GEV Graphics

7/30/2019 GEV Graphics

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G.E.V.Graphics

Learning Graphic Design Through the Eyes of a Student

Grant E. Vargas


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Creativityis allowing yourself to make mistakes.Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott AdamsCartoonist


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Hello, I am Grant Vargas, a soph-omore communications major atSaint Xavier University.

My principle interests arein videography, photography, andcreative writing. However, the classesneeded to more fully develop theseskills and interests are not offered

here, so I will be transferring to Co-lumbia College next fall. I will miss thesmall community environment of SXU,but practicality comes rst.

I am a writer for the student

newspaper, The Xavierite, student DJat WXAV 88.3FM, and a writing tutorat the Learning Center.

Hello TherePhotos:

(left) An on-set photo from my mostrecent lm project with friends at

Northwestern University The Mail

Room. That was a cold and windyday to shoot a bike chase. [photo byChirstopher Romero]

(right) This is me lming a scene fora dont-text-and-drive video. It was

a mock car crash in front of my highschool complete with reghters, jaws-of-life, and grieving parents. [photo bySarah Swinford]

(bottom) I have developed an interestin High Dynamic Range photography,

which creates surreal looking environ-ments like this beach.

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Learnin

gCurve

This week I was introduceddrawing in Adobe Illustratowas quiet fun. The idea behinyour signature repeatedly is to

the ne motor skills required fthe table pen and that there ismore familiar to a new user th

signature, thus the user couldhow they are writing it rather tthey are writing.

The pen was weird towith because my line of sight where the physical pens tip la

ting used to looking at the comscreen when drawing with thewill take some time, but Im adpretty well. Controlling the strothe pen is a completely differe



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CompositiCraftConcept

Horizontal Madnes

The eye starts off at the spobecause it is an asymmetrobject in relation to the rest ofpot and the diagonal lines arean oddity to the rest of the potthe eye goes horizontal to the

ridge and up to the handle beof the heavier collection of dalines. And nally the gaze drodown to the body and base ofpot because it plain and uninte

ing, but none the less it exists

This line drawing is a teapot,no esoteric meaning behind it,however there is a greating craftingconcept to it. Rather than drawingan object based on its edges, I hadto draw it in a progressive layer for-

mation. A similar process to that of3-D printing. Construction an imagein this manner forces the artist to bemore aware of the true shape of theobject.

Getting to know Illistrator 100 strokes at a ti

Horizontal and diagonal linesmade by the brush tool (1 pointstroke, 2pt. oval brush denition,and uniform width prole) are usedto create the shape of the object, butnone of the surface details are seen.

However, I noticed the draw-ings tended to become at in orien -tation, despite being observed at anangle. This is most likely due to mybrain rendering the image in the sim-

plest way for my hand to emulate.While I could visualize nice straighthorizontal lines, my hand madevery long curving lines with a high

tail at the end. The tail at the end isthe result of my handwriting stylebecause, when I was rst learninghow to write, my teacher told us toput a curving tail on the end of our

letters which was meant to help us

transition into cursive.Practice will make better

(not perfect). I did nish the drawingwith some vertical lines on the right

side because the jagged edges ofthe horizontal lines were buggingme.

Pompous Pi tcherG.E.V. Graphics G.E.V. Graph


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Klunky Kett le Curved Chalice

Tea TwinsBloated Bott le



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Concept Craft CompositiThere was no real intentionmanipulating the viewers ebecause this was an exercisean expressive artwork, but thevalue still none the less controviewer. The eye start immedia

jumps to the top left corner bethat is how we are taught to reand the greatest amount of vadetail is located there.

Next the eye moves d

following the darkest value to bottom of the cup where therea small dark value that represa small ridge on the bottom of

cup. Then the eye moves up tfollowing the lighter value layeOnce the eye reaches the topcup where the value highlightsthe eye is caught again by t he

value lines and follow them ba

the top left corner. Essentiallyviewer see the cup in a countclockwise motion.

The base layer of the drawing wasthat of the horizontal skeletalstructure from last week, which tookall of 10 minutes to make. Follow-ing the skeleton, I painted an evenshade of middle grey over the entire

drawing. This undercoat serves asneutral light, where the light valuesare equal, and from there the darksor lights can be built up.

I decided to work backwards

from the middle of the cup where thevalues begin to go towards oppositeends of the spectrum, the valueequator if you will. The layers would

be +/- one value shade the neigh-boring layer.The distance between the layers isroughly equal to make the valueshave a more natural transition.

After all my layers had been

completed I did the nal t ouch-upsof shadow were there was a tiny lip,which also gives the image a morerealistic aesthetic because every ob-

ject has those little surface details. Ifthose details are missing, our brainpicks up on it before our consciousmind can.

The Human brain renders its3-D understanding of the worldaround it by processing the million ofclues in the environment that help itprecieve depth such as shading. Dif-ferent patterns of light tell us where

light is coming from, what directionthe object is facing, and spacialdistance.

Here I practice the tech-nique of using a combination of

lighter and darker color values totrick the mind in to seeing the 2-Dimage as a 3-D object.

Tricking the eye to see three dimesioby using psychology and color valu

Illusion of Depth

Caution HotG.E.V. Graphics G.E.V. Graph


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Pumpkin Kett le

Grand Arch PourOpen Wide

Tea TimeG.E.V. Graphics G.E.V. Graph


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The

Laughing

Onion

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Exploring how to renderobjects with a range ofchromas and horizolines.

After the rst two drawing, which had a plain horizon line, I wanted to makea slightly more abstract background. I wanted the eye to be drawn for thetraditional manner of top left to bottom right, so I put the lightest value in the le

hand corner.The brighter red values on the upper right hand corner indicates that

light source is over there somewhere out of frame, thus creating a world beyoThe bright orange and yellow in the center of the frame draws the eye imme-

diately to them (instead of the red gradient background), The twisting peel isthe next thing that attracts attention because its oddity compared to the otherobjects.

Once done with the twisting peel, the viewer travels down the green

veins to see the little root at the bottom. From there the dark green shadowdraws the eye off to the left then up to the top l eft corner with the bright redchroma; and back down to the onion.

Composition

CraftT

he very rst layer of the image is the red gradient, which I manually applied(other wise the values would much smoother). Next I placed an onion on my

desk with the lamp shining directly on it and began constructing the horizontalskeleton. I connected all the edges with a curving line to ensure I kept a semi-circular structure (perfect circles are lit erally impossible for the human hand todraw).

After the main body of the onion took shape, I added the twisting peel atthe top and root knob at the bottom. The chromas selected were from the CYMKwheel, radiating two chromas +/- solid yellow, and very saturated. To get all thevalues of the selected chromas, I manually created a new swatch for every 15%increased black in the CYMK value slider. Each chroma had its own color group,

so I could easily line up their value progression.With the shape and background in place I began my value layering tech-

nique from last week. Brush strokes varied 1-3 stroke weight and 2-point ovalbrush denition. The yellow chroma was the base layer for the onion, followedby the orange-red to simulated exposed root, then t he solid green as the veins,

and nally the green-yellow as the shadow.

Fun With Colors

ConceptIwas given the option of drawing either food or shoes; I went with food becauthey were more readily available to me. I would rather draw something with physical presence that I can examine and manipulate than a picture off of theInternet.

Learning to utilize complimentary or contrasting chromas was the keythe assignment, but I felt more comfortable with using complimentary chroma

(although I did try an abstract contrasting combination in one attempt, but it lially looked like a piece of shit).

Since I had already drew the mono-chromatic and tri-chromatic assigment, this one had to be the penta-chromatic. I went with more earth tones toreect the actual characteristics of the onion while still remaining abstract.



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Plumpy PearA litt le Slice



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D

aggerTo

wer

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The tower dominates the skyline, as any proper tower should. Where the leftedge of the tower and the purple sky meet creates a strong contrast that drawsthe eye there rst (t he black stroke also helps). The diagonal slope of t owertakes the eye up to the top of the tower where a scaled down version of thevehicle in the bottom section of the frame is seen and the viewer also sees the

start of the energy-tether. Ride the tether down to the base of the tower andmove across to the left side of the frame to see the mountain peeks. Finally dropdown to the foreground to see the second vehicle and journey up the road to thetower to start again.

Composition

Separating the work into layers was key to development, so I arranged the towerinto four primary layers: foreground, sky, mountains, and tower. The pen toolwas my primary weapon during this project because none of the structures havethe human fetish of right angle. I did use the hexagonal and elliptical tool for thedoor at the base of the tower and the energy-tethers rings. The gradient tool

was very important to creating the illusion of light direction, time of day, and theenergy-tether. I did not like this gradient tool for about three-quarters of the timeduring construction because of the gradient swatches being confusing, eventu-ally I gured it out.

Craft

Shape Shifting

Constructing a world fromthe mind's eye and armed

with a pen.

ConceptWhen the subject of architecture was assigned, my mind r aced through all tyears of science-ction and alien environments that I laid waste to. I noticedmost of the xeno-landscapes had a number of organic elements such as ea

tones and curvature. Sometimes the richer colors of purple are seen to sepatheir environments from humans because we (more so Americans) do not upurple and it complimentary colors. For the most part xeno-landscape utilizelarge scale objects, as a symbol of their culture (which is to emulate humanphilosophy in architecture). I also wanted to have all of the frames I created

be tied together in someway or another, so the vehicle and mountain range incorporated. The Dagger Tower was the culmination of these ideas.

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Coming in for a Landing Shattered slateG.E.V. Graphics G.E.V. Graphi


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Deli

ciousDelights:

thenandnow

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Concept Craft Compositi

A Time Honored TraditioTracing reality to render an accurate abstractio

Unlike the previous projectsone does not have a clearof visual attraction that takes athe viewer to digest it all, but tis still rhyme and reason. Thethe frame is detailed with high

while the bottom has the darkues; in effect making the eye between these two different reat the pace of what the viewemore interest (most likely the

lights).The green table is unf

and confusing, and I really capredict what effect that will ha

viewer perception. Over all, I flack of control on this piece bothe artist and observer.

It all starts with selecting a photo-graph to work from, link said phototo the Ai le, and then trace over itwith the tools. Tracing simple meansfollowing the color contours withthe pen and steal the color with the

eyedropper for the paths ll.I was told to reconstruct the

image by making ner selections onthe upper layers of color, however,whip-cream on top was very intri-

cate and had minimal shading to telldepth, so I just made the selectionson a case-by-case basis. I workedout a system of working right to left

(I already worked on the cherry andsurrounding whip-cream, so I de-cided to keep going that direction),in which I would make a detailedright side selection and a boxy left

side selection.

Once I had the path, I sentin underneath the previous path,thus leaving the detailed edgevisible. On my second pass at the

image, I decided to try making theedges smoother by converting theminto gradients and rounded a num-ber of the edges.

It is a milkshake on a green tableunder yellow lights, so that is whythe colors seem a tad strange (inneutral lighting it should be white).Choosing the subject matter was thehard part because I wanted some-

thing with a simple composition andto have less recognizable objects,so later distortion would be easierfor the lack of better words.

I honestly do not like this

picture, but I thought I dd whenI started working on it. The fore-ground and background are bothreally abstract in their original form,

so I do not know what distortion Iwould really add on to it.

Original photo

First iteration Trace

Final Trace:Delicious Delight

CompositiConcept Craft

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Composition

Craft

Concept

Creating unique variationsof one original image

What a Twist

Charismatic Cherry- The three textual and color contrast brings the eyestraight to the cherry

A Taste for Noir- Smooth edges allow the eye to oat around, but the warmvalues of the icing and cherry draw it towards the topFun in the Sun- highly abstract edge throws the eye in every directionIcy Edges for Icy Lips- Color contrast of the icings ll and stroke hold theup topDining 2112- The monochromatic gradient of the glass acts as a magnet, dspite the intense colors surrounding itEat Here- Lack of an anchoring background the warped edges and dropshadow layers let the eye run aroundMinty Green that Kicks Mean- Bright gradient at the bottom draws the eythe colorful strokes lead it upwardsLiving in the Shadow- The giant silhouette dominates the small shake on bottom and the background gradient creates a logical light source out of fra

Charismatic Cherry- Convert everything to black and white except the cherryand separate composition into textual layersA Taste for Noir- Add drop shadow, Gaussian blur, and change layer type toburnFun in the Sun- Warp all the paths to create a spikey look and throw in a radialorange halo glow behind it allIcy Edges for Icy Lips- Dark blue gradient between table and shake with achalky brush denition with blue stroke applied to i cingDining 2112- Change the table and glass to highly contrasting gradients, but the

food recognizableEat Here- Construct a new slightly curving background with the pen and 3Dwarp the shakeMinty Green that Kicks Mean- Fill all the glass and icing paths with a solid ll

and oral brush denition with green/yellow gradientLiving in the Shadow- Copy shake, resize the two shakes to new relationship,and add black and white gradient to simulate lighting

Charismatic Cherry- Make a really eyeball jolting cherry

A Taste for Noir- Embody the warm and sexy feeling of lm noir

Fun in the Sun- A radial explosion of shapes and color

Icy Edges for Icy Lips- Bring down the t emperature and give it a chunture

Dining 2112-Play off the stereotypical idea of an abstract and monochrfuture

Eat Here- Recreate a 1950s menu graphic

Minty Green that Kicks Mean- Trigger a taste sensation with a combintext and color

Living in the Shadow- We all have the past looming over our present



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A Taste For NoirCharistmatic CherryG.E.V. Graphics G.E.V. Graphi


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Icy Edges for Icy LipsFun in the SunG.E.V. Graphics G.E.V. Graphi


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Living in the ShadowMinty Green that Kicks Mean G.E.V. GraphiG.E.V. Graphics


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Page

1

2-5

6-9

10-13

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20-25

26-29

30-39

40

MMXIII

All content and design in G.E.V. Graphics is by Grant E. Vargas,

unless otherwise credited.

Introduction// featured images: portriat, Illustrator autograph, action pose, andbeach photograph

Line Drawings// featured images: Pompous Pitcher, Bloated Bottle, Tea Twins,

Klunky Kettle, Curved Chalice

Color Value// featured images: Caution Hot, Open Wide, Grand Arch Pour, TeaTime, Pumpkin Kettle

Chroma Study// featured images: The Laughing Onion, A Little Slice, PlumpyPear

Building Shapes// featured images: Dagger Tower, Coming in f or a Landing,Shattered Slate

Tracing// featured images: original shake photo, rst iterration trace, nal trace:Delicious Delight

Variations// featured images: Charistmatic Cherry, A Taste for Noir, Fun in t heSun, Icy Edges for Icy Lips, Dining 2112, Eat Here, Minty Green that KicksMean, Living in the Shadow

Table of Contents

Opening


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The eclipse of the mind will reveal the sun of the heart.

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