Objective

Create a colorful polygonal animal by selecting an image of an animal online and then making polygonal shapes and triangles to design a colorful animal shape recreation.

Project Example

Design Requirements

Find a photo of an animal online to use as a visual to draw your polygons on top of as a reference. If you select an image that is vertical you will make an Illustrator artboard that is Portrait (up and down), if you select an image that is horizontal you will make an artboard that is Landscape (left and right). Because you are tracing and not using the actual photo, you can find copyrighted images to use from Google. Remember the proper way to save images from Google.
Make a new project as 8.5" x 11" or 11" x 8.5 inches in portrait or landscape mode, at 300 ppi resolution, CMYK color mode, with a white background.
File > Place the animal image, then position in the center of the artboard
Scale the image to a large portion of the artboard, then label the layer of this image as Original and Lock the layer. You need to decide if you are only doing the head or if doing the whole body (see examples). If the image of the animal is cut off in the photo, and you are doing whole body, then you need to place those cut off edges to the edges of your artboard as well.
Make a new layer called Polygons, make your sub layers for each item drawn on that layer
Use the polygonal shapes tool and/or the pen tool to make individual shapes to form the animal. Draw your shapes on top of the image of your animal so you know where to line up each section. Your shapes can have white space between or touch (see the examples for the difference). Your polygons should vary in sizes to create your design. Your design should be TONS of various sized polygons that make up the shape of the animal, NOT just a few large polygons
You can use bright vibrant colors for your design or use colors that stimulate the color of the actual animal.
When your design is complete, turn off the eyeball to hide your original animal photo.

Download Project Files

Project Tutorial

Working File Instructions

IMPORTANT: Make sure you are saving the editable file as you work.

File Type:

File Naming Convention:

lastname+firstinitial_poly.ai

Final Deliverable Instructions

IMPORTANT: Canvas will only accept the file type below.