Brainstorming: I had never used pinterest before, and now regret the amount of personal time I have lost on the website. With that aside, however, it was an amazing tool for helping to shape my project. I would type in some generic search term and spend the next couple minutes flying by dozens of pieces of great artwork. An angle or curve, some combination of colors, or an overarching theme. Some aspect of the piece inspired me, and pinterest allowed me to put that off to the side. Through mapping this inspiration, the project design just sort of fell out as an unintended consequence. And, well.... here we are I suppose.

 

Execution: Without the ability to use pinterest or the adobe suite, I would start with a list of the top 20 stragest concepts I could think of. On that list, I would generally draw between the last 10 or so to develop an idea from. From there I would work developing a general sketch, then exaggerating the features that most emphasized the strangeness/uniqueness. From there, I would use what I did have available, be it drafting tools or some other media to render an image that conveyed the image I had originally imagined to the best of my ability.

 

Reflection: I had no idea how to create specific effect in illustrator, but I had to believe they were possible; everything from the brushed metal effect with gradients and grain effects to making a convincing fish bowl using radial gradients that changed in opacity. I had to use outside sources, other artists, to help me understand how to approach the techniques.