Week 5: Shape Drawing

Our task for this week was to create a shape drawing from an actual photograph using Adobe Illustrator. The focus of the task was to render an image similar to the original photo.

Rather than choose an existing photo, I decided to take a photo of my own, thereby controlling the variables such as light, depth, and ensuring I had a large photo file to increase the level of detail.

Since part of the concept of this assignment was to create a shape illustration that would be recognizable and realistic, I decided to choose an iconic image that would be easily-identified. I also wanted the image to be something that I could possibly use in my religious order, perhaps something that could use beyond an Art class.

While I was happy with the concept of the image, the craft and composition would prove too much in order to render this image realistically. I also realized that the wooden crucifix could stand alone as its own shape drawing, due to the numerous hues and variations of brown, red, and green that were visible in the original picture. I also realized that a better picture of the cross would render a more detailed drawing.

For this reason, I switched the focus of this piece after finishing only the initial crucifix.

As seen from up close, the shapes in the crucifix are very simple. Little is available with regards to shading, depth, or realism. It was after this initial work that I decided to work with the crucifix where the corpus would provide endless amounts of shapes to render.