Kaiju
SUMMARY:
This Project was meant to explore my new-found knowledge and skills using Adobe Illustrator. I created a piece that interoperates the narrative of “A spider in the middle of the ocean, but not underwater.” For this project, I was to: Create my own color pallets, trace and create images using both pen and brush drawing tools as well as combining and constraining shapes. I wanted to convey a sense of peace and wonder. These are key factors of creativity and work well for someone who wants to bring their imagination to life.
GOALS:
My goals for this project were to enhance my color pallet skill, placement, and composition skills, and to tap into my illustration skills, specifically for bodies of water. I am a very artistic person when it comes to paper mediums, digitally on the other hand, I had little faith in my abilities given this would be my first go around with drawing from scratch. Also wanted to further my familiarity with the tools of Adobe Illustrator.
SKETCHES/IDEATON:
My initial Idea was to create an image of an actual spider in a funny manner. As seen in the first two sketches I wanted it to include a shark in more of a "Tom and Jerry" nature. With the next four sketches, I decided to interoperate the word spider with the Japanese spider crab since it lives in the ocean already. I played around with the composition and setting of each sketch. I made the crab giant due to the first thought of "Kaiju" when I made the change in subject. For my last two sketches, my interpretations were very literal. I drew a spider on in the middle of the word "ocean" on top of an ocean spray bottle.
FINAL SKETCH:
This was my final sketch. I decided to go with eh Kaiju spider crab as my main subject. I wanted to show the size by adding islands to the composition and water ripples or splashes to separate the ocean from the crab and show that he walks on the ocean floor.
NARRATIVE:
This Crab was born different from all the other spider crabs in the ocean. He was exposed to radioactive energy at birth. This energy wiped out his entire family so he was forever alone. He always longed to know the world above the sea because he never fit in. Fortunately, he grew to the size of a titan so his exploration had no limits.
GOALS:
My goals for this project were to enhance my color pallet skill, placement, and composition skills, and to tap into my illustration skills, specifically for bodies of water. I am a very artistic person when it comes to paper mediums, digitally on the other hand, I had little faith in my abilities given this would be my first go around with drawing from scratch. Also wanted to further my familiarity with the tools of Adobe Illustrator.
PROGRESSION:
To begin the project I found two very important images. One image was of a Japanese spider crab, the other was of an island. These two complements would guide me for the main subject of the illustration. I started off with the spider crab because I felt it would be more difficult, but once I began I quickly became more sufficient in my drawing abilities and it turned out to be fine.
Once I finished the base outline I began to create a color pallet for the crab and the Island. For the crab, I played around with a dark red and created a gradient that consisted of it, and white to more resemble what a spider crab actually looks like. From there I found the texture tool and gave the crab a grainy shell-like body. I then worked on the Island, Finding the right greens and tans for the hills, trees, and sand. After that, I added reflections to the entirety of the island. Once that was finished, I worked on the background which consisted of using the shape-builder tool to make a half-circle moon and a rectangular sky. I downscaled the moon to add the glow effect, gave the moon itself a gradient, and then gave it some texture.
My next steps were to create a body of water. This was the most anticipated step of the entire process. The true secret to this was finding the right texture and using the brush tool to create the ripple effects where the legs of the crab meet the water. At first, I scaled and copied the ripples but I found that hand-drawing each looked much better. as far as color, I played around with the hue of the blue that I used for the sky. I also added a reflection of the crab using the object transform tool and changed its opacity.
FINAL IMAGE:
The final touches on the project consisted of creating small circles for the starts. This was by far the easiest part of this project. I would use the select tool, copy, and then paste my first clusters. Afterward, I added a few upscaled stars.
KNOWLEDGE GAINED:
Throughout this entire project, almost every tool used was fairly new to me. When creating the image I hit many roadblocks on what to use and where to use them but the more trial and error I put in the more success and newfound knowledge came out. To list off my biggest come-ups, I will start with the texture tool. At the beginning of the project I had no knowledge of it, and when I stumbled across it, it soon became my best friend and the core component of creating a body of water. Though it was a big win, I will still say the biggest addiction I had during this project was the use of the reflect tool and the magic it works when used with the change of opacity. Shadows and ripples played a tremendous role in this project and I enjoyed using them every chance that I got. I used templates for two main illustrations of the piece, and this really helped me get comfortable with using the pen tool for the main illustrations. I also explored scaling which helped a lot with time management and repetitive perfection.
