These are a few things that seem terribly obvious, but still took me a couple months to be conscious of:
1. Print your pieces out throughout your process; your computer screen lies to you.
2. Don’t be timid. Be bold and fearless with your lack of detail and stroke weight. Try different styles, not just what is comfortable.
3. Steer clear of being too literal and instead focus on trying to capture the essence.
The assignment was to take an object, decipher it, capture its lights and shadows, and render the essence of the object in Illustrator. I started out by actually tracing the peacock to understand its different sections and get a sense of the detail of the plumage and fur. I worked through numerous iterations and spent hours upon hours on the individual feathers. I decided I was satisfied with it, printed it, mounted it. Now looking back, if I had printed it and looked at it from afar, I believe I would have noticed its illustrative quality as well as its unnecessary amount of detail.
