DES016: Illustration & Color Theory

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The Task:

The task given for this project was to create an illustrative image on Adobe Illustrator based on a choice of two things: my project could be an interior space in one-point or two-point perspective, or a costume design on a proportionate figure. After choosing what to illustrate, I had to choose four color variants based on different color schemes given, such as complementary, analogous, triadic, monochromatic, and custom colors. The objective of this task was to show my drawing skills, knowledge of color schemes, and overall originality and creativity. For my project, I chose to do a costume design on a proportionate figure working with analogous, triadic, monochromatic, and custom color schemes.

The Execution:

For this project, I knew I was drawn to working with a proportionate figure since drawing people is something I am familiar with. I also enjoy fashion, hence why I went with this route for the task. In the initial ideations of the project, I first considered what dynamic pose I wanted for my figure. When choosing a pose, I used Pinterest for inspiration. I was ultimately drawn to a pose of a woman holding a guitar. After sketching the base poses of my figure, the fashion ideations built upon what energy the pose exuded. The pose itself made me conjure a rock-star inspired character. For the costume design, I was captivated by the excessive ruffles and draped clothing featured in Japanese rock fashion, called visual kei. Other accessories, such as the exorbitant belts, knee high boots, guitar amp, and theme of stars helped to build on the "rockstar" theme I was aiming for. With my ideas thought out through traditional mediums and a finalized digital version of my sketch, I next had to transfer it to Adobe Illustrator.

After transferring my finalized digital sketch onto Adobe Illustrator I traced it using the curvature and pen tool. Not only did I have to consider tracing the figure itself, but also the highlights and shadows casted by the figure. Deciding the placements of highlights and shadows was especially difficult when trying the build the dimensions of the ruffles, but I ultimately settled with what I turned in. When I finished the tracing my design, I curated my custom, analogous, triadic and monochromatic color schemes on Adobe Color. Using these colors plus the live painting tool on Illustrator, I purposefully chose the placements of my colors for my custom color scheme. Coloring is a skill I personally struggle with, but I tend to find myself working with primary colors when I do color, which you can see throughout my custom color scheme illustration. With my first iteration completed, I adapted the other color schemes through Illustrator's generative recoloring tool. After minor coloring touches on my next set of iterations, my project was complete!

Custom Color Scheme: