Brittany CarrickSeptember 08, 2015Instructional Technology

“Abstract Animal” Walk-Through

Here I will be demonstrating the expectations and steps for the Abode Illustrator Assignment “Abstract Animal”.

1. Students will open Adobe Illustrator and make a new file by selecting File > New at the top of screen.

2. Students will then go to Google images and search for an image that matches a picture similar to their sketch for a reference to use during the Pen Tool Illustration process. For this example, I chose a buck as my animal.

3. Students then must click and drag image onto their new art board.

4. Students must then go to the top tool bar and select 50% Opacity for their image to become more opaque while working. Then student must use the Selection Tool (V) to select the image and move it to the center of the art board. After this students must use the

4. Students must then go to the top tool bar and select 50% Opacity for their image to become more opaque while working. Then student must use the Selection Tool (V) to select the image and move it to the center of the art board. After this students must use the

5. Students must then choose complementary color to create a color value scale for each so they can use these colors during the animal making process. They must use the Pen Tool (P) to make a square that they will copy and past for a value scale of 8 on each (starting with white and moving to black or vise versa.) They will choose different colors by double clicking the color box and creating gradient in values. Here I have chosen Red and Green for my complementary colors.

6. Then students will select the Pen Tool (P) to start creating planes for their animal. By using the anchor points of the Pen Tool to create shapes will help map out the planes to give the animal dimension, using separate colors by clicking the Eyedropper Tool (I) and take samples from the value scale they have made. Here I have started with the nose and above the eye to create separate planes using my green color scale. You must always meet the first anchor point made to create each shape.

7. Students must select the Selection Tool (V) between every shape to ensure they are no using the Pen Tool on previous shapes. In some cases, there can be overlap similar to the image on the left, so they needs to make sure to back up using Command Z (Undo) to delete previous anchor points, students must make sure to make their shape carefully and to add as many anchor points as needed.

8. If student makes shape that lays over other important shapes they can go to Object >Arrange > Bring to Front, Bring Forward, Send Backward, or Send Forward to arrange the shape to right position on their form.

9. Students will continue these steps through process of each shape. Learning the Short Cut Keys will be extremely useful for this process. Using separate colors for each shape is also important to add dimension to the entire form. Students may also have to improvise if the reference photo doesn’t show the same position as what they sketched. Here I have done this will the bucks neck. Once you have finished the form and no longer need the reference image students must go to Object > Unlock All, then select the Selection Tool (V) and delete the reference image.

10. Once students have deleted the reference image they can see if there are any spaces in between shapes, which they can fix by creating a new shape with the Pen Tool or selecting the shapes and move them with arrow keys on their keyboard. Here I have chosen to use the red for the antlers and green for the body. Students may choose to use both colors in any way they prefer as long as both color are apparent and show value.

12. This Document Setup page will appear and then the button at the top right labeled “Edit Artboards” will need to be selected. A type of crop tool will then appear and students must isolate the final project they would like to turn in. They can see that the art board will change and the white background will only stay on what is cropped. I would prefer for this assignment to show the value scale and the image of their animal. In the example, at the bottom, I have only isolated the animal. You can see the crop selection around the buck head and clicking and dragging sides and corners can adjust each edge.

13. The Final Project image should look similar to this, presented and critiqued. File >Save as > Lastname_AbstractAnimal_AnimalName (Example: Carrick_AbstractAnimal_Buck) Then students will make sure to save the image as a PDF.