ANM 324 Project 1

For most of you this first project is an adventure and a significant challenge because you are using a totally new piece of software with drawing tools that don’t feel very natural.  I appreciate those challenges and try to push you a bit in how you look at these everyday objects.  You’ll be seeing your skill with Illustrator grow enormously over the course of the first two projects.  Keep up the good work!

Here’s my general grading criteria for this project:

Note: 5pts deducted for missing group critique 10pts for missing submission deadline. You can view your grade and additional comments regarding late submissions or missing comments in the gradebook.

95-100-drawing is accurate, demonstrates good control of tools and includes accurate lighting effects (your subject had a high level of difficulty)

90-95-drawing is accurate, shows adequate control of tools lighting and fills considered but not complete or accurate (subject not as challenging)

85-90-drawing is accurate, fills not complete, lighting not adequately considered

80-85-drawing and use of tools lacks control, lighting not adequately considered

70-80-drawing not controlled, lighting not considered

70-below very late work

Frazier Group

Joseph Leclaire- You’ve incorporated excellent detail in your phone..this demonstrates good control of the drawing tools and an understanding of how a complex object is assembled. I also like the fact that you made your phone more realistic by placing a screen image…very creative. The shadow you’ve applied to the top and right reflects a light source from the bottom left and effectively grounds the phone on the surface. The illustration would be more precise if some of that directional light effect was applied to the surface of the phone. You don’t necessarily need to show shadows off every button but it would be stronger if you added a gradient or highlight on the outer gray bezel. Your phone detail was relatively challenging and you’ve done an excellent job of matching type. Nice work!

Julya Matsakayan
- What strikes me first with your phone is that you’ve used lighting effects to give the keyboard area a very strong tactile form…the buttons look curved along the left side. I wish the overall image were brighter so we could appreciate the full scope of detail of the controls. It looks like you distorted the keypad letters, which is important for perspective but along the left side they look a little too distorted. The darkness at the bottom/right of the phone stands in strong contrast with the screen..to the point that the screen is visually “lifted” off the surface. Iif the bottom were lighter these two parts would look more compatible. I suspect you adjusted the gradient on the screen a lot before you got the look you wanted….what if the white surrounding stroke was darker? This might help. I see your cast shadow and appreciate the fact that you took the light into consideration. It’s a little hard to distinguish the shadow from the body of the phone. The best way to deal with this is to apply a slight blur to establish contrast. Try Effect>Blur>Gaussian Blur…it’s adjustable and works wonders in this situation.

Lucha Olguin-Wow..you really put a lot of detail into your Dish controller…the buttons are excellent. The top view does make it a bit easier since you don’t have to deal with perspective. Nevertheless, the buttons are very accurate and look ike they are spaced precisely….that’s an important skill to master. My only comment is that the body doesn’t appear to be symmetrical. I realize that this is an irregular shape that doesn’t “fit” shape tools and you’ll be learning how to draw very precisely with the pen. In this case, one technique is to draw one half of the shape, say the left side, then select it, copy, paste and reflect> horizontal. You can join the end points of your two halves to create a very precise and symmetrical shape. (select both open end points at top with the direct selection arrow and go Object>Paths>Join and repeat for bottom). I also appreciate the lighting effects with the cast shadow and the hint of a highlight on the green button at top! Overall you’ve done a great job on the controller and have demonstrated good control of the shape tools.

Veronica Ruelas-Deltoro-The addition of the background pattern and brown surface certainly adds interest to the illustration. The view you chose to illustrate is very challenging due to the extreme perspective. It’s very effective and especially good at illustrating the thin form factor of the device. I’m trying to read that name at the bottom…I suspect you chose this view so you could include the illustration of the cord. The phone itself is not quite as challenging in terms of buttons and switches that some devices have…I do appreciate the strong lighting effects you’ve added to ground the phone on the surface and the gradient applied to the screen looks very consistent with the imaginary light source. The shadow would be more realistic if it were blurred just a touch. I like to use Effects>Blur>Gaussian Blur since it allows a very precise amount of
blur to be applied. Very creative!

Christina Tovani
- You’ve chosen to illustrate a rather complex view of your phone…it would be quite simple as purely a top view. The side and top of the phone are showing which requires perspective. In this case the top edge should be thinner with the corners aligned to a vanishing point that’s consistent with the bottom left..I have added a drawing to clarify…it’s sometimes hard to explain this in words. I do like the detail in your screen where the bezel and screen meet. It looks like the speaker and camera openings are a little out of focus…wouldn’t they be as crisp as the screen. It would be an added plus if you showed the effect of light by casting a shadow onto the surface.

Alaura Glenn-You chose to illustrate your controller with a much more artistic style. This is certainly an optional technique for using illustrator, but it doesn’t take advantage of the drawing precision that the software offers. In spite of this, I do appreciate the free-form style that you’ve used and it has allowed you to apply very stylized color effects using live color. I also appreciate the fact that you considered the effect of light on your controller..this gives the device form and ground it’s on the surface. This is not the technique that I expected students to use for the project as we develop our skills with the primary illustration tools. I would encourage you to practice drawing your controller with the primary tool set. These skills will be very important for our next project.

Rosenwald Group

Malcome Blackhall-Your TV controller looks great, almost photorealistic. The detail is exceptional and I especially appreciate the precise spacing of the buttons. The text is also very precise and the fonts fit the device. Lighting effects have been applied to the controller body as well as the buttons…the drop shadows on the buttons result in outstanding visual relief. I also noted that you used named layers to organize the groups of elements in the controller…that really helps as illustrations become more complex. Outstanding work..look forward to seeing your next project!

Sitarah McDonald-I haven’t seen this Sony controller before but it looks very cool with the ball on top. The outline of the device is a little rough due to the short strokes used to draw..we’ll be learning how the pen toll will make this much more easier and more accurate. The highlight of your illustration is the “highlight” which has been offset down the middle of the controller. Using a gradient in this manner gives the device a very dramatic curved form. The body is more realistic than the ball. I would consider making the ball two separate hemispheres and apply the gradient independently to each half to more accurately show its rounded surface. It would be a plus if you added a cast shadow of the device to ground it on the surface.

John Pastor-You’ve done a wonderful job of outlining your controller..the shape is very precise and symmetrical. The buttons have also been very accurately illustrated and applied to the surface. Button shapes, icons and text adds to the realism. I like the drop shadow and blur which looks very accurate…I also see the cast shadow that’s been drawn under the large round buttons. I think it would have been more complete if you did the same for the cross-shaped R and L button. Overall, you’ve illustrated the controller very accurately.

Ruchi Shah-Your bright red controller is very striking…You’ve included excellent detail with the buttons and thumb controls. I especially like the slightly darker shapes you’ve drawn to illustrate the rounded shape of the handgrips. The direction of light has been consistently applied to surfaces and you’ve used multiple shapes with tints of color to give the illusion of depth, such as on the thumb buttons. This is very strong work and demonstrates both a good understanding of lighting and control of the drawing tool.

Melinda Welsfry-The flip phone is somewhat nostalgic in this day of full screen smartphones. It’s a good subject for the project with the array of keys, screen and the added challenge of illustrating the two halves of the device. It looks like you have good control of the basic shapes and the phone looks accurate and symmetrical. You’ve also done a good job of aligning all the buttons and applying the type…scale and positioning of type (too close to the edge of some button shapes) should be more consistent. I would like you to show more lighting effects to give form to the phone. A cast shadow, consistent with the direction of the gradient would both ground the device but also establish its depth and form. You’ve used strokes to define all the shapes…consider turning off the stroke in some instances, such as the bottom of the phone, and just let the fill color define the shape. This usually looks more realistic.

Kroencke Group

Carolann Clark-I like the dramatic perspective of your iPhone! This is much more challenging to draw but much more interesting to view. The basic shapes that make-up the phone look precise.The corner points are a little complex with curved segments and the corners of the rectangles both visible. The best way to deal with this is to just modify the corners of the rectangles with the convert anchor point tool, which allows you to turn an angled corner into a curved corner. I realize you didn’t have any experience with this tool for the project, but I want to point out the technique that would be most successful. You did show the effect of light with the gradient on the screen and the slightly darker tint of the side of the phone that’s oppositie the light source. The addition of a cast shadow to ground the phone would be plus. Thanks for challenging yourself with this view of the phone.

Roxana Jonczyk- Wow..what a eye-popping view of your flip phone. This is an “old-school” device that predates our fancy smart phones. The illustration looks wonderful! You’ve done a very precise illustration of the phone. It demonstrates excellent skill with the drawing tools. I especially like the controlled application of gradients on the buttons and phone surfaces, which give a natural, curved look to those elements. The highlight on the chrome bezel is especially well done. The shadow at the bottom of the phone places the phone in space and grounds it on the surface. My only question is whether the font you chose is meant to accurately reflect the original phone. I doubt they would use a stylized font like Peignot, rather than a very simple and more readable san-serif font. This is a very minor point…you’ve done a great job with the illustration.

Damon Lyon-Your illustration of the iPhone is almost photorealistic. You’ve illustrated the smallest details to include the tiny type on the back with skill. The highlight to me is the addition of a very realistic gradient to the curved edges of the case. That level of detail makes the phone come to life on the screen. The cast shadows are precise and applied consistently to the camera lens on the back. The on-off button on front is recessed so to be precise it would be slightly darker at the left edge. I’d use a very slight gradient to illustrate this lighting effect. Overall you’ve done a great job with your illustration!

Sarah Spitzer- Your flip-phone is very well drawn. The phone itself is very simple, especially from this view. What makes it interesting is the addition of the texture. At first I thought you may have found a symbol or graphic style to make the woven pattern but it looks like it’s made by hand with a lot of individual shapes. It has great texture..I want to reach out a touch the phone. You have also included good lighting effects with the gradient across the case, which helps give the phone a curved form as well as showing the smooth surface. I would like to see a cast shadow to help ground the phone on the surface and perhaps a subtle gradient on the small screen.

Anita Kunz Group

Tanea Devriend-Your Wii controller is very precisely drawn. It looks like you’ve taken time to arrange and align the buttons and icons to make them as perfect as possible. I especially like the lighting effect you’ve added to the A button. It’s got a very realistic concave appearance. I would like to see you be consistent with this lighting and show the cast shadow around the cross button at top and possibly at the edge of the small round buttons. The flat surface of the controller would also be enhanced by a very subtle gradient going across as well as a cast shadow to ground the device on the surface. You clearly have very good drawing skills.

Melissa Whaley- What an interesting view of the iPhone. This perspective adds challenge to the illustration but also provides an opportunity to learn a lot about the drawing tools. My first impression was that there wasn’t enough contrast in the screen and phone face to make all the details visible. I took the liberty to lighten the web image a touch just to more clearly see your illustration. The detail looks good but the perspective on the top is slightly off as the left and right top edges do not recede to a common vanishing point. Although this element slightly off, I do like your treatment of the buttons on the top, which are very accurately drawn…nice! The shadow at the bottom is effectively grounding the phone and is consistent with light from the top, which is also reflected in the gradient you’ve added to the top edge. Your lighting effects are a highlight of the illustration!

Jorge Oceguera-That bright orange background really highlights the illustration of your phone. You’ve incorporated very good detail on the screen face as well as the keyboard. I would expect to see the letter/numbers on the keys and it doesn’t look like the arrangement of the keys is symmetrical…the align tool in Illustrator is the tool of choice for making very accurate arrangements of elements like this. I do appreciate the lighting effect on the screen and the cast shadows. Where the shadow shapes overlap creates a darker area. To make this more consistent, you can select both shapes (hold down the shift key to do this) and then go to the Pathfinder palette and select the merge option. Oh yeah, the addition of the Verizon image is a nice touch.

Christina Richardson-I’m not that familiar with all the array of gaming devices but I think this is a Nintendo player? I do like the addition of the Mario game on the screen, which adds realism. The player itself appears to be drawn accurately. To me the center section just below the black screen frame is the most effective with gradients giving it a great looking curved-edge shape. The bottom screen is quite flat in comparison. I do see the effect of light in both the gradient on the screen and the cast shadows on the buttons. I would expect to see a cast shadow under the device itself. I see some curved lines and a filled long curved shape but they aren’t visually consistent with the overall shape..looks a little odd. I would recommend removing those shapes and just add a drop shadow to the base and top to ground them to a flat surface.