A Little Bird Told Me
The process of making a little bird.
The task was to create vector characters, because a) vector graphics are much more high-res than drawing with the Brush or manual scanning. Since the task was to create an icon, we had to create something that could stand the test of printing and digital resolutions, something that was versatile. And b) we needed to brush up on our Pen tool skills, clearly.
Tracing the scanned vector:
I think one thing that defines my style is the way I draw lines. I don't like to run the pencil over and over again, but prefer long, definite lines, alternating between pressures to give it strength, sort of. So I played around with the strokes below, using the Strokes panel to alternate thickness. Then I went in with the Width tool for more micro-management.
The final result:
Note the difference between the strokes I altered and the ones I didn't. Altering strokes makes it more dynamic.
At first, I was confused as to how I should colour the whole thing. I went into Photoshop to use the Brush tool...
But ended up doing everything in Illustrator instead. Much faster, though I had to clean up the vectors to use Fill Colour.
Colour swatches:
Putting Ze Little Bird into a real-life setting. Some of my classmates created the shadow in Illustrator, but I chose to use Drop Shadows in Photoshop, because it's easier to get a shadow that reflects the bird's shape. Also, I went with a brownish shadow to match the other shadows in the living room setting.
As soon as the shadow is created, right click on the fx symbol on the layer, and choose Create New Layer. This will put the shadow, or any effect you create, into a different layer, allowing for greater flexibility. This way, I can edit the shadow without affecting the vector. To create a more believable shadow, go to Edit > Transform, and play around with Skew, Distort, and my personal favourite, Warp.
A shot of Warp in action:
Sometimes you need to go into Transform more than once to achieve the desired results.
Other initial locations:
People's heads because I'm always in everyone's faces, so I figured a little head love is appropriate. No need to worry about bird poop because it's all virtual. Unless it's a virtual poop. I once downloaded an app that lets you take care of a virtual poop, much like a virtual baby or virtual pet. You can even feed it all sorts of things to make it grow or smell better/worse. It entertained me for three solid days, which is already better than most take-care-of-something-that-you-don't-actually-have-in-real-life apps. Except, in this case, we all poop in real life.
Research for postcard layouts:
Layouting the postcard back in Illustrator:
Decided for the simple-but-it-works layout because sometimes fancy knick-knacks just annoy me, to be honest. Also, four rows in the address space because three just doesn't cut it. Indonesian addresses are long and complicated, like our bureaucracy. Deep, man.
And th-th-th-th-that's all, folks! Stay tuned to see more of Ze Little Birdie, who I'm thinking of naming either Ziggy or Poodie. Ziggy sounds better. I'll sleep on it.