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Tapestry Design Samples

Your tapestry design must be based on a theme like the samples shown below. It can be anything.

Texture-Patterns

Slideshow

Lock Items
It is often useful to lock items in position on the artboard in order to not affect them while working. To do so, click CMD-2. To unlock all items, click CMD-Option-2.

CG4_Illustrator_Preferences

This is where there are settings files for Illustrator. To get to this folder in Mac OS X Lion, you'll need to click on the Go menu in the Finder. Hold the Option key. Choose Library. Then follow the rest of the path.

If you're having trouble with Illustrator acting up, just quit and trash the Illustrator Settings file called Adobe Illustrator Prefs.

Introduction to Illustrator

We're going to use this exercise as a warmup for the semester. The goal of the exercise is to use important Illustrator tools to build the shown art

Project Highlights

  • We will design artwork like the one below using drawing & transform tools in Illustrator.
  • We'll walk through this exercise in class together.
  • This exercise is due by the end of class.

Illustrator Set Up

Before we get to work, we'll spend a few minutes setting up Illustrator. We'll:

  • Modify the default document
  • Load a custom set of keyboard shortcuts.
  • Load colour handling instructions.

The Parameters

tapestry_document_setup

New Document
Create a new “Letter Portrait” document in CMYK mode and with units set to inches.
The Art Board for your tapestry must measure 4.25" X 5.5" tall, plus a 1/8" bleed.
Layers
Creating Layers in Illustrator isn't quite as important as in Photoshop. Each object gets its own layer by default. We'll take a look at what this means. Either way, whatever you create, you should name.
Mixing Colours
You will use Kuler to create a colour scheme. It should have no more than four colours in it. Use fewer if possible. We'll set the swatches as global colours.
Patterns
Your piece must contain at least two patterns. See the bottom of this page to learn how to make a pattern.
A Title
Your design should have a theme to it, like the provided samples. Write it below the page. Create outlines, so you don't need to provide fonts with your work

Software Skills

Drawing:
Drawing simple shapes, drawing with the pen tool, editing paths, specify direction line and direction points
Colour:
Selecting colours, using creating swatches, patterns,
Selecting and arranging objects:
Selecting objects, Grouping and expanding objects, Moving, aligning, and distributing objects, Rotating and reflecting objects, Using layers, Locking, hiding, and deleting objects, Stacking objects, Duplicating objects
Reshaping objects:
Transforming objects, Scaling, Combining objects, Cutting and dividing objects, Clipping masks, Reshaping objects with effects
Live Effects
There are shapes in this piece that have multiple, stacked strokes and fills. We'll use the Appearance Palette to accomplish this.

Tapestry Exploded

Tapestry_Exploded

You should start with the background, and build your artwork from the back forward.

  • Rotate holding Option to constrain rotation.
  • Use CMD-D to repeat the last move/copy.
  • Use the Eye Dropper to sample colours
  • Use Paste in Front and Paste in Back (CMD-F or CMD-B)
  • Use the Scale tool. (S key then Enter)
  • Use Select > Same ...
  • Keep samples of patterns, colours and gradients on pasteboard to sample from.

Illustrator Patterns

Creating patterns in Illustrator is remarkably easy. Follow the steps below to create original patterns.

  1. With the Rectangle Tool, draw a square
  2. (Hold the Shift key while dragging the rectangle tool to constrain the proportions)
  3. Draw elements of your pattern along the left edge of the square.
  4. Option-drag the bottom-left corner of the artwork to the right-bottom corner.
  5. Delete the new square, leaving your pattern elements.
  6. Draw pattern elements along the bottom of the square.
  7. Option-drag the top-left corner of the artwork to the top-left corner.
  8. Delete the new square, leaving your pattern elements.
  9. Fill your original square with more pattern elements.
  10. Select the square with the selection tool.
  11. Set its Fill and Stroke to none.
  12. At this point, you have a clear square with the pattern items on top.
  13. You can drag all the artwork to the “Swatches” palette.

Now you can draw any shape you wish and fill it with your newly created pattern, as illustrated.

Make a Seamless Pattern

Follow the steps below to create a seamless repeating pattern. Keep the individual shapes looking random — not too big, not too small. There's a video tutorial here.

illustrator_patterns

Working With Gradients

Deliverables

tapestry_deliverables

This is a simple one. Just hand in your illustrator file named lastname,firstname,4X0.ai. Make sure you indicate the title of your theme. Outline the fonts. Make sure there are none in your documents by checking Type > Find Fonts.


What's important:

  • Your compliance with the required elements listed on this page
  • The precision of the positioning of elements (no gaps, equal distances, etc...)
  • The aesthetic value of the final piece