project 4

Here it is - final project for the semester... I went with a botanical healing plant theme for the live trace images in the stamps. I used live trace from images I scanned, lots of live paint to adjust them after the fact... Live effects were mainly drop shadow and some dry brush. Symbols were a cool thing too, I used symbols on all the backgrounds for the stamps. to muck it up as necessary to create additional texture and interest. The little floating dandelion seed on top right stamp is also a symbol I created, used and modified (a few times, I must admit...)

Learned tons - as usual.

Nice to way end the semester - fun project. Have a great summer everyone!

project 4 - 3D object

I created the 3D object separately (not integrated in to the stamps). I decided to post it since it is not visible on the final project, being a requirement and all....

week 15 doodle

I really loved playing with live color! What a wonderful tool - a true time saver.

Here you can see my 2nd doodle for the class in the middle. The other 2 I tweked with the live color dialogue box... I'm just getting warmed up! Too bad the semester is almost over....

week 14 doodle

Week 14 doodle and live trace

I have been looking forward to this part of the class... it was a lot of material to cover.
I played with tracing a portrait, since I felt it was tricky to get 'right'. I did a black and white, grayscale and a color live trace. I adjusted them all, and could have contuned endlessly. I experimented with the live paint
bucket as well - how very cool!!!

I am excited about the last project with all these new tools to play with!

project 3

Project 3 - what a feat.

I created such powerful pattern brush that I sent myself straight to a massive crash. Oh well. Taught me a lesson. SAVE your WORK. All the time. And don't make complex pattern brushes and use them on multiple strokes.

This is about the mountain pine beetle infestation, that is very much a problem in large areas of the west cost pine forests. In this project I focus on the problem in BC, since I have personally detected these little bugs in trees and had to cut and burn them on the spot to try to contain the spread. Interesting. And gave me fun reason to draw a map and work with all the requirements for this project. Great learning.

week 12 doodle

Live effects rule! Unbelievable really. I created one star shape and here's the result after doodling with the live effects!

I duplicated the stroke to have orange and yellow strokes, duplicated the fill many times as well. And to be honest, I lost track at one point, so much was going on, so I started over. But the dots in the dashed line made me smile, so I decided to add some glowing edges on them, like little pearls or jewels. The transparency I applied, screen, gave another interesting level to the wild live effect doodling going on here.

Ok, that's it for now. Back to working on Project 3.

week 11 doodle

My doodling was focused on the brush tool this week. I loved paying with the different option, I created some custom brushes, loved the calligraphic options, the art brushes... Lots of fun. Here I traced an old symbol with a calligraphic brush, tweaked it a little by shaping the paths. Then copied it, changed to a rough charcoal in gray, pasted infront the original one and that's it in a nut shell. In the process, I tried applying opacity masks, gradients etc, but I liked the way this looks.