Low Poly Self-Portrait Day 2: Creating a Triangular Mesh

Today’s essential question: How can I create a triangular mesh to capture value changes on my self-portrait in Illustrator?

Value is an Element of Design. 

Value works on a scale: 

What to Do

To create the low-poly effect, you will draw triangles over your reference photo to show the changes in value, as in the example below:

What NOT to Do:

Do NOT draw triangles that cover multiple values, such as the example below:

What is wrong with where these triangles are placed?

The triangle on the nose covers too many value changes.

The triangles on the cheek are too close. Some are over lapping.

These triangles are randomly spaced.

They will leave too many gaps and it will be difficult to fix later.

One of the triangles is open. They are randomly spaced.

Some of them cover more than one value.

How to Create Your Low-Poly Self Portrait

Part 1: Set Up your File in Illustrator

1. Create a new file in Illustrator (File -> New Print Document)
2. Set the dimensions to 11×14 inches
3. Place your reference photo in the Document (File -> Place)
4. Scale the reference photo so it fits within the edges of the document
5. Lock your reference layer
6. Save your file as a PDF

Part 2: Create a triangular mesh

1. Create a new layer
2. In the bottom left corner, set your fill options to “outline only,” and change the outline color to something bright that will contrast with your skin tone.
   
3. Select the pen tool.
4. Use the pen tool to draw triangles over the entire portrait. Each triangle should represent a shift in value.
   

Save your file as both a PDF and PNG and upload your progress to your blog.

Today we will:

• Begin creating our projects in Illustrator
• Upload our reference photo and PDF project file to our Google Drive accounts
• Publish a new blog post with the followig:
  • a PDF of our progress
  • a PNG of our progress
  • a few sentences describing what was easy and what was difficult

Sub Plans: Catch Up Day

You should complete any missing/incomplete assignments as outlined in the lists below.

For full credit, your final t-shirt design blog post must include the following:

• PDF of design
• PNG of your design on a t-shirt
• 150-word artist statement in paragraph form

Missing/Incomplete T-Shirt Designs:

• Jaz’Monya
• Lorelei
• Italia
• Miriam
• Thomas
• Holly
• Andrea
• Kay

Missing/Incomplete Artist Statements:

• Jaz’Monya
• Lorelei
• Italia
• Sidney
• Norah
• Taliyah (needs to be in paragraph form)
• Miriam
• Thomas
• James (needs to be in paragraph form)
• Holly
• Andrea
• Quinten (needs to be in paragraph form)
• Kay

New Project: Low-Poly Self-Portrait

Today’s essential question: What are some characteristics of a good self-portrait?

Today we will begin our new project – Low-poly self-portraits in Adobe Illustrator.

Here are some examples created by SOTA students (and Ms. Lawson!):

Examples of Bad Reference Selfies:

What are some issues with these selfies?

What are some characteristics of a good self-portrait reference photo?

Project Requirements:

• 11×14″ (portrait) or 14×11″ (landscape)
• created in Adobe Illustrator with the pen tool
• Uses a reference photo of yourself. Can be either a current photo or a baby/childhood photo.
• Shows high-quality craftsmanship and technical skill with the pen tool
• Piece displays unity both in the style of line/shape and color scheme
• Daily progress posted to class blog. Computers malfunction, and it is your responsibility to back up your work to a USB Drive or your Google Drive.

Part 1: Take your reference photo

Use your phone or a class camera to take your reference photo. You may also use an existing selfie as long as no parts of your face are obscured.

Part 2: Make sure your image is the correct size in Photoshop

1. Open the file in Photoshop
2. Select the crop tool from the toolbar on the left side of the screen 
3. At the top of the screen, set the dimensions to 11×14 inches
   
4. Drag the crop tool to select the area you would like to crop
5. Press the “enter” key to crop your photo
6. Save your reference photo

Today we will:

• Introduce the low-poly portrait project
• Take our reference photos
• Crop our reference photos in Photoshop to the correct dimensions
• Post our reference photos to our blogs

T-Shirt Design: Last Day

Today will be the last class day for our t-shirt designs. If you need extra time, please schedule a time to work on your t-shirt during Advisement or lunch. When you finish your design, make sure you publish a blog post with the following:

1. a PDF of your final t-shirt design (this is what we will print on the t-shirt)
2. a PNG of your design on a t-shirt
3. an artist statement about your t-shirt design

This blog post contains the steps on how to make your design look like it is on a t-shirt.

T-Shirt Pricing (men’s sizing):

• white: $10
• black or light gray: $15

If you are done with  your t-shirt, begin collecting/taking potential selfies to use as references for the low-poly self portrait project. You may use a current photo or baby/childhood photo.

Please see Ms. Lawson ASAP if you would like to purchase a shirt with your design.

Today we will:

1. Finish vectorizing our t-shirt designs in Adobe Illustrator
2. Create a mock up of what our designs might actually look like on a t-shirt in Adobe Photoshop
3. Create one blog post with the following
   1. a PDF of your final t-shirt design (this is what we will print on the t-shirt)
   2. a PNG of your design on a t-shirt
   3. an artist statement about your t-shirt design