Project: Texture

Project
Illustrate with text. The teacher showed us examples and, unfortunately, I can’t find them online. Most were from former students. We were also given the choice to use the original photograph in the background, but I got sick and missed that lecture so made do with what I had. It was also limited to one font family (ie Times, Helvetica). Because of this, we should pick one with other styles like Palatino or Myriad.

Mechanics
In Illustrator, place the image. Lock it. Use the pencil to draw the various sections, using “option” key to make sure it’s a closed piece. Make a box the size of the shape off to the side. Type in the box and use whatever to make it darker (bigger font, bolder, tighter, etc.).

Put shape on top of box of text.

Object -> clipping mask -> make

Put the shape back on there.

I used the same text just different pieces of it for the person but the background was a different text. The layers were named and grouped so that it was easy to find what I wanted and to turn viewability off and on easily.

To do an image in the back (I think), you take the original into Photoshop, grayscale it, then bitmap. Save as a tiff for the grayscale. Then go back in to image mode and halftone it (screen ellipse 150 freq) for a different version. but like I said, I didn’t do that part.

Stages

Too much contrast under the lip and not enough contrast anywhere else. Hair’s not wild enough.

So much left to do. I had all the other pencil drawn pieces filled with blue. I kind of like it actually. I suppose it’s similar to putting a photo in with the text, creating a difference in texture and how it’s created.

I decided all the hair parts (hair and mustache) should be italics. I did bold for the eyes. I wanted the text of this famouse 1905 paper to be the grey of the paper. It seemed so static, though.

I turned the text of the paper in the background at an angle. I think it enlivens it a bit. There’s such darkness in the shirt and not enough in the top half of him. But time ran out.

And then…
Right before I printed, I tried to lighten up a section of his shirt by highlighting the text and making the font white. It was a very interesting contrast… If I had thought of it sooner, I may have put some of the important text in white to be the highlights in his shirt instead of just using tracking/kerning to do the shading. I do like how the text in his shirt looks like the weaving of fabric. I wish I had drawn more sections in the hair. It’s too flat.

I also wish that it were easier to do text from his papers. There were too many formulas. But to do it so that the formula he is so famous for could stand out would have been neat.

Critique
Added April 7, 2005

Went over the purpose again:

• learn detailing, precision, study how to bring out elements
• can use things other than color to show/emphasize texture
• different texture creates values, highlights/shadows from the face
• “water down” by spacing it out between: leading (lines), kerning (letters), tracking (between all).
• colorized images behind the text gave it a totally new look

Not everyone put a colorized version of the original photograph behind. I didn’t. Though since I was out sick, I couldn’t remember exactly how to do it.

Random pointers:

• contrast the background to bring out the portrait, lighter or darker near figure to separate
• don’t have the background elements (this case the font size) the same size because it competes too much
• value has to be there
• separate things from each other

And my piece was “too dense on his left arm area” and that I need to separate by putting some light around the belly. It looked too much like something drapping over there and not like a defined arm. I was going for that, but it failed if it was considered an area that needed improving. I was complimented on the eyes and eyelids and that I was playful with the type (not all one angle and such).

I’ll be reworking this piece if I can. Maybe not so dense on the bottom right-hand side of it.