I’ve decided to take this little design experiment to the social streets of Instagram. Knowing not a soul visits this site, it was initially a safe space to make and share without feeling condemned by art literati. But what a waste, and what a cowardly way to live.
So, for the straggler who stumbles upon this, you can see my continued work @jabdilla_makes.
Ideas & Things / 020 / “Skunk”
Discovered the blend tool…drool-worthy effects,
Ideas & Things / 019 / “Steppe Family”
Ideas & Things / 018 / “Separate Equality”
Ideas & Things / 017 / “Prime Time”
Ideas & Things / 016 / “Golgotham”
Ideas & Things / 015 / “Aphasiastic”
Decided to get Bauhausey (or at least put my own curve on the style) this week.
IDEAS & THINGS / 014 / “SO ARTSY”
In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually.
Josef Albers, Interaction of Color”
Theory eludes me, but I love the Bauhaus aesthetic. From creating the shapes to thinking through color scheme, it’s a soul-salubrious form to replicate.
IDEAS & THINGS / 013 / ‘GALACTIC SNART”
Various shapes and arrangements inspired by Daily Minimal.
IDEAS & THINGS / 012 / “SECOND COMING”
According to Robert Twigger, repeatability is the mark of a micromastery mastered. After creating “Bad Dream,” I was perplexed as to how to repeat it. After several attempts, and many hours that felt futile, I figured the hack out. Of all my little experiments, this one’s most stellar.
IDEAS & THINGS / 011 / “TRINITIES”
Similar to 005 in principle, but wanted to play a bit more with the Transform tool and making elliptical/orbital imagery.
Something about this is loud and clashing and fast. All the angles and the movement provided from their circular orientation, their closeness to each other screams “careen to clash.”
IDEAS & THINGS / 009 / “VAYA CON”
Feel like I’d see this atop a priest’s scepter as he led the charge of another Grand Inquisition. “Vaya con Dios,” he’d roar.
IDEAS & THINGS / 008 / “BAD DREAM”
Been spending a lot of time goofing off with the Transform feature in Ai. This particular effect was initially an accident. I wanted to apply a gradient to the fill, but instead applied it to the stroke. I liked the accidental version better.
Why Bad Dream?
Because my bad dreams tend to be as alluring as they are unnerving, and never make sense nor do they have a reason for being.
Exactly like this design.
IDEAS & THINGS / 007 / “MOOSE”
This is a blatant imitation of a piece of art I found on the Adobe Create Magazine. The moose is my spirit animal, so when I saw this, I had to figure out how to “draw” it.
It’s not a trace, I simply used shapes and the Shape Builder tool to piece it together.
An homage to another artist. An homage to a goofy-yet-badass beast.
IDEAS & THINGS / 006 / “THE DUSK WILL END”
I’d named this “Crap Your Pants At the Apocalyptic Dawn,” which I still think is the stronger title, albeit way too long. I’m not a dark, vampirish, gothic, nor an apocalypse-obsessed person, but some of these designs would say otherwise.
Guess I’m just moody.
Here’s to trying on new, darker moods.
IDEAS & THINGS / 005 / “DISCIPLES”
Geometrically aligning objects around a sphere, along with segmenting/coloring that perforated line, eluded and taunted me for some time. The solution was easy, but still pushed my nascent skills to their limits. This is a weird, non-sense-as-usual design, but there’s something to it that calms. While still being kinda eerie; which is what outer space is to me.
Finally learned how to manipulate independent line and path segments.
Again, nothing extraordinary nor that meaningful from the perspective of “art;” especially since it’s #dailyminimalinspired.
As for all the other stuff I started out writing, I decided that unless it’s pretty darn awesome, I’ll hold off on the rudimentary learnings. I may hold off on writing much of anything and just post the designs. Turning out to be a challenge on its own just to pull one of these off each day.
I’m going to stop writing this part. What I want to do is the same for each: apply something I learned to a geometric, totally bogus design born of my wacko imagination.
Until I want to do something more novel, I’m going to leave this out.
How to clip a line and fill it with its own color.
How to apply a gradient/fade to an object.
The scissor tool is pretty damn awesome. But I don’t think that’s the technically-right way to do what I want. But it works for the time being.
IDEAS & THINGS / 002 / “PARADISE LOCATED”
Create a 2D, geometric design that appears to have some cosmological meaning but that in reality is complete bullshit.
How to use the shape builder tool to make circular cuts into objects.
The last crescent moon-looking thing was made by literally eclipsing the planet with an opaque circle. I could figure out how to make a circular cut.
Now I know it’s as simple as getting the shape builder, imposing a circular shape over the object I want cut, selecting all, then “clipping” out what I don’t want.