Illustration AI Practice

We each chose one image/photo of our liking, and practice our tracing skills by using the AI software.

This is the image I've chosen.

Progress:

First stage of tracing. I used red because it has the best contrast to my image, as suggested by the lecturer. I try to vary the thickness of my lines.

Close up of my tracing so far.

I added the shadows after that.

My colour in for the shadow parts.

Colour in for the highlight parts.

I added the fireworks last, along with the highlight made by the fireworks. I also changed my outline to blue. This is the final outcome.

Close up for the final outcome.

Original image & AI trace image

Rodchenko: Defining Constructivism

Political advertising and education
Rodchenko and Popova both produced propaganda and educational posters. The Bolsheviks recognised the importance of boldly designed visual materials in winning support for their ideas, especially given the low levels of literacy in Tsarist Russia.

Among Rodchenko’s projects was a series of posters illustrating the history of the Bolshevik party, incorporating archival images, excerpts from newspapers and other documents. Rather than imposing an overarching narrative, Rodchenko’s design encourages viewers to immerse themselves in the historical material, sift the evidence and make their own assessment.

This section also includes slogan-posters designed by Popova as projected elements for Earth in Turmoil 1922–3, a theatrical collaboration with Meirkhol’d. The production was intended to be the visual equivalent of a propaganda poster, with a montage of political quotations, party slogans and film excerpts providing an ideological commentary on the action.

Romanesque Manuscripts Leaflet a.k.a. Flyer

Just, a pamphlet. Something people rarely use nowadays. It's fold-able.

A part of Ideogram - Chinese Character

A short summary: 

According to legend, Chinese characters were invented by Cang Jie (c. 2650 BC), a bureaucrat under the legendary emperor, Huang Di. The legend tells that Cang Jie was hunting on Mount Yang Xu (today Shan Xi) when he saw a tortoise whose veins caught his curiosity. Inspired by the possibility of a logical relation of those veins, he studied the animals of the world, the landscape of the earth, and the stars in the sky, and invented a symbolic system called zi, Chinese characters.

A knowledge of calligraphy is an important step in the understanding of Japanese culture. Calligraphy is not merely an exercise in good handwriting, but rather the foremost art form of the Orient. It is the combination of the skill and imagination of the person who has studied intensely the combinations available using only lines. In the West, calligraphy was intended to suppress individuality and produce a uniform style. Japanese calligraphy (sho in Japanese) attempts to bring words to life, and endow them with character. Styles are highly individualistic, differing from person to person. Japanese calligraphy presents a problem for westerners trying to understand it; the work is completed in a matter of seconds so the uninitiated cannot really appreciate the degree of difficulty involved. However, bear in mind that the characters must be written only once. There is no altering, touching up, or adding to them afterwards.

A quick use of Chinese Ink with a calligraphy pen, on a piece of textured soft white paper.

Kaguya Hime

Matte Painting [EDIT]

A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is nonexistent in real life or would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build or visit.

My inspiration was to combine floating islands with distant, icy feel. An abandoned floating kingdom, slowly succumbing to its doom by an ever-closing star.

The setting is in outer space.

Two floating islands in the distance. Pure ice. I played with the colour balance to give it more blue, and increased its curve to give it a glaring highlight.

I added a simple cave. The cave comes from another image I cut and edited.

Front island. Using a soft round brush, I added soft glow around the islands, giving them an other-wordly feel.

I added rainbow waterfalls for two of the islands, showing how they still function properly, and still retains their magical properties.

I added a bit of aurora beaming from the front island. The tip of the ice which has a strong yet subtle glow catches the attention. 

I added a tower for the middle ground island. The overall image is that of an abandoned ice tower.

To make the waterfalls more mystical, I added soft white glow by using a soft round brush.

I added fog to deepen the mysterious feel of the whole kingdom. Desolated, yet has a calm and soothing beauty.

I added the imposing star that is coming ever-so-close towards the icy kingdom, the island that is closer towards the star shows its crumbling state by slowly turning a sickly blue. Its waterfalls also stop flowing because of the invading star. More fog was added to the foreground.

[I edited the fog, making them look more natural and less out of place/rough]

Portrait Shading

After acquiring decent skills and knowledge about shading, we apply those skills and knowledge into shading a human portrait.

Danielle Radcliffe - Harry Potter

I did a rough outline 

(didn't follow at the end)

Base colours

Shadow

Extra details on the face

Hair detail (super messy hair)

Glasses

Scar

Final highlight

Soft round brushes were used often. For smaller details, a hard round brush is used instead.