Take off your 3D glasses: Dimensional Illustration

When I finally decided on what I wanted to be in life and chose a major after a long battle with three different prior majors, I came back to what I wanted to be when I was a kid, an Illustrator. The thing I didn't know about illustration is that there are so many different careers and paths you can take with an illustration background.

I always thought of illustration as being 2-dimensional, but I was wrong. When starting at R.I.T. and looking at my planner for the years I would be attending here, a sheet filled with all the courses I had to take, one stuck out to me. Dimensional Illustration?

I was bit a weary on it but jumped into with open arms, which is something I have learned to do as an artist, and well I didn't really have a choice so I'd rather be open then closed to it.

Dimensional illustration could be cut paper, clay and any object or media that you could make a form out of.

For our first assignment in the class we had to do a cut paper assignment, where we had to symbolically represent ourselves while including the first initial of our name. Only using white paper, but it could be different textures.

Having a Polish background I chose to incorporate the Polish crowned eagle in my design with an old english font for C that I incorporated on the crown, as an eye and on the border as well.

With dimensional illustration there are two key words you need to know... Craftsmanship and Lighting!

It's a long process from sketches, too color comps (if you are doing a multi colored piece) and cutting or molding. With cut paper you need to be well rested with a steady hand and a sharp exacto-knife.

The material I used for my piece is bristol board, water color paper (for texture) tracing paper, foam core board, glue, clear scotch tape.

It's smart to purchase a cutting pad for the project so you don't destroy the table you're working on.

Before you start your piece draw out a full size rendering of your piece. Once that is finished use tracing paper to figure out what pieces you will need to create your dimensional illustration.

Once you have all the pieces traced on the tracing paper, transfer them onto the desired paper.
Here's a video to use if you've never used this technique before. Feel free to mute it...

Once you have all everything transferred bust out the exacto knife and carefully cut out the pieces.

While assembling I use scotch tape then glue just to make sure the pieces are in the exact place that I want them to be in.

Pieces of foam core stacked are good for podiums that lay behind the pieces, giving the piece a sense of depth.

Always keep in my mind the lighting that will be used when photographing your piece, it could make it or break it!