Pen Tool Practice

Pen Tool Practice!

Simple Shapes

This is my version of the "Cute Basketball Player" from a simple shapes tutorial for Adobe Illustrator.

This player is mostly composed of rectangles and ellipses (circles).

The head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, shoulders, basketball, fingers, and feet are all made of ellipses. I used the spiral tool for the hair and the feet were made of multiple ellipses that were grouped together, then distorted.

The basketball was made using the Clipping Mask option and then the shadow and shine were added with opacity 20%. The body is made of a rounded rectangle and the legs and neck are made of normal rectangles (although the neck has a half circle attached to the bottom).

If you want to try this tutorial, here's the link:

http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/character-design/how-to-illustrate-a-cute-basketball-player-with-simple-shapes/

Sunny

 This is an example for the different elements of design:

            The land and the sky are separated by a line. The sun is a circle with a gradient to add depth. The boundary between the land and the sky has direction and suggests movement. The water also is made up of slanted lines to suggest direction and movement. No type is present. The sun appears small in comparison to the landscape. The colors chosen cause each part of the landscape to stand out. There is no pattern. The grass and the water seems like it is supposed to appear smooth. There is value in the gradients of the sky and the sun, but not really much any where else except for the cliff (or whatever you want to call it).