Going through the basics of illustrator (a much-needed refresher for me) by exploring shapes, the pen tool, and typography.

1.) TELESCOPE

 

I started (as I always do) with a little sketch. As the project was about using shapes I tried to do something fun with basic shapes!

I went over the sketch with basic shapes - squares, rectangles, circles - to create the forms

I went for the PANTONE colors of 2021 as inspiration, so I imported a screenshot of a color story from the PANTONE website (https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2021-palette-exploration)

And finally, my finished telescope. I added a wacky gradient and I'm not sure if I love it, but I wanted to do something different from what I usually do:

 

2.) ALIEN

 

As with the previous, I started with a simple sketch

I created the shapes of my space-kitten-octopus-whatever by using the pen tool, the pencil tool as well as shapes

I coloured it in using the same color palette (and wacky gradient...) -
to keep it all cohesive! ;)

 

3.) TYPOGRAPHY

 

And finally, I chose two sets of type to play around with. For this exercise, I chose Holland Monoline and Brother 1816. 

I wanted to keep some of the illustrative elements, so I added the moon icons adjusted the type, set the cursive type on a path and added some swishes

And finally....

 

COMPOSITE:

 

This was a fun class! It was super quick and I pushed myself to do it as quickly as possible (as to not over-think) and I learned some really cool shortcuts that will definitely come in handy (IF I remember them XD).