Random Dickery with Illustrator! (Dump)

Talonrazor

Alright, here be some stuff I've worked with in Illustrator. Several of the duders and dudetters in the Doodle thread said to start a thread for this so here we are. I'll warn you now, I am no artist. I tried for a long time to perfect anatomical studies and other such things but I had to realize I just don't got it. So I turned to doing stuff in Illustrator, which I enjoy but also suck at. Hence the quest to get better. So here's some stuff for you to ravage. I like honesty, brutal honesty, and I'm not so emotionally attached to my "art" that I'll retreat, call you all assholes, say that my website (which looks like thrown feces on a wall) and comic (which is excreted daily from a trained ape) gets all sorts of compliments then constantly bump my threads of MSPaint figures.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Here we go! First up is a flag. It's for a species that practices dualism and lives on a double-world. Here's the first iteration:



Which is pretty much shit on a platter. After some good comments, I returned!



Still stuck on this one, I'm not really liking the colors. Is it too busy?

Here's the one piece I'd really like crits on. This is a spaceship I designed for some stories I was writing and then later for a d20 Future game I'm running on oDaM called Novo Aether. The ship:



I'm fustrated with this because it's not varied enough. It looks more like a maze then anything else. How can I best portray this ship?

Here's a map I designed for another RPG, Life After, that's currently running on oDaM. It's a post-apoc game so I wanted it to look like someone had clipped a map from an atlas and sewn it onto some leather flap. Tape and notes are suppose to be on it.



So there you are. Rape me with knowledge.

Recoil42

Talonrazor wrote:

This is a spaceship I designed for some stories I was writing and then later for a d20 Future game I'm running on oDaM called Novo Aether. The ship:

0_o

TwoRightFeet

I noticed that someone said earlier that the white is a bit too dominant on the flag, and i'm inclined to agree...For a species that practices dualism, i think a flag like that is going to make for some very unhappy campers.



I dig the ship, tho. Even if it seems suspiciously Halo-ish...

Talonrazor

Yea I forgot to mention, the entire ship is based directly off of some concept art of the Pillar of Autumn. I am a total hack. :P

As for the white, any ideas what would make a better color? Should I drop the white altogether? I was wanting three colors: one for background, one for light, one for dark.

Bad idea?

TwoRightFeet

Well, color theory is pretty much lost on me, being partially colorblind and all, but Magictoaster posted this on the doodle thread a while back. Just in case you didn't see it, i think it's a perfect example of dualism.



Eh?

Vertigo5

Talon, I think you need to rethink your flag entirely. Remember the purpose of a flag is to allow others to easily identify you from a distance.

Here is a site that talks about feudal japanese warlord flags/crests. Especially look at some of the examples on the last page.
http://www.geocities.com/kazenaga23/crests.htm
Flags should be simple and graphic.

Also here is something that I threw together with some of your elements that might spark some ideas for you.

Talonrazor

Holy shit. This is why I posted here. Like I said, I'm not married to any of these works and really need some ideas.

That picture really helps though, that is looking WAY more like I was originally wanting.

I'm going to go start from scratch with some of these ideas you guys have posted.

Arisa

TwoRightFeet wrote:

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/TwoRightFeet/dualps6.jpg

Personally, I dig that one; but I know absolutely nothing about flag or banner creation.

Talonrazor

I re-did the symbol for Dark and made the two planets much smaller, streamlining the entire thing. Here's what I got:



It's looking much better, I think. That crest link is awesome and extremely useful, bookmarked it for later references.

Here's another ship I did early on in the practicing stages and it's so terrible it makes me want to gouge my eyes out.



Those big stick things are suppose to be spinning wheels, the ship belongs to space duders who just patch everything together and hope it flies. How can I make those wheels actually look round? What's a better way to do the lines on that ship? How can I get a sense of "distance" for each part?

galen

Talonrazor wrote:

Those big stick things are suppose to be spinning wheels, the ship belongs to space duders who just patch everything together and hope it flies. How can I make those wheels actually look round?

You uh, can't, really. Not without shading at least.

What's a better way to do the lines on that ship? How can I get a sense of "distance" for each part?

Lines? Also, again, shading.

Vertigo5

I agree. Shading is the best way to describe form and depth, but contour lines can be used to show that those rings are round as well.

Observe:


As the lines go closer to the edges of the round shape, they come closer and closer together. Also take a look at the side of a quarter. Notice how the ridges are the widest apart when near you and closest together when far away. This applies to any texture you place on that object. The further it turns away from you, the more compressed and distorted it will be.