Project Two: Cartoon Self-Portrait

This was a fun project to do! I had been shifting over to cartoons even before it was assigned, so I was thrilled. 

As the directions would suggest, I first drew the cartoon on paper with pencil, outlined it in Sharpie, and scanned it onto the computer. From there I used Adobe Illustrator's pen tool to outline the lines bit by bit, and colored the white spaces between them through the lines' fill. In a few places I had to fill in the color by hand, as the lines' fill couldn't cover all of it. After that, I switched over to Photoshop to fill the rest of the white spaces I couldn't in Illustrator, and that was it for the flats. The last step was to shade everything with the Dodge and Burn tools.

I've found that the pen tool is used to make crisp and clear lines. It's more advanced than using the plain paintbrush, and handles curves easier than the Line tool. Although, it can't do quite everything-- for circles I had to use the Circle tool, and for filling in white space I had to break out the Paintbrush. Thus, I suggest using the Shapes tool with the Pen, and also the Paintbrush if there's any white space one needs to fill. 

I did the lion's share of coloring in Illustrator, so I can't say much about Photoshop's paintbrush based on this project alone. I have, however, used the Photoshop paintbrush before in personal projects, so I am qualified to say that it's used pretty literally behind the lines layer to color things in. The Dodge and Burn tools are also used as a brush, but they darken or brighten the image's colors to create highlights and shadows. I wouldn't call them a paintbrush as such. 

Curves and Corners Worksheets

Only the outlines on these shapes are mine.

Project One: Polaroid Collage

From the beginning of this project, I had difficulties with the composition and subject. Originally I intended to use myself as the subject, but seeing as I had no usable pictures of myself, I resorted to using my cat instead. Even after that was settled though, I still had issues with the composition. I had heard that I was supposed to "avoid the middle", but that went against my personal affinity for symmetry. I tried to break that resort though. The result was this, a composition that was constantly pushed around and became one that I do not enjoy. Thus, I feel the composition is the worst part of the finished image. I wish I had taken the time to settle on a more inspired layout. Regardless of this problem, I do like how this turned out. I especially enjoy the Polaroids themselves, as they have an interesting arrangement. And, of course, I really like my cat. Cutting him and everything else out from their original photos was rather easy.

I used several tools in the creation of this piece, some of which I don't remember. What sticks out to me are the ones I used most: the polygonal lasso, the layer effects and the healing tool. At some point I probably also used the brush and eraser tools. Typically happens whenever I make something in Photoshop. I used the lasso to cut everything out, and the layer effects to give everything a drop shadow, with the exception of one Polaroid for which I had to manually make one. The healing tool was used to smooth out textures, like with the fish, or to fill in space that I accidentally cut off. However, I managed to include a foreground, mid-ground, and background. The essence of my cat was also captured in eight Polaroids, and the calligraphy I scanned in was included on his ribbon.

If I could start this over, I'd definitely sit down and decide upon a composition. The whole mess with shuffling things around was a headache. Similarly, I'd also decide upon my subject at the very beginning. The same reason applies for that. Because of the early onset headache, I'd say my motivation was low, effecting my effort. While I did pick up my efforts near the end, I'd have to give myself a 6/10.