Expert: Amy - 1/3/2005

Question
hi
i know what i want to do but dont know how to go about it on illustrator as i am a newbie.
what i am trying to create is an image of an art gallery, the image is showing two pieces of art and there is a crowd of people only surrounding one of the pieces of art, something similar to this:
http://www.graphicobsession.com/index.jsp?media=illustration (and in the search space type in 714043)
Could you give me as much advice, tips and help as you can on how i can go about in creating my idea, hopefully it will be simple.
thank you :)

Answer
Hi sam,

You asked this question about 2 months ago...  here's what I wrote.

Hi Sam,

Unless you have been told that you cannot trace a drawing to do this, for the people, I would either locate a photo or sketch something yourself. Then scan the sketch and import it into Illustrator to trace the people with the pencil tool. There are many sources for photos on the internet, I'm sure you won't have a problem there. I don't know how detailed you're supposed to get but I picture very simple people - no hair detail, etc. You know that trick of squinting your eyes to see major light and dark shapes in any object when drawing it? Basically do that to whatever photo you find and use your pencil tool to trace these basic light and dark shapes that make up a person, simplifying them at the same time.

The gallery walls and frames can be made very simply in Illustrator by creating lines and rectangles. Of course it helps to know something about perspective, so if you don't, I'd probably look at some photos, too, and copy what you learn by examining them.

I guess I'd make the art within the frames abstract so that you don't have to deal with perspective there.

Just a note: Most of the galleries I've been in have extremely high ceilings...probably won't even be able to be seen in an illustration that also includes a floor.

Good luck with your assignment
Amy