Working From Home

I have broken down your agenda for each day this week. Please reach out if you have any questions!

1. Tuesday: go to https://vectr.com/ and create an account. This is a free program and it will look and feel different than it’s friend, Adobe Illustrator. I want you to spend at least 15 minutes getting a little familiar with the workspace. Identifying and testing out various tools, finding where your layers are located, how to change colors, and how to export files.

2. Wednesday: look up examples of Typography Portraits. Take some time and notice how the different artists use words to define features. Notice where the text is smaller and larger. Then, spend some time brainstorming a subject you would want to have for our Type “Portrait” Project. It does not have to be a person. You could choose an animal or food or flower, etc. Look through your phone gallery and see if you have photographs of yourself, a family member, friend, pet, flower, etc. or look for chosen photos online.

3. Thursday: Upload your chosen reference image to Vectr and use the Type tool to start adding text on your image. Each time you type a word it automatically creates a new layer. Change the color of the text to the image under it. Take your time arranging the text and tilting it, enlarging it, and changing its color. You can take the visibility off your reference to see what your text is looking like. Don’t be discouraged! – this takes some time for our text to actually start looking like the reference you choose. Try and spend 30 minutes working today.

4. Friday: Spend another 30 minutes working on your type portrait. At the end of your work time, export and share your in-progress work with me. You can keep the visibility of your reference image in the image.

Typography Project

Project Outline:

https://rooseveltgraphicarts.wordpress.com/projects/typography/

You will need to download your own font and arrange text so it reflects your chosen image. What words are the most important? Make those larger.

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Typing on a path:

With the pencil tool:

draw a path for one word that reflects the shape of your chosen image, then hover with the text tool over the path, click and type

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Expanding the text:

With the text tool:

right click>Create outlines     or   Object > Envelope Distort

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Fonts:

Vector fonts: Shared > RHS > Students > Fine Art > Typography!

DAFONT.COM >INSTALL

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Envelope Distort>Make with Mesh

 

What our digital design is lacking that those hand lettered example have is the free flowing shapes of the text. The hand lettering illustrators will draw the words to match required shape, but it takes some skill to plot the letters so they fit perfectly. Instead we can use the Envelope Distort tool to manipulate and tweak the shape of our text until we’re happy. Select the first word and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Mesh.

Add just one row but select a number of columns roughly equal to the number of letters in the word. The more columns there are the more the word can be reshaped, which is important for those words that need to fit into complex areas.

Use the Direct Selection tool to select each point of the mesh and move it into place to manipulate the text into the shape of the silhouette outline. Don’t forget to adjust the bezier handles to generate smooth curves.

Shorter words don’t require as many mesh points because they’re smaller in size. Make just 2 columns for a two letter word.

Some words will require some considerable manipulation to distort them into the required shape. Move those mesh points around to stretch the letters, but try to keep each column of the mesh equal in size so the letters are still evenly spaced.

For words on the second line the mesh points will need manipulating on the top and bottom so the word follows the flow between the existing text and the silhouette outline.

 

 

 

 

Uploading Minimal Posters

1. Continue to work on your 3 minimal posters. Remember: each poster needs a subtle gradient and/or a texture.

2. When you finish your 3 Minimal Posters, follow the directions in the link to upload you posters to your online portfolio and answer the questions about your artwork: https://rooseveltgraphicarts.wordpress.com/your-blog/minimal-movie-post/

3. If are finished with step 2, create another minimal poster, start/continue to work on an independent project, or spend some time editing your settings/preferences in wordpress to make your online portfolio your own.