Chapter 4: Type on the Grid

Exercises 1-6

Chapter 3: Symmetry and Gestalt

Exercises 2-7

Exercise 3

Exercise 3: Creating a dynamic composition

Self-Portrait

So I was going for something a little Chuck Close-esque, so I limited my use of shapes to squares/rectangles only.

Technique: After choosing a photo, I imported it into Illustrator, then used a live trace to simplify it to vector format (I changed it to a grayscale trace using 4 colors for this project) and locked the layer. After that, I constructed a grid on a separate layer using equally sized rectangles/squares to cover the page (These had no fill or stroke). I then used the live paint tool to color the shapes on the grid according to the picture below it. Each of the squares was then outlined using a different color. It was a pretty straightforward process... But just time consuming.

I've added some screen shots that show a little bit of the work process I used (zoomed in).

Comments/constructive criticism are always welcome.

After applying the live trace to the photograph, I took a screenshot of the guide photograph. Here, it is in vector format.




After making the square/rectangle grid over the guide photo, I colored it in shades of bright pink (darkest where the gray was darkest, and so on), only using four shades total. Coloring the smaller rectangles/squares between the larger ones gave the effect that I was using more colors than I actually did, which was helpful given the limited palette.






The meticulous part of the process arose mainly because of the small shapes I decided to work with. If my math is correct, there are approximately 25,220 rectangles, 12,610 large(r) squares, and 12,610 smaller squares at the corners of each larger square.

First Post

Rule #26: Be creative.