A student recently dared me to do an assignment alongside the class, so I took on the Heraldry project. I challenge students to choose a group that they'd consider "their people" - friends, family, neighborhood, heritage, faith, fandom, Meyers-Briggs type, people with the same dominant hand, etc. and make an emblem to represent what they're all about.
I tried to stick to the project requirements. I really did, but it went a little bit sideways and became more of a self portrait. Sometimes the work wants to be what it wants to be.
Vector drawing in Adobe Draw with my Apple Pencil and Adobe Illustrator with my Wacom Cintiq.
Other than the drawing of me and the icons for Adobe Draw and Adobe Illustrator, the entire piece is made up of bits of old drawings - I tweaked the size, arrangement, and colors of all of them to make something new. The banners are a nod to my signature in my art emails. Getting everything to work well together was crazy challenging, but I think the fight was good for me. Plus, picking through my old work and seeing the horrifying mistakes I made a few years back was a nice reminder of how far I've come.
Progress shots. This drawing was a terrible slog. I don't think I've fought with a drawing this much in years, but I think I finally won.
Shapes and Outlines. This drawing has upwards of 400K shapes, and it takes me a solid three minutes to save it whenever I make changes.
One student asked to see my layers while the piece was still in Adobe Draw. We agreed that it would make a neat animation.
Shared by Illustrator on social media, January 2018. Thanks Adobe!
