Intertwined Beauty

The goal of the illustration project was to create an illustration using Illustrator. The picture requirements were that it be designed with a symbolic mood and portrayal that showed the relationship of the characters in my short story. The colors, shapes and layout represent my story along with typography that further deepens the meaning of the theme and topic in my short story.
Illustrating my short story taught me new techniques in design. Telling a story through a symbolic depiction was challenging. I learned that the configuration of different objects or things in a specific layout and develop a story in its own way. I also figured out how to take an idea from a story and reflect its powerful meaning through a form of art.

With my narrative illustration complete and perfected, I will reflect the message that I designed this piece to communicate. I have used one of my stories that is about a young man who overcomes his fear of going out into the world and when he does he finds a beautiful young woman in New York city. The man, Jimmy, lives a dull, bland life. His home is with his mother in the suburban area of the city and he lives a poor, lonely life without a clear future. The spider represents Jimmy, dark colored and lacking in beauty. When Jimmy goes out into New York, he meets a beautiful young woman. Jimmy leaves his secluded life and as a result, he finds a relationship. The girl is the galaxy that lightens up Jimmy’s web with colors of beauty and love. My message is that one should not hide from the world but venture off into it to find a new, better life. I started to come up with this piece when I had the idea of something small and hidden such as a spider and a galaxy, large and beautiful. The typography designed into the galaxy says beauty, love and spirit which show the impact of the galaxy that is reflected on the spider web.I had trouble relating the two and placing them in one scene picture. I decided to keep the city dark and out of focus and it came out great when I had put together the whole piece. The message in this piece is a life lesson that reminds me to explore and achieve greater things.

The technical process of this piece includes the use of Adobe Illustrator, a program provided by the Freestyle campus. On a computer I started by mapping out my idea of the piece with the perspective, focus point and scale of the objects in mind. I faced a challenge in trying to create a three dimensional city where a spider web would lie flat across two buildings. After I had figured that out, I had to decide out how to place the galaxy in the sky while keeping the spider looking into it. A big decision I had made was adding the colors to the web that reflected the galaxy. It was a risk that ended up bringing a new level of volume to the piece. The web colors gave me a rewarding experience because it helped me complete the challenge how I could portray an effect on the spider web from the galaxy.