Reading: 'A Fighter's Heart'
Listening to: 'Leeland'
Eating: Nothing nearly as wonderful as the dishes in this movie look.
It's 11:05 and I'm thoroughly restless. I've spent the last few days making myself familiar with the trials and tribulations surrounding the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. For those who haven't toiled through this program before and haven't a clue what the pen tool is, I'm sorry to say I'm not planning on an in-depth explanation to this complex implement. What I will say is that it is used to create paths -- again, too much to explain -- and vector shapes.
This latest excursion through the world of graphic design was prompted by my boyfriend's departure to the land of Disney, down in Florida. He is a part of the Madrigals, an elite singing group from my high school. They and our phenominal jazz band were participating in some sort of competition with other singing groups and jazz bands. Jared and I have been an item for over four years, and in that period have never been apart for longer than four days. This six day adventure of his just about tore the heart from my chest, especially since it fell during the spring break of our senior year. So, rather than stew in my sans-boyfriend-misery, I found myself trying to force something productive out of my solitude.
I launched into an exhaustive pursuit of intimacy with Illustrator. Knowledge of this program is desirable for a person who wants to do well in the ever progressing graphic design industry, of which I am an avid student.
My romantic weekend with Illustrator consisted of building faces out of vector shapes. I started out by using a picture of myself and tracing over my features with the pen. Tracing is mainly placing a point over the edge of what ever item it is you're hoping to trace. You place a second point to continue the path, and as many more as you need to until the item is covered, and then click on the original point to close the path. You then use the direct selection tool to click on the points that govern the paths that need editing, which will activate directional handles which you may then use to direct the paths. (Don't use this as instruction. There are many tutorials available that will give you step by step, do-no-wrong instructions.) I traced first my eye brows, then the shading of my face, then my lips, my eyes, and finally my hair. I added the actual skin of my face last.
With what I learned about faces and shading, I went on to create a couple more images.
Aside from getting better at path manipulation, I learned a lot about the use of layers. I also learned about grouping and the use of pathfinder. My knowledge of these applications is about as advanced as my knowledge of a dangerous firearm; I know how to shoot one, but I couldn't tell you the actual mechanics of the device. To that extent, I still have a lot to learn about the tools I played with this week.
