Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
NIELSEN
Chris Nielsen
Chris Nielsen has trained his artistic eye to recognize subtle shifts of color within a
photograph and translate them into a striking image using layers of filled paths.
Nielsen first placed an original photograph in a bottom layer to trace upon. He
worked on one small section at a time, such as the eye in the detail to the right. With
the Pen tool he made paths (no fill, with a black stroke) and traced the areas of
primary color he saw in the photograph. He chose the darkest value first (dark blue
or black), then on another layer, he drew the objects with progressively lighter
values (a lighter blue, red, gray, etc.). He continued building layers of paths until the
area was completely covered. He moved throughout the image this way until the
portrait was finished. When all of the paths were drawn he began to fill them with
color. Nielsen chose the Eyedropper tool, pressed and held the Ctrl key to switch
to the Direct Selection tool, and selected an object to color. Then he toggled back to
the Eyedropper tool by releasing the /Ctrl key and sampled a color from the
photograph. He toggled between the Direct Selection tool and the Eyedropper tool
until the paths were filled. Most of the time, Nielsen liked the sampled colors, but if
not, he would tweak the color using the sliders in the Color panel. Once all of the
paths were filled with color, Nielsen hid the template layer. He saw small gaps of
white in his drawing where the paths didn't quite meet or overlap. To fill these gaps,
he made a large object that covered the area, filled it with a dark color, and moved
it to the bottom-most layer.
