Assignment 1 Commentary

Initially, I was  worried that i would not be able to do this assignment properly as I was not familiar with the tools in Illustrator. However, after fumbling about for abit , and learning more about the tools, i realize that it was actually very manageable and even fun! I chose to use this picture of this lightbulb because i was in a pretty café and the lightbulb looks interesting and unique, and I wanted to abstract it into from its unique lightbulb design to a common lightbulb that everyone could recognize easily 

With the use of illustrator , i used the pen tool to trace the outline of the lightbulb, including in minute and small details such as the light ligaments inside as well as the designs of the lightbulb outside. Before tracing the outline of the lightbulb, i had to lower the transparency of the image so that it would be easier to trace. I also incorporated the use of color, such a yellow to highlight the light emitted from the lightbulb. I wanted the end result to be a generic lightbulb where one can easily recognize the lightbulb without seeing the initial image. For the curved area of the bulbous lightbulb, i used the curvature tool and had to adjusted it  carefully to fit the outline of the bulb.

After getting critique, i was reminded that since my end goal was to turn the lightbulb into a generic lightbulb into one that everyone could recognize at a glance, I had to take away the unique features and abstract it into a simpler form. Thus, i have straightened out the lines and crooks of the original lightbulb that i have left in the original final artwork and straightened it to make it look more generic. One of the comments i got was that i could remove the wires inside, as it  was a unique-looking feature that other lightbulbs do not usually have. Thus I also removed the ligaments inside. After improving my work, it  looked like a very generic lightbulb icon and have been recognized by my family members as a lightbulb even without the original image. One another comment was that i could take out the yellow color that i had put in my initial final work so that it could be further abstracted, so instead of filling the entire lightbulb with yellow, i changed it into a yellow stroke in final abstraction form in my now improved artwork . 

 During the abstraction process,  I really had to take a closer look into details, even minute details and judge which were the more important details or aspects so that I can remove the more important details in order. Initially, I was very focused on copying and keeping the original image, such as still keeping its original shape and features like the long hanger that glued the bulb to the ceiling, even though it was redundant. However, it was only in later stages when I realize that I was not really "abstracting" as abstraction does not attempt to represent a realistic depiction of an object, but instead uses shape, color and general forms to represent the object. It was only then did I manage to stop being so rigid in my work and allowed me to succinctly focus on the lightbulb by itself. This process has taught me that we often undergo selection attention to certain details and learn how to critically analyze the main details.