7 October 2021
This project was designed using Adobe Illustrator & InDesign.
This piece of work revolves around accurate line drawings, creative colour illustrations and an instructional diagram of a chosen object. For this work, I’ve chosen to create an illustration of the watch-face from my FOSSIL Hybrid Smartwatch HR Collider. This watch-face has many lines, line weights and curves, which I had to intricately draw. I also had to provide a small description of the design and processes taken to achieve the final drawing.
Project contents.
Creative Work
The Text
Line drawing
In my first illustration, I used the ‘Pen Tool’ to draw an accurate representation of the watch face of my hybrid smartwatch. Before I started my drawing, I had taken several photographs to help determine which photo I would use. I decided on the one with the least shadows, as I could see the lines clearly and more accurately complete the line drawing. I used varying strokes/ thicknesses in the lines drawn to present different levels of importance. A notable example of the varying strokes is in the hour increments. I then replicated the line drawing three times to make creative counterparts.
True colours
For my second illustration, from the replicated copy I created a true tone colour of the hybrid smartwatch. In order to do this, I converted the object to Live Paint and used the ‘Live Paint Bucket’ to fill in the colours. The colours that I used are a range of brown tones with the inclusion of black and white. In these colour tones, I used the ‘Gradient Tool’ to show depth in contrast between all the elements; the main outer circle and the circles that follow, as well as the watch crowns and handles.
Vector polygon
In my third illustration, extending from the true colours, I made a vector polygon with the additional colour of green – nature-themed. To begin this vector polygon, I removed most of the lines (i.e. hour increments, inside the hour and minute hands, as well as a few other lines). I then created a bunch of random lines (using the ‘Pen Tool’) within each line segment that I still had. Then utilising the ‘Live Paint Bucket’ and the ‘Gradient Tool’ I added a bunch of random colour gradients on the segmented boxes created earlier and reversed some of the gradients to show the sharp edges in the vector polygon.
Line patterns
In the final illustration, I ran out of ideas and tried out a couple of things with patterns. It looked interesting so I went with it, this is also by following along with a similar colour palette to the vector polygon. I decided to create a pattern with the Fossil word as the main centre background and added an extra function – the weather. As for the other patterns I used the ‘Swatches Library’ for the patterns I could use. For most of these patterns, I re-adjusted the colours from the original preset colours to the colours that resemble the vector polygon – the nature-themed colour palette.
Button function of the watch
For this instructional diagram, I decided to focus on the button function of the hybrid smartwatch. I used a different reference photograph for each of the steps. The first step is a guide to show what the three buttons do, this trace was from a screenshot I took of the application on my phone. Then the three-step instructions that follow show the buttons in function: activity, home and weather. In the drawing phase of these instructions, my hand has some intricate lines that are consistent with different line strokes and thicknesses. In that process, I had to determine which lines needed what level of stroke, a similar circumstance can be seen on the watch face as well. Upon completion of each trace, I had to also utilise the ‘Live Paint Selection Tool’ to delete some of the lines where my thumb and index finger are, to create the realistic look of the hybrid smartwatch button functions.