I would like to share my Illustrator course project from IT Academy Step Georgia. It all started from (re)discovery of my childhood sketchbook and finished with vector portrait presented below. This remarkable tour would be impossible without some theoretical and practical insights given by my lecturer Noe Tikadze.
In the following work i tried to solve following problem: How could I bring dynamism and dramatic effect to a work on the subject of a war? As you will see below, I found two interrelated solutions: 1. Using the grain effect and 2. employing a diagonal composition.
At the beginning, I will try to explain Basic Idea - In other words - what happens on the artwork. Latter, i will introduce my Sketch, Moldboard, Color palette and Composition type i tried to adopt here. This is my humble attempt to demonstrate what and how i tried to do.
In the following work i tried to solve following problem: How could I bring dynamism and dramatic effect to a work on the subject of a war? As you will see below, I found two interrelated solutions: 1. Using the grain effect and 2. employing a diagonal composition.
At the beginning, I will try to explain Basic Idea - In other words - what happens on the artwork. Latter, i will introduce my Sketch, Moldboard, Color palette and Composition type i tried to adopt here. This is my humble attempt to demonstrate what and how i tried to do.
All Quiet on the Western Front
(Vector Portrait)
(Vector Portrait)
1. Basic Idea
It's World War I, the trench warfare. Another combined arms attack is over - The French tank is stuck in the trenches (Detail 1) (which used to happen quite often). The soldier is standing near the barbed wire, his gun is lowered, and he is trying to remove his cracked gas mask with his left hand (Detail 2). The mask is too tight on his face and he will feel a relief soon. Later, he may sit down for some cigarette and coffee.
It's World War I, the trench warfare. Another combined arms attack is over - The French tank is stuck in the trenches (Detail 1) (which used to happen quite often). The soldier is standing near the barbed wire, his gun is lowered, and he is trying to remove his cracked gas mask with his left hand (Detail 2). The mask is too tight on his face and he will feel a relief soon. Later, he may sit down for some cigarette and coffee.
Detail 1
Detail 2
2. Sketch
I got the inspiration for the sketch from the book my father gifted me like 15 years ago (I lost it somewhere, but here is the author and the title: "Марина Баст, 100 раскрасок: Воины разных эпох.")
The drawing was quite blurry, so first I re-penciled it and corrected some details. To tell the truth, I'm not good at sketching.
The drawing was quite blurry, so first I re-penciled it and corrected some details. To tell the truth, I'm not good at sketching.
3. Moodboard and Color Palette.
After that, i started searching for inspirations, decided what kind of colors i wanted and analyzed main patterns of vector images demonstrating WW1 and related topics (See below for links of the works i used in the moodboard)
On this stage, I decided to use grain effect, which was added to every object separately (helping with a gradient tool). At first, i tried some combination of gradient of darker colors and grain, but finally i decided to stick with the latter one. I think that grain here creates sense of shadows, dirt and shapes of the objects. In case of the land and the pants and the boots of the soldier, some artistic brush is also used.
After that, i started searching for inspirations, decided what kind of colors i wanted and analyzed main patterns of vector images demonstrating WW1 and related topics (See below for links of the works i used in the moodboard)
On this stage, I decided to use grain effect, which was added to every object separately (helping with a gradient tool). At first, i tried some combination of gradient of darker colors and grain, but finally i decided to stick with the latter one. I think that grain here creates sense of shadows, dirt and shapes of the objects. In case of the land and the pants and the boots of the soldier, some artistic brush is also used.
4. Composition type
As the project deadline approached, Noe advised me to think more about the layout of the work. he asked me to pay attention to the position of the character: The location of his hand palms in the work seems to form an invisible diagonal line under the gas mask, inside which all the important elements of the composition are placed. So, to add some dynamism, I started proper arrangement of the main objects.
I decided to study the principles of diagonal composition, which we covered in design theory lectures in more depth. That's why i explore Edgar Payne's description of such composition, according to which:
"Owing to the eye-carrying power of strong diagonal lines, strength is needed in vertical or opposing slanted lines. the latter may often call for almost right angle conjunctions. The area below the main diagonal lines is usually suggestive of strong mass values and solidity" (Edgar A. Payne, Composition of Outdoor Painting, 7th edition, 2016: 123)
Considering these statements and my goal, I divided my artwork into 6 conditional layers, which were positioned diagonally to each other (See the final image):
I decided to study the principles of diagonal composition, which we covered in design theory lectures in more depth. That's why i explore Edgar Payne's description of such composition, according to which:
"Owing to the eye-carrying power of strong diagonal lines, strength is needed in vertical or opposing slanted lines. the latter may often call for almost right angle conjunctions. The area below the main diagonal lines is usually suggestive of strong mass values and solidity" (Edgar A. Payne, Composition of Outdoor Painting, 7th edition, 2016: 123)
Considering these statements and my goal, I divided my artwork into 6 conditional layers, which were positioned diagonally to each other (See the final image):
I hope my work was both fun and fruitful for you, cheers! :)
References:
Works from dribble:
Artstation:
Behance:
Historical Images:
