reading assignment (for next class) :

Drawing Basics and Video Game Art by Chris Solarski p. 184-202

drawing :

countour drawing

Hold your object in one hand and pencil in the other. Place the object very near the spot you are drawing. Draw a silhouette of the figure without lifting your pencil. Draw three.

blind contour

Hold your object in one hand and pencil in the other. With your paper out of site, draw a silhouette of the figure without lifting your pencil. Draw three.

contour sketch

First, spend some time looking at your object.

• • flatten the image in your mind, only looking at the outlines.
  • do not pay attention to details
  • break the object down into shapes : triangles, circles, rectangles

• look at the shapes and their relationships to each other.
• what is the minimum number of shapes you will need to complete your drawing?

Loosely sketch the contour of your object. Draw as individual shapes rather than the whole. Draw three.

Question :

At the bottom of the page, describe the shapes used and the emotional impact they have on the user.

illustrator :

exercise:
lay your object on a piece of white paper and take a photo with your camera. email it to yourself. If you don’t have a phone, ask the person next to you.

save the image to your folder

shapes

on your first artboard, create each of the shapes. use the shift key to constrain proportions on some of them. create variations for each tool using its options.

On a second artboard:

• place the image on your page and scale to fill the page. lock this layer.
• create new layers to create depth with your images.
• using the pen tool, create only rectangles, elipses and polygons to redraw your object.
• use rotate and scale to fit shapes in place.

contour

• object -> unlock all. Drag image to new artboard and lock
• as demonstrated in class, use point to point method to trace your object with image viewed full screen. Remember to fill your drawing with none so you can see the image below.

detailed contour

• object -> unlock all. Drag image to new artboard and lock
• as demonstrated in class, zoom in and trace your object.

save your file as contour.ai

demo file: contour

assignment:

This assignment will challenge you to recreate a photographic image using  basic shapes and contour. There will be several images to choose from at the bottom of this assignment page.

1. Convert the photographic image into a stylized illustration using only basic shapes like ellipse, rectangle, and polygon in coordination with the Pathfinder Tool. Edit using the direct selection tool. Use layers to overlap and create depth.
2. On a second artboard, use contour drawing to recreate the image.

Consider how objects overlap and how you can use layers to your advantage. Pay attention to the detail present in the image you selected and how those details can be stylized while still referring to their unique nature.

To complete your work, hide your source image and then save as a contourYourName.pdf file for submission on canvas.

demo file : shape and contour

resources: