- Reflective Colour space is something that is printed (CMYK) as light reflects off it, Projective Colour space is something which is projected with light (RGB) like colours on a screen.
- Forward slash (/) on the keyboard sets a shape to no fill
The task today was to create this rocket using only four shapes. So to start out I created the main body of the rocket with the eclipse tool which I then manipulated the anchor points to get this pointed carrot shape. To create the multiple strokes without creating extra shapes I will need to use the appearance panel. To add another stroke I needed to go into the appearance panel and simply press the button at the bottom which added another stroke> to make the stroke smaller I went into the effects panel > path > offset path and then offset the path by about -3/2mm. I then went into the stroke panel and turned it into a dashed line by ticking the dashed line box. To then create the checkered pattern I created a series of low opacity lines using the reflect tool and by selecting them all and going into the object>pattern>make menu I made it into a pattern swatch. I then applied it to the full of my shape, however it was too big so I scaled the pattern down using the scale tool, however I made sure to tick the scale pattern box and not scale shape box. I also added a drop shadow to lift it off the page. Using this same method I created the fins and duplicated one with the reflect tool to ensure it reflects in the same position on the opposite side of the rocket. I then grouped these shapes, and added a whole white fill to the outside which gave it this sticker look or something from a cartoon. I then created the porthole using the appearance panel and these same techniques.
Gradient Mesh -
To start with I imported this image of a pear and then turned the layer into a template layer which locked it and turned down the opacity. I then selected the gradient mesh tool and created a rectangle which covered most of the pear. I used the direct selection tool and the add anchor point tool to mould the mesh to the shape of the pear. To make sure this was as accurate as possible I switched from preview mode to outline mode to see exactly where my strokes were. Once my mesh was moulded I added more mesh points using the mesh tool which will add to the accuracy of the gradient mesh when I begin adding the colours. To add blended colour I used the direct select tool to select each anchor point, and then using the eyedropper tool I selected a colour from the image which the anchor point will use to stitch the gradient together. As there is a lot of anchor points I needed to speed up my workflow so I used the shortcut for the direct selection tool (A) and the shortcut for the eyedropper tool (I) which saves me a lot of clicking backwards and forwards between tools. Once all the anchor points were allocated an area the mesh was complete so I repeated the process for the stalk of the pear. I then tweaked some anchor points that didn't look right and selected darker areas for the parts where there was a shadow. Once the mesh was done I then added a texture. I imported a textured image of concrete into illustrator and image traced it. I then lowered the opacity and changed the blending mode to multiply. I then re drew the outline of the pear and used it to clipping mask the texture. I personally did not think the texture went well as it does not look anything like the texture of a pear however now I know how to add a texture for future reference.
I then exported both images as high quality JPEGS
