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Hi, I'm Yoann, better known as Düne,
and I've been a freelance graphic designer and illustrator for six years now.
And I am Solène, also known as Sosoa,
I've been a graphic designer in Nantes for ten years now.
We also live together.
There are four subjects in this image.
There is the heart, which is divided in two:
one "greedy" side, with more superficial or futile desires,
and the second side for more important things,
and the relationship that humans have with these opposing values.
There are two hands: one that is receiving, and one that is taking.
You could associate the wave of colors,
as well as a wave of happiness to the receiving hand,
which is more appeasing.
On the other side, the hand that is taking is more imposing.
There is much more "tortured" liquid, and you feel more tension and resistance,
from the that hand. It feels forced.
We are used to working with different software every day
such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Painter,
but the starting point is often on paper... with a pencil, there you go.
And from scans or from a photo base.
I use Illustrator a lot for path vectorization - or Photoshop.
And for colorization I like Painter very much.
What was interesting about working this illustration on paper
was keeping the essence and the sensitivity you have with lines
and to rework it with Illustrator.
We had a specific idea of what we wanted out of the final image
and it was quite important for us to treat each element -
the hands, the heart - separately.
Keeping them at a distance
so we could rework each element specifically, using Illustrator.
So, for each of composition's elements,
we decided to trace the them all with the "Pen" tool
instead of making a dynamic vectorization
simply because we wanted to keep the essence of the illustration
and create our own thick and thins with the "Width" tool of the Pen.
So, once all our paths are created we close each zone,
which allows us, to lay a base of solid colors
with dynamic painting.
While Solène is working on this first colorization step,
I go back to paper to start establishing
all my light zones and shadows, for each element.
This enables me to super-impose solid colors onto my base
and all the cutting elements on a separate layer;
one for light and one for shadows.
It is true with Illustrator, we had a tendency
to use fusion masses in the past;
but now with CS6,
you can work gradients towards transparency
so we use it far less... In any case, we use this technique a lot more.
The real benefit of Illustrator is working with vectors, and therefore
having the enlargement you want on your path.
For the heart, the idea was also to integrate a precious stone,
and for this we found the perfect vector image on Fotolia.
In order to integrate the image into the heart, I distorted the vector image
using the "Distort Envelope" tool, but it is also possible
to edit colors, so that it will integrate with the rest of the visual better.
And it is true that you can quickly
edit this color group via the chromatic wheel,
and avoiding passing by global colours.
The specificity of this function really enables you to vary
and to retouch shades as a group,
while keeping the balance and complementarity of the chosen colors.
But also their independence from one another.
To conclude, we thank Fotolia for inviting us on this TEN Collection.
Yes, it was really cool to let us express ourselves on this subject.