Digital Illustration (WK3) - Seven Deadly Sins

This week, we were asked to find a unique way to represent 1 of the 7 Deadly Sins. I chose to represent Wrath, which is characterized as "uncontrolled, excessive, and vengeful anger, distinct from righteous anger, that seeks harm, leading to violence, hatred, and destructive acts like murder or feuds, rather than justice. It's characterized by rage, a desire for vengeance, and a loss of reason, transforming normal anger into a deadly sin that poisons the soul and clouds judgment" (Google AI Overview).

I chose to depict a porcelain mask, void of emotion, to represent the societal mask and the initial control over a person's anger before it transforms into wrath. The concept is that behind the mask, the rage/anger turns to wrath and breaks through, destroying the mask. I thought of the phrase "rage boiling over" while I was creating this, which gave me the idea to learn how to create smoke that morphs to represent demon/devil horns (representing the point of no return). 


I used the pen tool for the majority of this project, including creating the smoke. I learned how to do this using this YouTube video: How to Make an Illustrator Smoke Brush

To summarize the video, I drew a singular straight line and used CTRL+D to repeat the line for about 20 seconds. Then I drew my smoke shape separately with the pen tool, highlighted both, and combined them. I did this by selecting Object>Envelope Distort>Make with Top Object. I was then able to adjust the anchor points to get the shapes I wanted using the Direct Selection tool and change the opacity.

In addition to the pen tool, I also used a gradient mesh just around the edges of the mask. Again, it was important to the overall piece that the mask look bare and have a porcelain appearance, but I didn't want it to look flat. I added a red drop shadow because red is often associated with anger and other intense emotions, and I wanted to add some depth while conveying the sense that the anger was transforming into wrath. 

It's safe to say I learned a lot while working on this piece, hopefully you did too! 

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