Digital Illustration (WK1) - Icons (Project 1)

I chose to complete Project 1 from the textbook, as it would help me gain some practice with the Pen tool (which I love... yeah, definitely).

I tried to keep them pretty simple, but I also wanted to practice using gradients and other tools I'm not confident with quite yet. I based these around my small business, which focuses on "witchy" clothing. To prepare for this project, I hand-drew my ideas first and then did my best to translate those drawings into a digital rendering.

I was able to get more practice with the pen tool, ellipse tool, and gradients, as well as complementary colors. I also wanted to make sure they all correlated with each other with similar color schemes and repeating shapes (specifically the stars), but were also different enough that they could be told apart. 


For my first icon, I chose to do my take on the all-seeing eye, which I would use for the "About" section of a website as a shortcut. This was a bit of a challenge, as purple is my favorite color, but yellow is my least favorite, so I naturally steer away from using it. However, purple and yellow are complementary colors, and as much as I hate to admit it, they look really good together. 

The second represents a coven circle (a close-knit group of witches who gather for shared magical practice, spiritual support, and community), which I would use to direct people to social media, community news, or the mailing list. The gradients all needed to use the same assumed light source, so I learned that I could change the degree of the gradient for each individual moon (we've covered this in previous classes, but like I said, I haven't had a lot of practice using this tool, so I'm glad to have gotten the hang of it!).  

The third would be used as a shortcut for new items or anything I want to "shed light on" for customers. This one was more difficult than the first two because I really had to refrain from just using the curvature tool for the dripping wax. I really wanted to challenge myself with this project, and boy, was it a challenge. I wanted to add a gradient, but it just didn't look right on the body of the candle, so I opted to add it to the flame to give it the illusion of burning. 

The final icon would be used as a general shopping icon (or a website link on printed advertisements), represented by an open door as an invitation to enter. I had the most difficulty with this icon, as the depth of field needed to be accurate for the door to look right. I definitely need more practice, but I'm proud of the way it turned out for my first attempt. 

I feel like I learned a lot during the completion of this project, and I'm excited to get more comfortable with these tools! I'm getting more comfortable with the pen tool and venturing out of my comfort zone when it comes to colors I tend to avoid. 

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