~Digital Media Narrative Work~

For this unit, we were challenged to use Illustrator to create works of digital art that would eventually become physical pieces of art and use them to tell a story.

Geometric Light Cover

Artist Statement:

My geometric light cover conveys the message of the importance of the sun and how it provides sustenance for flowers and other plants alike. I chose to engrave the sun as my first design and a hibiscus flower as my second design in order to display the process and the sun’s importance in creating life. The pieces connect together cohesively and fit like a puzzle and hold each other up. Likewise, the sun is connected to all living creatures and holds them up by allowing them to grow and nurturing them; without the sun no living creature would exist and my lamp’s design exemplifies its importance. I chose to trace a hibiscus because it was my favorite flower as a child so much so to the point where I made my father go to Home Depot to buy me pink, orange and red separate hibiscus plants to plant in our backyard garden, the sunniest part of our yard. This flower was very important to me and when I learned as a child how plants grow and the sun’s role in the process, this flower was why I was interested. I would constantly doodle the flowers on my math homework and I thought it would be a fitting choice of flower for my lamp. 

For the Illustrator process, I started by molding the sides of the template provided to us with the pen tool and then moved onto tracing designs of the sun on one design template and the hibiscus on the other. What I valued most about this project was the fact that we were able to see our design, something we created with our own hands, on a physical object, which is something I’ve never experienced before. We created from start to finish a  real product we could hold in our hands which is really incredible. I valued the process, starting from templates to changing the sides of the templates, to then creating a design inside the template. It was an overall beneficial learning experience and has inspired me to want to create more.  

Illustrator Project – Sweatshirt Design

Artist Statement:

For my Illustrator project, I decided I wanted to screenprint on a sweatshirt, lyrics from my favorite song right now, RNP by YBN Cordae ft. Anderson .Paak, with a symbolic visual representation of the lyrics on the back. This song is very important to me because no matter what my mood, I always feel happier after listening to it. When unfortunate events come my way, music seems to ground me and calm me in a way that not much can. This song is so powerful that it transforms my emotions and even if it only lasts 2:56 minutes, the happiness I feel during those moments is worth it. I am extremely grateful for this song and wanted to create a piece of art to commemorate it. 

What I valued most about this Illustrator project was the process. Similar to my Geometric Cover light, I thoroughly enjoyed creating something from start to finish, starting with a concept and from there adding more and more details. I knew I wanted to create clothing and I thought putting song lyrics on clothing could be really interesting because when wearing it, if people knew the song, we could connect over it. I wrote down all of my favorite lyrics from my favorite songs but decided that I definitely wanted to do an RNP lyric because of how much I love the song which led me to choose, “drippin’ in my feng-shui, sippin’ on a sundae.” I then wrote down some fonts I’ve seen on clothing before and looked at some of my favorite artist’s merchandise to gain some inspiration. I love Daniel Caesar and his merch line, and one font in particular he uses felt right for my project. I then started designing on Illustrator, finding out which colors would work with the sweatshirt I had in mind, traced my symbols, a sundae and the Chinese script for feng-shui and added a couple of butterflies for extra decoration. Overall I am very excited and happy with my design, and I really valued the entire process, having creative control to make something of my own that I know I will love and definitely wear.