I was really up for trying out this project to help me focus on working up my design concept before moving to the computer while keeping a eye on the time. I began by researching some idioms and picked out ones that caught my eye. Once I had three or four, I start working on word play and made quick sketches of any ideas that came into my head.

I wanted to limit the my research time so that I didn't over think my finished design. I decided to go with the idiom "Apple of my eye" and worked up some of my quick sketches. I had two ideas I was bouncing between - I decided to go with the first idea as I believed the text stood out more. For a while I thought it would be funny if the apple with an eye had a monocle, so I played around with adding that idea to the sketch. Once I was happy with my sketch, I worked it up and outlined it in black pen to help the tracing process in the computer.

I scanned in my sketch into Adobe Illustrator and started to create my design. I was having several internal struggles as I am so used to working with clean lines and the Blob Brush Tool did not agree with my way of thinking. After a few tries with the Blob Brush Tool, a lot of rubbing out the Eraser Tool, I let go of the control and just had some fun make new shapes. I dropped the idea of the monocle as I felt the design had become too busy. Once I finished drawing, I added some colour to my design and took a break to stop myself over designing the finished artwork.

After a cup of tea, I went back to the illustrator file and tweaked a few parts of my design. I then played around with creating some texture. I opened up my chosen texture in Adobe Photoshop and played with the levels and curves to see what I could discover. Once I was happy, I applied the adapted texture to my "Apple of my eye" illustration. I like the way the blending modes gave the design a news print quality.