Creating your backdrop

You've created a bunch of animals using Adobe Illustrator. Now you must give them somewhere to go! For tonight's assignment, I want you to start creating an environment for your animals. I am giving you total freedom on this assignment.

You can create an environment that would be "normal" for your animals to be in, or you can create an "abnormal" environment. For instance, your giraffe or lion might look at home in a desert/plains type of environment. That would be a "normal" environment for them. However, putting your giraffe and lion in an office building would be an "abnormal" environment. The example I've shown above depicts a couple of monsters I drew (in Illustrator!) a few years ago. They aren't in a big, scary mansion, they are in a bar having a good time! That's a good example of an "abnormal" environment and how it can make your illustrations more fun!

Please feel free to make these funny, if you'd like. I love good humor! But humor isn't a requirement for this project. You may make a "realistic" environment for your animals and that is just fine.

Please take your time and try to put lots of detail in your environment! It will be the details that make this project pop!

Don't worry about including your animals in your environment just yet. Simply work on the environment and we'll add the animals later. I often prefer to sketch out my ideas on paper before starting to work on the computer when working on a project like this. It may help you get your ideas ready and refined before starting in Illustrator. Though, pencil/pen sketches aren't required for this assignment.

Use tonight's class to work on your environments. Use ALL of tonight's class. You will also be working on your environments on Monday as well, so PLEASE DON'T send them to me yet.

Get to work and create something great!