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VCB313 Advanced Computer Illustration

Project: Playing Card

Assignment

Using Adobe Illustrator, create an original "face" card (king, queen or jack).

Specifications:

• Size: 5.5 x 7.75 (see instructions below)
• Orientation: Vertical.
• Color System: CMYK
• Due Date: Week 2 (10/13), 8am
• Deliverables: Upon completion, I need the following:
1. The digital Illustrator file (give it to me via jump drive or upload it to the portal).
2. A print-out (black & white) with your name on it.

Procedure

1. Brainstorm. Create thumbnails of possible solutions using pencil & paper. Pay attention to face card conventions (vertical orientation, mirror image top & bottom, placement of letter & suit, etc). You may use reference material or work completely from your imagination. Whichever you choose remember that originality will be an important consideration when I grade these. What you choose to draw for your king, queen, or jack is pretty wide-open, as long as it has a face. It could be a person, animal, alien, robot, or something in-between. It could be realistic, highly stylized, graphic, etc. Get my approval on one of your ideas.
2. Do not copy someone else's artwork; don't use or copy clip art, existing illustrations, existing cartoon characters, etc.; be original.
3. Remember that the card must look the same when held upside-down. How are you going to merge the upper half with the lower half? Just a horizontal line cutting across the center of the card? Or something more clever? Look at actual playing cards to see how they do it.
4. Open Illustrator and create a new (standard 8.5 x 11) document. Save it as yourName_card.ai. In the middle of the page create a rounded rectangle (no fill, black stroke) with the following dimensions: width: 5.5 in., height: 7.75 in., corner radius: .35 in. This represents the outer edge of the card.
5. Create a (regular) rectangle (no fill, only a stroke) with a width of 3.75 in. and a height of 6 in. Place it on top of the rounded rectangle and align them so that they are centered horizontally and vertically. This is the boundary for the artwork.
6. In the space between the edge of the card and the art boundary put the appropriate letters ("K", "Q", or "J") and the suit (heart, spade, club, diamond). You must use a standard suit. To save time drawing your suit you can use a dingbat, then convert it to outlines (Type > Create Outlines).
7. Since the card needs to be the same when turned upside-down, you may want to drag a guide across the middle of the card. This way you can create the artwork on the upper-half, then rotate a copy to the lower half when you are finished. The challenge is finding a clever way to unite them.
8. Now create your character. You may opt to scan in a sketch or a reference image to use as a template, or work without a net. The style and techniques you use are up to you, but there a number of things I will be looking at when I go to grade these:
• Originality & creativity
• Strength of design/composition
• Use of color
• Use of illustrator (gradients, patterns, brushes, pen tool, transformation tools, masks, etc.) Note that you don't have to use all of these things, but I would like to see a variety of tools and techniques used; show me what you can do.
9. Don't used canned (preexisting) brushes, patterns & symbols! If you wish to use a pattern, etc., create your own!
10. Your artwork may bleed across the rectangle border (into the white frame) if appropriate.
11. Don't forget, the card must look the same upside-down and downside-up.
12. Convert all text to outlines (vectors)!!!
13. Upon completion, save your file, and upload a copy to the portal.

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