Original Watercolor - The starting point.
There has been a lot of discussion this quarter (every quarter actually) about how long it takes to make paths in Illustrator. Of course, I tell them they will speed up with practice; they don't realize how much they will speed up if given enough time. Since we are in a learning environment, I strongly encourage them not to Live Trace anything. If you don't know Adobe Illustrator, Live Trace is an option that will trace your drawing, or photo, in as many colors as you want depending on the settings. This can look nice, but it will not help you learn the pen tool. Live Trace has other benefits too, but I will focus on path creation for now.
This quarter, I opened up a painting I did earlier that was dependent on line. I started by showing them Live Trace, which they knew already, and then made custom paths to compare the two methods.
Live Trace
Live Trace detail
The above images, Live Trace and Live Trace detail, show the automated version. I agree that it has a nice quality, but to me, it looks a little sloppy. Here, I'm leaving the editing up to the judgement of the computer. Even if I wanted a lot of detail, I would prefer to do it myself. I think I would just leave it as a watercolor if I wanted this look. Its kind of between worlds right now.
Paths I made based off the original.
Here, I used the watercolor as a starting point and changed some of it to suit the qualities of vector art. I'm not trying to recreate the feel of the watercolor. I want it to look sharp, clean, and machine made. Because thats what it is. I don't tell anyone they have to be an expert in Illustrator unless they want to go down that road professionally. What I tell them is that they need to be exposed to it, just like pen and ink, or some other media, to see if they like it. Who knows they might learn to love it. I did.
Hey, there is a major flaw to this version. What do you think it is?