Maureen Neuringer | COMD 1162 - Section D030

08 Discussion

Each week you will need to respond to two questions posted. Your response should be a minimum of 150 words for both questions. You should also include at least one response to your fellow students. The responses are a requirement for participation part of your grade.

Question 01 –

Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

Question 02 –

How will you remember what you have learned?

22 Comments

  1. Michael Lester

    Question: 1

    While doing the midterm project, I’ve learned how to make use of more tools in illustrator. The first of which being, the scissor tool, which allows you to draw a line through a shape so can divide it. Another thing i learned, was how to use the eye dropper tool; it allows you to apply the color of whatever you selected to a shape. Finally, I learned how to use the eraser tool, which essentially does the the same thing as the scissor tool except for the fact that it removes a segment from a shape in order to divide them.

    Question: 2

    In order to remember what I’ve learned, I will have to put them into practice when doing future projects. By incorporating these tools and lessons as I move on, I’ll easily remember how and when to use them effectively.

  2. Miguel

    Each week you will need to respond to two questions posted. Your response should be a minimum of 150 words for both questions. You should also include at least one response to your fellow students. The responses are a requirement for participation part of your grade.

    Question 01 –

    Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    Three items that I have learned while doing the midterm was how to properly shade (or attempt to shade) an object. For example, going into the shape builder tool, to cut out two shapes in order to look like one is shaded in. The second thing I had learned was how to name layers so I would get things right without forgetting where I had placed my items. Last but not least, is naming the file properly and how to quick save my work. Having multiple variations of it really helps with the work flow, and if I forget something, I can always go back to a previous save.

    Question 02 –

    How will you remember what you have learned?

    I will simply put into action everything I have learned and used up to this point forward. This is due to the fact that if you need to keep practicing in order to get better, and if you dont put it into practice, you’ll forget overtime. Another way to remember is to simply write it down and whenever you want to replicate what you did before, look upon your notes.

  3. Sandra

    Question 01 –

    Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    One function I learned to use was the freeform gradient tool. It was also the one I used the most to fill color, since my poster had so many values. In addition, I also learned to adjust stroke sizes and create and rainy background (although I do think I could do better with the color and spacing). One other thing I found interesting to play with was layers when I was doing the outline. I had to adjust the layers accordingly to match the way I was outlining the figures. For example, if I knew some part of a vest covered the sleeve, I would pull the sleeve layer under and not outline the covered part so detailedly since it would be covered anyways. In some areas, it would be more challenging to see the layering.

    Question 02 –

    How will you remember what you have learned?

    Naturally, when we repeat an action more often, we’ll remember it for quite a while. To remember what I’ve learned, I’ll have to use it whenever I get the chance. I think it’ll be difficult for me to forget what I’ve learned though, since I play with layers and colors often on other digital art platforms as well. At some point, I think it’ll become a natural process we can just go ahead applying without thinking too hard.

  4. Zekirah

    Question 01 –

    Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm project

    In the midterm project I used the color swatches and gradient tool. The pathfinder was another with all the divide, minus front and trim that I used.

    Question 02 –

    How will you remember what you have learned?

    I plan to use what ive learned from the project towards building a portfolio that Ive been working on adding to. Doing more personal projects i feel will help with remembering where to do things and how to do them in illustrator.

    • Sandra

      I also think working on more projects will help us remember and apply what we’ve learned to more pieces. Good luck with portfolio building!

      • Miguel

        I wish you the best of luck to portfolio building !

  5. Amy

    Question 01 –

    Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    Three things I’ve learned doing the Midterm Project was adding gradient and texture to the shapes. I struggled with that at first but I got the hang of it after the midterm. I also learned how to use the pen tool fluently, especially because the outline traces of the characters and environment are not straight lines, and they’re curvy lines. I also learned more about layers on Adobe Illustrator, and how I could overlap this layer by dragging it on top of another layer.

    Question 02 –

    How will you remember what you have learned?

    It depends on if I’ll still use Adobe Illustrator in the future or not, but the chances of me using Illustrator is still very high. So I think I’m still gonna remember the hang of this, if I do use Adobe Illustrator more frequently.

  6. riiiichord

    Question 01 –

    The three items that I’ve learned doing was the Shape Builder tool, using the Appearence panel for patterns, and knowing how to better utilize the Pen tool in an organized manner. I’ve learned that unique shapes could be made using the shape builder as well as combining its technique to using the Blob brush to get in shapes that I would later use for a lot of Gradients. The Appearance panel taught me how to apply different patterns as well as change its colors to match the poster. Finally, after trials and errors, using the Pen tool throughout the midterm taught me more patients in making closed shapes instead of matching lines to the poster.

    Question 02 –

    I, for one, would know that using a tool, method, or technique after several tries and mistakes would help you remember what you have learnt because it turns into muscle memory. After suffering through realizing that I didn’t make closed shapes and worked my way slowly with the pen tool, I had to restart for most of the midterm. However, this allowed me to take a different approach and actually check to see if my shapes were closed the way I wanted it to, by filling it in with color instead of looking at everything with no fill. This served as a reminder and became muscle memory for me to remember this for future works using Adobe Illustrator.

  7. Raesa

    Question 01 – Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    While doing this Midterm Project I was able to learn more about how to add grain texture’s along with other textures through the appearance tab. It definitely helped spruce up my assignment! Besides this, I learned how to check for closed shapes, this ensured that I would be able to fill in each individual shape when I got to the coloring step. Lastly, I learned how to efficiently use the pen tool. When we first tried it out, I was quite slow but as I continued with the project I was able to trace faster and neater.

    Question 02 – How will you remember what you have learned?

    In order to remember what I learned I would have to continuously use these features. I’ll be able to refine these skills if I am persistent with how often I use them in my design work! There isn’t really any other way I can think of other than that.

    • riiiichord

      This Midterm project really humbled me with the Pen tool, but at the same time, it improved me. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who also had trouble with checking the pen tool made open shapes or not. Your poster looked gorgeous, too, Raesa!

    • Amy

      Same! I’m glad that we learned so much and how to use the pen tool more efficiently from this midterm.

  8. Auribel Vargas Pena

    • Question 01 –
    • Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    Three items I have learned doing the Midterm Project:

    1. How to use the Pen Tool. While doing this Midterm, I’ve gained more control over the Pen Tool because it helped me practice and learn how you use it. Thanks to that I feel more confident now while working with it. Very easy tool to use!
    2. How to add colors with the Eye Dropper: I’ve learned how to add colors to my artwork by using the eye dropper tool. Which is just selecting the piece of the artwork that you want to color with the direct selection tool, then bring the eye dropper tool (I) to select the colors you want to add.
    3. How to use layers and their importance. Very useful when it comes to working separately each part of the artwork. No interference at all!
    • Question 02 –
    • How will you remember what you have learned?

    I will remember what I’ve learned by annotating down everything and practicing with this tools over and over again until I store each step in my long-term memory. Which in the future will benefit me from knowing the tools from memory and not going back to my notes or watching tutorials. Great Midterm activity!

    • Raesa

      I completely forgot that I had learned the shortcut for the eyedropper tool haha, thank you for the reminder. I definitely agree with your response regarding the importance of layers as well!

  9. Naglaa

    Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    Three things I learned: first, the blur tool, you go to affect then blur, and then Gaussian blur to blur the shape you want. and I learn more about blending colors. And how to make a round shape using the pen tool.

    How will you remember what you have learned?

    I think I can remember what I learned today by using them more or writing them down. 

    • Auribel Vargas Pena

      Hello Naglaa!

      For sure! writing everything that we’ve learned so far and studying it is a great way of memorizing it. Is my technique too!

  10. felix

    Question 01 –

    Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    • I learned about the importance of working in separate layers as it allow me to keep my content more organized and manageable
    • I learned about the importance of naming my layers as it allow me to quickly find and identify what content it contains
    • I learned that having the opacity of the template lowered make it easier to see and work on when drawing over it.

    Question 02 –

    How will you remember what you have learned?

    I will try to implement these practices in my future work and projects so that I can get into habit of doing it.

  11. Erik

    A1: Regarding the midterm project I learned how to use the stylize tool and apply a glow effect to my letters. The importance of how much gradients can add to texturize is significant, especially when it comes to water. I also learned how to use the different pen strokes tool.

    A2: I’ll remember what I learned by continuing to go back to this project. This piece of work has surprisingly sparked back my interest into doing more of my art on Adobe Illustrator rather than hand drawing for now this time being. Creating works on Adobe Illustrator come out clean and precise which I love.

    • felix

      I am glad to hear that this project brought back your spark with using adobe illustrator. There is definitely so much you can do and experiment with once you know the tools and techniques.

  12. Sandra Saeteros

    Question 01 – Describe three items you have learned doing the Midterm Project.

    I learned how to make close shapes by doing long curly hair, as well for hands and letters using the pen tool to make it look almost exactly as the actual letter from Disney. I also learned how to make sharp edeges look more softer and rounder.

    Question 02 – How will you remember what you have learned?

    I will remember what I have learn by making other future projects using the same techniques as well as remembering things I should avoid when doing a project like forgeting how to completely closing a shape or losing track of the pen tool since sometimes can click somewhere else and notice too late that the shape can’t close.

    • Michael Lester

      I also used the pen tool in order to make the letters for my poster, it was very helpful when it came to recreating type. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one.

  13. Frantasia Sanz

    Question 01- I’ve learned how to use the pen tool and direct selection tool to my advantage without it being difficult for me to use.

    Question 02 – And I will remember what I’ve learned by continuing to use these tools in illustrator often, so I can have it memorized for my future projects that I will be structuring in Adobe Illustrator, and use my ability to my advantage.

    • Erik

      When it came to this project I also learned how to use the pen tool for the first time, a lot more abilities came with it than I had expected.