Week 5A

Continued work on Calendar project for Smashing Magazine; contest for the month of October.

Added more details throughout the calendar.

Moved everything a little closer to the center, compared to everything being closer to the edges before.

Added clouds and crows in the sky to fill up extra space.

Also added more details in the grass and trees to give the picture some more life.

And lastly, added the calendar numbers to the top of the picture. Decided to go with a simple line of numbers instead of the blocked format, which was too heavy in the center of the picture and took away from the "fun" aspect of my project.

Week 4B

Continued to work on calendar in class.

Added some more details to the calendar. Made a couple of black cats/kittens, as well as a scare crow. Still need to work on placement for the calendar numbers. I will probably scale everything down and to the left, and place the calendar in the right side.

Week 4A

Began working on calendar in class using adobe illustrator.

I first started with creating the smaller items for the picture, like the pumpkins, apples, and leaves. I also started with a simple background to create more depth in the illustration. I hand drew the tree in my sketch book and traced it by hand, and then added multiple layers of leaves to create depth and different colors.

This is my original sketch from my book.

I made some alterations to my tree and added apples which were not originally in my sketch. I will begin working on the cat (maybe cats, might do more then one) and the scarecrow.

I still need to figure out placing for my calendar numbers.

Week 3 Outside Class

Watched Lynda.com videos for Illustrator.

Section 5:

• Working with fills and strokes: how to change the colors for the fill and stroke, choosing colors/patterns using the swatches panel, how to use gradients in objects, how to create your own patterns.

Section 7:

• Creating Shapes: how to change drawing modes for layers, using different shape modes, how to use the paint brush and pencil tools, how to smooth paths using the eraser tool.

Week 3B

Took notes in class

• Copyright - Create Commons Video
• Visual Syntax

MoodBoard finished for class due on Wednesday, September 11th. I wanted to go with a more fun feel to my October theme. I love the idea of black cats and pumpkins. I want to make my theme family friendly. I also want to focus on the overall feel of autumn by using bright colors, like red, orange and yellow, to create falling leaves, bright pumpkins, and crisp autumn skys.

Week 3A

Learned how to make a Mindmapping exercise in class. Can be used for brainstorming ideas when creating a new project. We used this exercise to help us think up different themes for the month of October.

Talked about new homework assignment we will be working on the next few weeks. Creating a wallpaper calendar of varying sizes, some including some excluding the calendar aspect of the calendar. This is for a monthly activity through the website SmashingMagazine.com. These choose new calendars to be displayed on their website for every month, all created by artists throughout the world.

HW for next class:

• Bring in Sketchbook and pencils.
• Finish Moodboard for calendar.

Week 2 Outside of Class

Worked on homework started in class. Recreated common logos in Illustrator. I mainly used the pencil tool to draw different pieces of the more "organic" pictures, while with the other pictures I used more common shapes like circles, rectangles, and the type tool to add typefaces to the images that use text.