Final Graphic

This is the final project. I chose a picture of my sister Jessica's english bulldog Wilson, because I thought he would create a great looking cartoon character and also would be a bit of a challenge to create through Adobe Illustrator. While working on "Wilson", I used the pen tool to create the shape of his body, spots, creases, and any of the shapes that needed to make him look like a real dog. I had to create a lot of layers and sub layers because he had a lot of folds and different coloring in the details of him. I wanted to make him look as realistic as possible, so I made his spots and fur with a gradient to create a more organic color to his spots. To make his eyes look more realistic, I used the blur effect to his pupils. I added some texture effects to his tongue as well, instead of it just with a plain pink color. In the photograph, which my sister actually took with her camera, she made Wilson stand out in focus and the background of the bathroom was blurry. I wanted to create this same effect in the illustration of Wilson as well, so I created a layer with the black and white tile. I also added the food bowl that was behind him in the picture. Then I altered the blurriness of the background until Wilson stood out more in the picture and it didn't hurt too much on the eyes. Before I had just put lines for his wrinkles in his body, but then I ended up making shadows for the lines and giving it a more "3D" look. I spent a lot of time fixing minor details and going back in forth with colors because it was hard to get them to look just like it in the picture. Overall, I learned a lot from using Adobe Illustrator and really can appreciate the work that others do in it because I realize how much time it takes to do just a single picture at a time.