digital art 2d

ad 219 - beginning digital art and design - assignments

Assignment 5 - Appliance

Starting with a black-and-white image of a house-hold appliance or hand-held power tool, you are to recreate the image in Illustrator using shapes, gradients, and tracing. Your Image will be "placed" in Illustrator as a template to trace. Final illustrations should be very representational of the original and use gradient fill colors to recreate the original light source, textures, surfaces, and form. Pay close attention to shadows, highlights, and perspective.

appliance

Image Selection:

  • From Adobe Stock, download an image in black and white (convert with Illustrator or Photoshop if necessary) of a household appliance or tool.
  • Choose an image in sharp focus with the object close to the camera (framed and with little background distractions)
  • Choose an image with some perspective or angle (straight-on views tend to flatten out)
  • Choose an object with some areas of detail and some areas that are simple (too complex or too simple objects will not produce great results)
  • Choose an object that runs on power or has some type of mechanical function (a hammer would be a bad example)
  • Choose a photograph (not an AI generated image or an illustration)

Objectives: Adobe Illustrator

  • paths and shapes
  • gradients - linear, radial, free form,
  • layers
  • transparency
  • pen/pencil tool, blob brush,
  • perspective
  • shadows and highlights
  • other tools in illustrator - free transform, puppet warp, blend, warp, mesh, distort, etc.

Parameters:

  • No Brushes, Filters, or Effects.
  • Edge Feather ONLY may be used on a maximum of 4 paths
  • No colors...grayscale only
  • No Image Trace, live paint
  • Minimum of 5 layers (labeled)
  • Placed file should be embedded in your document

Presentation:

  • Art board should be 7.5 inches by 10 inches.
  • Title - (typed at the bottom right of art board in 8 pt type)
    • Appliance Illustration
    • AD 219 Spring 2026
    • First Name Last Name
  • Save files and name them firstname_lastname_appliance.ai

Criteria For Grading and Evaluation:

basics

art board set up
placed image file embedded in document
5 layers used with labels
quality image selected based on assignment objectives
effort

use of unique gradient colors for shapes
level of detail recreated from original source
time devoted inside and outside of class
design

use of gradients to simulate light source
use of gradients work to create textures
use of black and white gradients to build a full value range
shape construction creates volume and form

craft

accurate and specificity of shapes from source image
efficiency and smoothness of shapes
mixing of colors reflects specificity from original image

creativity

image selection - composition, challenge factor (based on guidelines from instructor)
inventive and independent thinking used to solve problems
30 pts
Total
   
critique
 presented in class
  provide constructive feedback during class
10 pts
total

What to Turn in:

  • Name your AI file: firstname_lastname_appliance.ai
  • Submit your file to SIU Desire to Learn
  • Log into your D2L Account (Click on the Drop Boxes Module and follow the instructions)