's what I love to do.  I like this icon because it's not what most people would see for knitting.  As a knitter, and as most knitters would know, this is for a machine knitter. I like the simplicity of the design and how they've chosen one single color for their outline icon.

Next I looking up "spinning wheel" because that's another hobby of mine.  I like to make my own yarn for knitting.  Not much came up, as you can imagine, but this volleyball icon appeared in the list of results. I like the color, it's soothing, and I like the motion shown in the wavy lines.  It's a fun example of a filled icon.

And then I looked up "cats", of course, because I have four of them and just adore them.  There were many options to choose from but this was my favorite. It's a another outline icon.  The lines are all proportioned in the right thickness with all rounded curves to soften the look.  Its definitely easy to recognize with just a few simple lines. 

Moving forward with our next project, designing a set of fruit icons, below is some sketching that I did.  At the bottom are the five I plan to move forward with.

04 - Project 2

For my design, I wanted something simple and I knew immediately that I wanted to focus on women and specifically equality in women.

I first started playing with several different designs, adding wording around my picture for inspiration in my drawing. I would have liked to keep the wording but that wasn't allowed in the assignment.  I played with a little color in one of the designs before I made a decision on the final scheme.

For the final design, I chose the sun with the color yellow because the sun typically brings smiles and happy thoughts to people.  For the stick figure women, I chose purple not only because it compliments yellow but also because in history purple was worn only by royalty. I wanted to express this feeling of importance in my design. I made the women identical to show equality.

After our group discussion and critique by a group of peers, I decided to make a slight change in the design.  I added a rectangle to break of the similarity of the group a little thus bringing the message of equality despite differences in each person.

03 Week - Pen Tool Practice

Working with the pen tool, I drew the trailer and car on the left.  Making the straight lines of the trailer seemed very simple.  Then I moved on to the car. I found this very intimidating. First I had to learn when to press shift and when to press alt as I decided on a straight or a curved line.  I watched the tutorial several times having difficulty finding the same stopping points for the curves. My half circles came out more oblong shaped.  

After practicing over and over I realized I didn't have to have the exact same points to make the shapes I wanted.  I learned how to manipulate the curved lines and when to change point directions to create the right shapes.  

This was a fun exercise!  I've never been able to figure out how the pen tool worked in the past so I as very glad to play around with it and the assistance of the tutorial helped it all make sense. 

Visual Elements of Art

What is vector art? 
Vector art is made with illustrator programs like Adobe Illustrator, which we are using in class.  Vector art uses mathematical equations to form the designs created allowing the design to be resized without losing it's original appearance.  Unlike rastor art that is made of pixels so when it is enlarged the edges become jagged and the pixels become visible thus distorting the art created.  Because of the pixels used in rastor art, the files can become very large.  Vector art has the advantage of smaller file sizes and better manipulability with your artwork.

This is an example of an artwork using repetition as a design element.  The entire work shows cats, the repeating element of the piece, but each cat has its own distinct personality by adding small touches of unique items. This work is found in my art studio.  It was given to me by my brother for Christmas and has no artist signature or mark. I do not know who created it.

This piece is an example of unity and balance.  My eye goes first to the woman then it's drawn to the flowers blowing in the wind.  The design is brought together by the use of color.  The purple used in the flowers are also used in the abstract designs on the bottom of the art, same with the pink in the woman's blouse. Looking at her dress there's even more of a sense of movement and rhythm with the entire piece as it blows outward in the direction of the flowers. This was painted by Jane Davenport and it was found on her website janedavenport.com 

For this piece of art, there is a great emphasis on the eyes and the use of color throughout the piece.  But its the eyes that draw you in.  Her expression makes me wonder what she is seeing that could be more dramatic than herself.  She is colorful and unique with a sense of wonder as you see the horn growing out of her forehead. After her eyes, its the horn that attracts your attention because it doesn't seem to fit in the design with its bright colors.  Whereas her hair and her clothes have a similar color scheme that dulls in the background letting you focus on the eyes and the horn. This was painted by Camilla d'Errico and you can find more of her work on her website camilladerrico.com