Midterm Project (Computer Graphic) - Magazine (Continued)

Previously, I made the mood board for my magazine cover. Once I did that, the next step was to make 6 sketches of what the magazine would look like. My sketches looked something like this:

The middle and right sketch got selected on this page.

The left sketch got selected on this page.

3 of my sketches got chosen (I don't know whether that should be a good or bad thing). I had to eventually choose one to make. I couldn't really decide so I chose 2 (for the time being). I then made a neater sketch on an A4 paper.

 I had no idea which one I wanted to use for my cover!

I still couldn't decide so I just decided to make both. Which eventually ended with even more choices:

These 2 covers are based on the sketch on the right side (on top). The first one was really quick to make. Mainly because it's just made out of outlines. The second one was trickier because the vector is much more complex. Inspired by this mood board.

 

These 2 covers are based on the sketch on the left side (on top). As you can probably tell, I completely changed the layout but still kept a few elements to it. I couldn't decide whether I should make the vector in black and white or in color. Inspired by this mood board.

However, I then came up with a final design that popped into my head at 11:30pm which ended up like this:

The first 2 designs + the last 2 designs...

This is how I managed to make the final cover I made. I started of with the vector of the person, John Mescal, which was so much harder than I thought it would be...

I "cartoonized" the image on befunky.com.

Tracing the outline using pen tool (P).

I then created shapes using pen tool (P) and added colors and opacity in order to make different tones and shades. 

After many hours repeating the same procedure...

After a day... it's finally completed!

Once I made the vector, I added the writing, which I also made with the pen tool. 

I made the writing using pent tool (P) and made it curvy with the convert anchor tool (shift + c).

I added more weight to the stroke and changed the profile to make it look like a tip of a brush.

I then added some shadow to the text by clicking Effects >  Stylize > Drop Shadow.

Changing the options of the drop shadow settings

After presenting my cover, I had to make a few changes in order to make it better. This is how it turned out:

I added another margin on the right side, added a yellow shape behind the title, changed one of the article headlines to "Guide to Freelance Careers" and added the "The Tenth Anniversary Issue Special" sign.

My presentation can be downloaded here. Hopefully this will be good enough to get a satisfying score for my first computer graphic midterm!