Project Two – first stages

For our second poster project, I’ve decided on a Black Tailed Prairie Dog. I know prairie dogs are not often thought of as the highlight of the zoo, but I’ve always really enjoyed watching them, especially all their interactions – they seem like very social animals.

So far, I’ve started off just forming the prairie dog out of the letters. I found a picture I liked online, and that has seemed to really help me get started. I decided to try to “freehand” the animal, which I think has had it’s pluses and minuses. I think it’s forced me to be more creative, and thinking more spatially about how all the letters could fit together. It has also made it so my image does not look exactly like the picture I found; I was able to use the letters to create a similar pose, but also allow the shape of the letters to dictate some of what the outcome will be.

On the downside, I’m not as sure that it looks exactly like a prairie dog…yet! I’m having a little more trouble this time manipulating the letters to get them into the shape I want. Some of the problem I think is that I have an older version of Illustrator at home, and I think I’m forgetting there are some differences switching back and forth!

One thing I did have a specific question about – when I was working with a lowercase “i,” I was having trouble manipulating the dot and the line separately. I could select each individual part with the direct select tool, but often when I would go to move one part, the other would automatically select and come with it. I tried using expand to “break apart” the shape, but that didn’t seem to work. I ended up copying and pasting the separate shapes, and then deleting the original “i” so I could work with the two new shapes separately. I’m sure there must be a better way to get around that though!