Challenging myself by creating a photorealistic vector watch.
The idea was to create a photorealistic vector watch based on a photograph. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to find a women’s watch that was sophisticated and unique. I tried throwing myself in the deep end and figured out how to swim. I came to find this watch from Girard Perregaux that fit my idea perfectly.
Sketching
Before I decided on the specific watch, I wanted to test out a couple different watches. Using different photo references, I got to sketching. With each watch, I broke it down bit my bit. I wanted to fully understand how each individual item truly looked. This helped me to know which watch I liked the most.
This sketching process helped me to determine which watch I wanted to design. By breaking down the watch from Girard Perregaux, I determined that I was up for the challenge of designing the small details. Though, I knew it would be a challenge and I would hit many roadblocks.
Drafting Process
By moving the sketch digital, I had the photo reference next to the artboard at all times to help me understand the shapes, highlights, and shadows. To say the process was difficult was certainly an understatement.
Little by little, I improved my watch design as I inched closer to getting it just right. At the beginning, I had a hard time getting the diamonds to look more realistic.
As you can see from the images above, my diamonds went from a flat and dull shape, to a more realistic looking diamond. With the contrast in colors, to adding shadows and highlights, I was able to create a shape that contained the depth of a diamond.
Finalized Design
That brings us to the finalized design. Through fine tuning and receiving feedback from a mentor and peers, I was able to create my first ever photorealistic vector watch. Though this design was fairly difficult to gain an understanding, I am proud of my design and it helped me to realize that I can get through any difficult things.
