Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Drive!: A Junior Illustration Project by Nick Schein (2020)

The message that I am trying to convey with this Illustrator Project is about my hobbies—namely, anime and cars. Those who watch anime may be familiar with the car from Initial D—the infamous Toyota Corolla Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX, with the phrase, “Fujiwara Tofu-Ten (Private Use)” written on the side. However, this one has been adapted to share certain parts with the Black Limited edition, such as the gold-colored wheels. Through this attention to detail, I also show my passion for cars. Had I had more time, I may have created more vehicles from the anime, or even a design or two of my own (I often create vehicles under fake manufacturer names in my notebook during my spare time).

I learned a valuable lesson about trying to cut corners during this Illustrator project. Having not had much practice with the Pen tool at the beginning of this project, I attempted to use the Brush tool, causing the file to freeze relatively quickly into the process. After giving up on using the pen tool (and at the cajoling of my fellow classmates who take Design), I switched over to the Pen tool, which with practice not only keep frame rate high but also works better. I learned how to import images from the web and onto Illustrator to use as reference images. As well, I learned how hard it is to make realistic art in Illustrator—as one can see, my lack of shadows in the image cause the vehicle to look very flat and “2-D”. I also forgot to add windows, which should have a semi-translucent aquamarine color. One aspect of the project which was most troubling for me was creating the gold wheels. If one looks closely enough, there is a noticeable asymmetry of the wheels, and a true car enthusiast would recognize that the wheels do not truly match that of the Black Limited “hachi-roku”. Related website
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