My inspiration for this Illustrator project was animal characters made by a Korean music band called BTS. I wanted to create something cute but subtle so that not everyone would be able to understand what these stickers meant. The reason these characters mean a lot to me is because by finding and learning about this band and their journey, I have been able to connect to my heritage. It made me interested in relearning hangul, the Korean language, which allows me to better communicate with my grandparents and extended family. BTS also helped me get out of mentally challenging periods in my life through their positive and relatable messages. Through their music, I have been able to see my own self-worth and feel encouraged to try and find happiness, even in the most difficult of times.
While creating my stickers in Adobe Illustrator, I encountered some difficulties while using the pen tool. Although we have been using it for this whole unit, when starting the project, I was still a little stiff and awkward with it. I could never get it to make the exact curve or shape I wanted! However, I did not want this to slow me down or discourage me so I decided to watch a few videos on YouTube; this helped me to better understand the pen tool and I am now very comfortable using it! I feel that I made this project the way I had originally imagined it, and am proud that I did not take any shortcuts. But looking back, if I could change anything about my stickers, I would like to add even more details such as shadows and text, in order to bring more depth and make it less flat. This project changed the way I see others’ art as I understand that simple designs, like the ones on stickers or logos, actually take a lot more thought and time than I had believed.
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