Backpack Project

This project involved sketching objects from our backpack or purse, and then importing images of our drawings into Adobe Illustrator to create a simple composition. The objective was to trace our images using the pen tools and then put them together by experimenting with the techniques we learned in our introduction to the application.

Ideation

The process of working on this task began with selecting objects from my backpack and sketching them. Initially, I chose to use the current book that I am reading (Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari), my wallet, lip balm, a small tin of lotion, and hand sanitiser. In tracing these images in Illustrator, I used a combination of my drawings and photographs of some elements of my chosen objects to achieve higher precision with certain details of each object such as the pattern on my wallet and the lettering on my book and lotion.

Final Work

Below is an image of my final work:

 

 

In putting together this composition, I chose to use colours of varying transparencies to imitate how these objects would appear in my backpack, overlapping each other, and placed almost haphazardly.

After submitting my work, I received feedback from my professor that my work would be more interesting had I experimented some more with varying degrees of opacity. Based on this feedback, I reworked my initial submission in two ways – I added a few more objects (AirPods and their case, and a pack of tissues), and increased the details visible in each object by using the same colour in different opacities to highlight them. Below is a process image of my traced objects, followed by the reworked piece.

Challenges and Surprises

A challenge that I faced in this process was learning how to use the tools in Illustrator more efficiently. Initially I spent a lot of time navigating the toolbar to search for specific tools, as well as switch between ones I was already using. Over time, as I became more familiar with the interface itself and the keyboard shortcuts for tools and actions (as well as assigned my own preferences for some), I was able to overcome this challenge and get work done a lot quicker and easier, especially since the task mostly involved rotating between a few specific different tools.

A surprise I encountered was how engaging using Illustrator really is. I thought I might get caught up in the monotony of the tracing process and be unable to really experiment much with the application, as the project was focused on gaining more practical skills, however I was pleasantly surprised by how exciting it actually was. The process of tracing itself was almost therapeutic in its simplicity – especially since I found Illustrator to be extremely conducive to how I like to organise my work and very intuitive for a first-time user – and it still allowed for creative agency as I could modify lines and shapes to create the kinds of silhouettes I wanted for my objects. Moreover, composing the image, and specifically playing around with colour and transparency in this piece was very exciting and helped me gain a lot of new knowledge as to easier ways to achieve the kinds of effects I wanted to see in my work.

Reflection

I think this project ended up being a very interesting and successful introduction into the world of Adobe Illustrator! Working on a task that wasn’t too broad and instead focused and developing a specific understanding of the interface and a particular set of skills was extremely helpful as it prevented me from getting too caught up in exploring the limits of the application, yet still allowed for more than enough creative freedom in terms of expressing my own aesthetic. Overall, it has made me very excited for the future creative possibilities for Illustrator and I look forward to experimenting with it more!

Most successful iteration: I think out of the two iterations I created for this task, the second, reworked one, titled Backpack Project 2.0 was more successful, simply for the fact that I had a better understanding of how to use the tools at hand, and with Professor Vargas’s feedback I was able to create a more interesting visual as well.

Connection to Creative Practice

While this piece doesn’t explicitly connect to any works I have made before, I think it allowed me to explore digital art to a greater extent than I had previously. All of the digital projects that I have created have been almost superficial and experimental in their use of software applications such as Illustrator and Photoshop, in the sense that I would play around with the options available to me and integrate them into my work simply if they looked appealing, rather than using the tools at my disposal to work towards a predetermined goal or some kind of aesthetic I wanted to achieve, which was quite a time consuming and disorganised approach to take. So formally learning how to take advantage of these applications to realise the artistic ideas that I have was an extremely useful and interesting experience.

Work from:
Drawing + Imaging with Professor Josephine Vargas