Interview met Nino
from student to graphic designer
Student Nino Kavazauri achieved a great result after following the Illustrator course. Now she is a graphic desginer. She studied Fashion Design and made sketches of various clothes. “But once I got to work, I realized it was getting boring and graphic design suits me more,” says Nino Kavazauri. For the homework assignments, she used the outer edges of the images with the pen tool. At Art and the City, 31-year-old Nino Kavazauri built up her portfolio and now works as a graphic designer!
How did you draw My Daily Life?
“I traced everything from photos, except for the pen holder and the plant. I thought I could easily draw this one by hand.
That’s how I started with the headphones: I copied an image from the internet in Illustrator. With the pen tool I followed the outer lines. When I was happy with the shapes, I deleted the image and colored it in. Because I don’t always succeed in tracing perfectly, I luckily used the curvature tool. With this tool you can restore lines and make them as round or sharp as you want.
I repeated the same with the computer and the other parts of the illustration.”
How did you draw the laptop?
“First of all I made a number of square shapes. I copied this to create a whole keyboard.”
And the cat?
“For the sleeping cat on the books, I looked for a photo on the internet. This one didn’t look like mine at all, but by coloring it (after tracing and removing) with small grey areas, he got the pattern of my own cat! The books, which I had also overlined, had dull colors. I gave them uplifting colors and wrote on them the titles of my hobby books that I always have on my table. Then I rotated them to see them from the right side.”
How did you make the shadows?
“I used the transparency tool for that. Another option: use a lighter or darker color than the object to create a shadow.”
What about all the little details?
“The small details are the hardest: I see them as a challenge. If you zoom in, the small details are no longer small and you can add even smaller details.”
How many layers have you worked in?
“As a beginner, I’m not good with working layers. I keep forgetting to use a new layer when starting a new shape. I don’t categorize them. What I did do is connect the keyboard to the laptop. Hopefully the Photoshop course will teach me how to use layers better!”
How did you design Avifauna, the two flamingos?
“By tracing a picture of these birds. I first looked for suitable photos on the internet and had in mind where I eventually wanted to go. I placed these images in Illustrator and with the pen tool I drew the outer edges of the flamingos. Once I was done tracing, I deleted the photos and got all the right shapes that I colored.
So the same drawing process as Nino applied to ‘My Daily Life’, the desk that she will often work on. “I’ll take the chance and get started as a graphic designer”, she says, somewhat nervous, but completely ready!
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