30 Original:
Reflectin':
After almost 7 hours in the computer labs (switching over each time one closed), it's safe to say I knew a lot less than I thought about making silhouttes. Having only scanned line drawings into Photoshop before this assignment, it never occured to me how hard it would be to fill them with a solid color. I ended up using the pen tool on each image to make them look clean-a lengthy process. There may be an easy way to scan in a drawing and fill it without the finished product looking like rubbish, but hell if I know. I started by making original drawings in pencil, then inking them. That was the easy part. I had no theme to begin with-I let the drawings come organically. For whatever reason, most likely because I wanted to be ironic and work with transparent surfaces in my silhouettes, I started with an astronaught in a see-through helmet. Each drawing after that was inspired by the drawing before it, and there you have it-30 drawings in about 2 hours total. Too bad the editing process couldn't be as speedy.
As arduous as this process was, I do think making simple outlines of my characters helped me see things about them I didn't realize in the original sketches. Sometimes I get so caught up in details during the creative process, I miss the big picture-the outline-the silhouette! For this reason, I think I would benefit from making silhouettes of my characters more often, although-for my sanity's sake-I probably will leave the computer out of it. Hooray for analog drawings!
Aw, I really like these! Especially the ones with helmets! I think everyone hates inking on photoshop due to it being the bitchiest of processes. But it does look really clean!
ReplyDeleteBug me to show you a few auto-trace functions in Illustrator n' Flash. That will give you a better starting point!
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