Owning It: Design: Projects: Portrait Drawing

Put together everything you learned in Illustrator to make a portrait of a person. Try out different Brushes and Brush modifications.

  • How do I effectively and aesthetically represent a person with drawn vector objects?

What am I making? And Examples

How do I make it?

Steps

  1. Choose a Person to Draw - helps to use someone you care about or have an interest in

    • Make a quick sketch on paper of the person showing all the details

    • Show Mr. W. your sketch before starting a portrait in Adobe Illustrator

  2. Using Adobe Illustrator, create a new Document

    • Recommend a Portrait shape

  3. Using the File menu, do Save and call it "PortraitByMyName.ai" and put it in your Period folder

    • Save frequently!

  4. Create Layers for different parts of your image (Head, Body, Face, Hair, etc.) and Name them!

    • Can disable/enable viewing of Layers to hide them

    • Can move objects within a layer up and down to alter the overlapping and visibility of objects

    • Can even move objects between layers

  5. If using a photo template...

    • Copy and paste the image

    • Resize it to take up the full Artboard

    • Put it in its own layer on the bottom

    • Reduce opacity at least to 50%

    • Object menu, Lock menu, Selection

  6. Experiment with Brush types

    • Double-click the icon to set smoothness

    • Make sure Window menu, Control is on so you have a Control Bar at the top

    • Experiment with settings in the Control section - Brush signatures, Brush types, Opacity

  7. Other Tools can be helpful...

    • Pen Tool for drawing shapes - I used it for eyeballs

    • Shape Tools such as ellipse - I used it ellipse for eyeball pupils

    • I used the White Arrow to move points on brush stroke paths

    • There are many more tools to try! Check other tutorials for other ideas -- above in the How do I make it?, and below in the Resources

  8. Copy and Paste at least 10 images into your scene, for each image...

  9. Look at the Grading criteria below, make any adjustments needed

  10. Using the File menu, do Save one last time

  11. File menu, Export menu, Export As... and use the PNG format

    • Put a check on Use Artboards!

  12. On Google Sites, under Pages, create a new page called Portait Drawing.

  13. Use Insert Image or a layout to place your drawing.

    • Make sure you uncrop it

    • If you like, also add the photo you used, if you used one!

  14. Write one or two things about What You Learned in doing this assignment.

  15. When done, push the Publish button, review the settings, and publish.

  16. Then click the chain-link button, Copy the link for your page, and turn in the link.

Grading

  • Charismatic: Composition expresses Personality & Character

  • Identifiable: Can recognize the person, make a connection to who it is

  • Quantity: Quality matters most, but find a way to include at least 100 different objects into your composition

  • Fill the Page: create a full Composition that uses the whole page

Career Connections

  • Flex those Photoshop skills! This will empower you for many future projects

Resources