S | 3 | Vector Self-Portrait
You’ve spent this unit learning color theory, shape tools, swatches and gradients, and precise composition. Today, you’ll combine all four into one project: a self-portrait built entirely from shapes, deliberately colored, and carefully arranged.
Project Briefing (~10 min)
Watch the teacher build one simple facial feature (an eye, made from 2–3 shapes) from start to finish: block it out with shape primitives, apply a global swatch color, then use the Align panel to center it precisely. The exact workflow you’ll repeat across your whole portrait.
Reference Photo
If you haven’t already, take a medium close-up or close-up photo of yourself to work from. Consider as you take it:
- What strong identifiers (age, attire, cultural connections, mood/expression) do you want to emphasize?
- What is being expressed by your pose (frontal, profile, or partly turned)? Where are you looking?
- What color scheme, from 3.1, will you use. And what mood does it communicate?
Project Work Time (~23 min)
- Plan first: fill out your planning sheet. Identifiers, a shape inventory for each major feature, your chosen color scheme, and a quick composition sketch. Before opening Illustrator.
- Block out the main forms using shape primitives from 3.2 (Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star, Line Segment). No Pen tool, no freehand drawing. Build the face shape, then layer in features.
- Add middle- and background-ground detail. Background imagery doesn’t have to literally match your original photo’s background. Consider repeating, copying, and flipping shapes to build texture.
- Apply your color scheme (3.1, 3.3): save at least one color as a global swatch, and use at least one gradient (linear or radial) somewhere in the piece. A good candidate is the background or a shaded area.
- Align, distribute, and arrange (3.4): use the Align panel and a Key Object to precisely position paired features (eyes, ears), fix stacking order so nothing important is hidden behind something else, then group the finished composition.
- Gallery-walk check-in: partners look at 2–3 classmates’ in-progress portraits and try to name the color scheme used, before asking.
Now that you’ve built a portrait entirely from shapes, what’s one thing you wish you could do that only the Pen tool (coming in Unit 4) would let you do?
GMetrix/BrainBuffet (~30 min)
Finish Module 2: Dobson Branding Style Guide, including its module-completion checkpoint. Due today, entered in the gradebook alongside this project.
Save, Export & Submit (~5 min)
Organize (File Management)
- Ensure that Google Drive for Desktop is syncing to your computer.
- Create a Project Directory (Folder) in your Google Drive
Google Drive/My Drive/Digital Design/YYYY-MM PROJECT NAME - Try to keep all of your project files for this project together, so your work is not interrupted due to technical issues.
Storing all your files in the /Downloads folder in your computer is a BAD idea. If any of these files are lost/deleted you will have to reconnect them. Put them in your project folder directly. This will also be helpful in the event of any computer issues.
- In your project directory, maintain subdirectories for every category of resource you will be using.
| YYYY-MM Project Name |
| 📁 Graphics |
| 📁 Sketches |
| 📁 Photos |
| 📁 Notes |
- It’s also good to include directories for related files
| 📁 Project Files |
| 📁 Exports |
- Save your file as
LastName_FirstName_S3_SelfPortrait.ai. - Export a copy as a PNG for your portfolio:
When you're finished, export your design as a PNG image for your portfolio.
1Open the File menu. Choose Export, then Export As…
2Choose PNG as the file format. Check the box for Use Artboards.
This crops your export to the size of your artboard (the page). Always check this box.
3Set your export options, then click OK.
Publish your work to your Google Sites Portfolio
- Create a new page on your Google Sites Portfolio to catalog your work.
- Your work should be exported in a web-safe format in a manner that allows for the work to be embedded without requiring Google Drive permissions
- Your work should be accompanied by a detailed project description
- Submit the published portfolio page to your LMS (Schoology)
Submit your reference photo alongside your finished portrait, with a one-sentence artist statement connecting your color scheme to the mood you were going for.
🗂 Organize: Put your Self-Portrait planning sheet and your one-sentence artist statement in your binder. Save your reference photo in the Photos folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive. Save your finished .ai file in the Project Files folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive. Save your exported image in the Exports folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive.