Illustrator Blog

My Soccer Sketch

I drew a soccer ball atop of grass with the sun in the corner of the sketch. First, I used lines inside the soccer ball and to set the horizon for the drawing. I also tried to make jagged lines to show the grass. Then, I used the regular colors that you would expect to see on all my objects, but I made sure to make the sky blue so that it wouldn't be too harsh or hard on the eyes (dark blue may resemble night).  For the grass's texture, as I mentioned, I used jagged lines to create a cartoon-sort image. I made the soccer ball the biggest part of the sketch, as it was the focus point. I used shapes such as circles to make the sun and ball, and used triangles for the sun's rays. I used squares and hexagons inside the ball as well. Finally, I decided not to have anything going on in the background, as to give the soccer ball space (as talked about in one of the key elements of graphic design). Finally, regarding value, I made the sky a light blue to create a peaceful image.

Adobe Illustrator Time

I then used Adobe Illustrator to recreate my sketch, but this time's objective was to use basic shapes and colors as well as the new tools to make this possible. So, to start off, I drew two rectangles that bordered each other to resemble the ground and sky. Then I made a circle with the shaper tool and moved it to the corner. As I made it yellow, I also created triangles to resemble the sun's rays. For the focus point of the project, I created a huge circle using the shaper tool and kept it white. Inside, I used the shaper tool again to create squares and a hexagon for the design of the ball (I colored these black). Finally, I used the pencil tool to connect the shapes inside the ball and also used this tool for the grass's texture.

The Shaper Tool

We were introduced to this tool which allowed you to draw a shape freehand and it would automatically snap to the perfect size and measurements of that shape. Pretty cool, right? This turned out to be easier than trying to draw shapes or making them with the pencil tool. It also takes place of the eraser tool as well. In our design with the shaper tool, we created a big circle, and then grabbed from the right side of the circle and cut off 1/4 of the shape. We then made a smaller circle and overlapped the original circle's center, making them combine. Finally, we made an even smaller circle and put it in the center of the two circles. We "punched a hole" in the design by drawing a jagged line with shaper tool to erase the smallest circle. There were a few learning curves, but the shaper tool is a lot easier to work with. I like Adobe Illustrator's features such as the shaper tool and pencil tool in general. Finally, it's cool that you can blow up a picture and it won't get pixelated!