Artist Trading Cards

The assignment:

Artist Trading Cards

You will be creating Artist Trading Cards. 

The format for this assignment is 2.5"x 3.5". You can use Bristol board or other types of paper (or other media) cut to the required size.  You can also buy these ACTs cards precut and in a variety of paper types.

The theme for this assignment is the principles and elements of design.  Incorporate the dry media of your choice. No paint, markers, or inks. You may use one or a combination of dry media and/or collage.

The Project may be completed using any style or imagery of your choice. You may work abstractly, expressively, or realistically. Your imagery may be cartoonlike, collage, or any style you want to work in. You may even want to vary the styles from card to card. Your choice.

Your only limitations are: You may not use a computer application to render the illustrations and you must use only dry media. 

Be creative!

My submissions:

 

Poster for a Cause

My son has an Earth Day Birthday, making the yearly event very special in our house. We are cautious conservationists and we appreciate all the Earth [and sky!] has to offer. I made this poster in Adobe Illustrator.

Composition

I love this project because it is a collaborative effort. My son took the background photo and I put the rest together.

We were to make a composition with a dominant image and 

supporting images all around.

We were then to resize each image to be equal.

Visual Identity

We were given an assignment to come up with a theoretical business package and pick one element and present it. I chose my "imagined" business card.

I love the sky. I am what I like to call a “sky nerd”. I love everything about the sky: rainbows, sunrises, sunsets, clouds, storms and the stars. The moon is probably my favorite feature. I know that it will have to take a role in my visual identity. I have created a business card. I felt like I could not describe it without an example.

I will be using the visual concept of the black background and the image of the moon on all of the implements of my design business. For the letterhead, envelopes and the website, I will simply use a black bar across the top and down the left side with the image of the moon; the details of the business and name of my company in white. The rest will be white with black lettering. I feel like this color scheme will stand out among others. Black and white catches the eye. The black background is unexpected. I have ventured away from my favorite and beloved blue. I have stepped out of my comfort zone.

As for the name, I needed to include the word “moon”. I had to really think. One of the things that I really like about the moon is that it changes all the time. It changes rapidly as it rises and sets. It changes all month long and from season to season. So, I chose the word “phase” to demonstrate that fact. As for the imagery, I chose a photo from my personal collection that I took of the moon in October. I have included the original image and the Illustrator file.

Disclaimer: the ugly gray box was not part of the original design.

Quote Comes to Life

Using Adobe Illustrator, I took one of my favorite quotes and made it social media "meme"-worthy. I chose a very comfortable typeface called "Architects Daughter".

Movie Poster

The assignment was to take multiple images and use it to create a movie poster. Typography, adjustments, selections, filters and formatting were all used in this piece.
The technical steps are below.

Two Web Movie Ads

The first one I chose was the “billboard” style web ad. The specifications were 970 x 250 pixels.

Instead of worrying about legalities, I simply strolled through my vast personal collection to find the images that created a story. I followed their lead.

The main image is of my son standing at the edge of the ocean in Virginia Beach. It’s Christmas break, which is why he is wearing a jacket. I think it adds to the ominous idea behind a child being called into the ocean by an unknown source. Had it been summer, it would be an expected, boring image of a kid at the beach.

The other image is a huge statue of King Neptune that is found at the 34th Street Park in Virginia Beach. I took that photo on the same trip.

Steps:

Main Image – I transformed the photo to fit the long, narrow specifications of the web ad. I had to copy and delete Nick out of a second copy of the image since it did not fit all the way across. This dictated the placement of Neptune because there is a seam behind him where the two copies meet. I then made a copy of the layer, changed the type to Overlay. From the Filter Gallery I chose Film Grain. Grain 4; highlight 6, Intensity 5. I went back to Layer 1 and changed the Opacity to 75%, the Exposure to -1.32 and the Offset to -0.289.

Neptune – I selected him on a transparent layer. I copied the layer, changed the type to Overlay. I changed the Saturation to 0 to achieve a black and white image. I increased the lightness to +7. From the Filter Gallery I used Texturizer – Sandstone. Scaling 156% Relief 1 Light from Top Right. I then had to flip him horizontally so he would be facing the inside of the ad and the child.

Title – I chose Kingthings Calligraphy in white. 30 pt. I put a 2 pt black stroke on the letters to make them stand out a little more. I added the following effects: Outter Glow with a Darken Blend Mode and Opacity at 88%. A Drop Shadow, Multiply Blend Mode, Opacity 90%, Distance 11 px. I added an Emboss with a depth of 75% and size 8 px.

PG 13 – I found this on a random website explaining the meanings of the ratings. Motleyvision.org.

Actors Names – I used Calibri Bold in Grey, with a black 1 pt stroke.

Tagline – Calibri Bold, 12 pt. I added a Drop Shadow, Multiply Blend Mode, Opacity 55%, Distance 4 px and size 5 px.

For the second web ad, I chose the Portrait style. Specifications are 300 x  1050 pixels.

Steps:

I used the same effects for the images in this ad, with a little different cropping and transforming to fit. I kept the same formatting for all of the text, adjusting for size, as needed. The only exception was merging the layers of the Actors names and then making a copy on top to make them a bit bolder.

Neptune – I used the same image as in the other ad, but for this one, I changed his opacity to 75% and used to smudge tool to blend him into the ocean a bit.

Posterization

I took a favorite photo of my daughter and added some of my own treatments. I tried to make it posterized and optimized. I added blending, adjustments, colors, etc.

 This is the original image.

This is the finished product. 

I used a wonderful picture of my daughter. It has some bright colors and lots of contrast. Here are my final procedures and settings:

Blur > Surface Blur > Radius 35 > Threshold 24
Texture > Grain > Intensity 3 > Contrast 40 > Type Speckle
Poster Edges > Thickness 2 > Edge Intensity 0 > Posterization 4 > Fade Poster Edges > Opacity 82% > Multiply
Copy Layer
Images > Adjustments > Posterize > Levels 15
Layer – Blend > Overlay
Hue/Saturation > -20