[Jabberwocky]

Here's the link to a page of some of my illustratot stuff:
Birdies!

It's the penguin not the owl... didn't like the owl. C&C are welcome. It's not due until Tuesday before Thanksgiving break (next week). The bird really kicked my butt. So if you know any thing about Illustrator that could help I would love to hear it!

[Gothic Gerbil]

Pretty nice work I think. I think you can work a bit more with the shading though to really pop the forms out. Don't be afraid to try different transparency modes (multiply, screen, stuff like that I keep on wanting to call them transfer modes grrr), and different transparency amounts layered for shading. I like your rose the best, it is the most atmospheric of the pieces. Feathering is wonderful for softening the edges of the shadings. Blends are a great fun for that too! Faster than a gradient mesh if done right in the right areas. Hmm ... I like the feel of the little elf, but I think some more darks added to the hair would help the highlights to stand out. Have fun! And I actually like the owl better than the penguin. Ah, just noticed you had other pages. I like the one from the Michael Whelan painting the best. I know I've seen that painting somewhere before but I just can't remember where ...

[Jabberwocky]

Radiater: Thanks.

Gothic Gerbil: We're suppose to be "practicing" the mesh tool. I enjoy making the shading and highlights like my CS project. The mesh tool never works right. I f you have nay help on how to use it besides the the white arrow only fills little areas and the bucket fills more <- all I got from my instructor. The shadow on the peng I used transparency and on the dark tips on the owl. I just wish I had it at home to practice with. My instructor knows I'm getting edgy with Illustrator... She came up to me and said she knows I'm Photoshop artist like her... Makes blending easier. I do like Illustrator way more than Freehand.

The picture of Michael Whelans is Tree of Swords and Jewels. I think I might change it some just to try things.


Thanks for the tips on using modes I forgot completely about those...

[Radiater]

Looks nice and clean. Good work.

[Highfive]

I've never used illustrator before so I don't know how you did these, but I like the emperor penguin over the owl, although they're both quite nice.
You could develop the owl further by drawing a little bit of plummage detail on the faces and the top of the wings.
The lighting on the rose's petals is really nice. If you could work some detail into the leaves, that could make it look even better.

[Jabberwocky]

The owl isn't finished. I wasn't liking the way it was turning out so I stopped that's why it looks so unfinished.

Now I think tommarrow I'll work on it some more to better the feature on it.

[Gothic Gerbil]

Your instructor sounds um helpful. Sorry, didn't know you were supposed to be practising meshes, ugh. I know this is a bit late of a reply and I'm sorry, probably a bit late to help you with your pictures. The way that I work with the mesh tool is not to create a big huge mesh for major parts of the objects, like say the torso of your penguin, but for small sections of the torso. Mmm like, I will draw out the whole torso and give it a flat shade which is the midtone of the object (or the highlight or the shadow depending upon which is the predominant colour here but that is usually the midtone). Then I'll take one of the shadow sections and make a mesh of it and then fill the respective points the darkest shade of the shadow, and then move in and tweak the inner points to fit. Ok, I feel like I'm making a muddle of everything here sorry. If you feel any need for further help just drop me an e-mail, I check that more often than I check here, sadly. Have fun with Illustrator!