Hey, folks! Here are photos of my finished Texture & Pattern Project. Unlike the last project – where we couldn’t use line or type to convey texture and pattern – this time we used ONLY line and type to convey texture and pattern. So this is how it went.

As a graphic designer, my strength lies in anything BUT illustration. I’ll be honest – I detest drawing. It’s tedious, boring, uninspiring – and as a chronic multi-tasker – nearly drives me crazy to have to only do one thing at a time. HOWEVER – with all that being said – I HAVE learned a few things.  First, I learned that I am better at translating ideas to paper than I thought.

Here is my final project:

I double-tacked my Pasta line and my Cube lines upside down (though with the Cube you can’t really tell). Though I’m intimidated by hand illustration, I did learn how to use different tools to better serve my purpose. I can now speak semi-intelligently about pencil and ink varieties and the cost of Bristol these days (LOL)…but yes, I did run into a few challenges

Line (Pasta/Texture)

When I chose the Pasta photo for the texture portion of my assignment, I had no idea it would be this challenging. To make things easier, Professor Rennis had us break down the textures into 3 basic shades of grey. This helped simplify (a little) a very complex photo. Even with this great bit of technique, I still visibly had trouble with capturing the tone of the original photo using only line to create shadow and depth.

Type (Pasta/Texture)

Again, I had a hard time translating the tone of the piece using the constraints of the project guidelines, but I kinda had fun with this one. I was actually pleasantly surprised that I was actually interested in using type to create texture. Though I’m not sure I fared any better with type, I still enjoyed trying!

Line (Cube/Pattern)

I think I did a little bit better with pattern as opposed to texture, simply because I know how I like to work – I like structure. Nothing open to interpretation, just simple, obvious instruction and this cube provided it. After saying all that, you’d think I would have been more successful at conveying the original mood of the printout. I quickly learned that knowing what tools to use and how to use them is key in reproducing a mood. I am still handling my ink clumsily. However, I think I did a pretty good job of thinking out the differences in greys and attempting to create separation and shade with different line formations!

Type (Cube/Pattern)

This one wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be (again, structure), but I did go heavy handed on my middle grey structure, which made it nearly indistinguishable from darker areas of the drawing. All in all, I like this on the best. If I had the time, i would have done this over and eased up on the ink for my medium grey component (again, not knowing how to use my inking tools correctly)