The week before my sixth anniversary with my partner Mark, we had the opportunity in our digital lesson to design a wooden keyring. We were encouraged to play around with the tools in Illustrator and design a keyring that would be changed from a digital design to a ‘real’ physical item by our art technician Brendon.
Mark is a Batman fan so I designed this keyring for him. I drew the bat design using the tablet provided and although it looks hand drawn rather than perfect I liked it like that. I chose the font and added text with my message on. We had to wait until the next week to get the finished products…
The following week our keyrings were waiting for us in class. I was pleased to see the final outcome but realised it would be too big to use as a keyring. If I was making something this way again I would be careful to check the exact measurements. However, Mark seemed pleased with the gift. When he was at college learning digital as part of his fine art course he made me a gift – so it seemed a nice thing to do for him.
Future Possibilities
Illustrator seemed pretty straightforward to use and I would use it while I’m at college to create any wooden items relevant to my project. A couple of years ago I was working with wood and pyrography and it was a slow process. I would have liked something faster. I can see how this technique with Illustrator could speed things up. Designs can be transferred really quickly digitally.
I also went to an exhibition at the Grundy recently called ‘A Trick of the Light’ which was about Light and Illusion. I saw there the work of an artist who had created structures that looked like they were made out of strands of glass. However, they had been made using Illustrator cutting designs into acrylic – with beautiful, intricate results. I like the way using digital technology gives you control and precision.
I didn’t add this to my blog at the time because I didn’t want to give away the surprise. Then I forgot that I hadn’t mentioned it on here!
Opmerkingen