For digital illustration, our first project was a fun twist on a traditional image. A geometric portrait is a picture of oneself with thousands of little triangles or other shapes. This was a very tedious assignment since the more triangles you added, the more realistic it would make the person. I wanted to achieve a more realistic portrait so it would look just like myself when I took my reference picture away. 

Illustrator is the best program to use for this project because the type of tools is specifically made to be able to create logos or other types of illustrations. Before I started creating my triangles, for my first layer, I placed the reference picture I would use to help me navigate where my triangles would go. Once the portrait was placed and adjusted to my liking on the artboard, that layer was locked so it wouldn't move. If the picture moved once I started, it would be a headache to line it back up exactly how I had it the first time. After securing the photo, I added a new layer: the layer I started my triangles on. To create the triangles, I used the pen tool and made three points that were automatically connected to make them triangles. I wasn't too worried about them all being a perfect triangle; they are arranged in sizes from big to small. Every time I finished a triangle, I then used the shortcut Shift x, which helped me then be able to use my eyedropper tool to add the correct color to my face. I used the shortcut I for the eyedropper tool and then just used that to click on a random color directly underneath the triangles I would make; as I mentioned before, this was a tedious process, but once I finished, I was able to lock my triangle layers and unlock my reference layer to reveal the accuracy of my triangles. The completed work still needed a background, so I added another layer that would be my background and used the gradient tool to help the viewer's eye focus on the main subject, my face.

During this project, I learned shortcuts I never knew before. I was taught that Shift x would change a shape to a stroke which helped reveal the color underneath that would get me used to fill the color of the form. It made the process easier during this project than going back and forth between the tools manually. I had some experience using the pen tool for some projects, but with this specific assignment, I feel comfortable with the tool since I could see what it could achieve.