Sofia Abellera was drawn to the world of illustration and animation at an early age. She grew up watching cartoons and Japanese anime as a kid, and continued on in her teen years, captivated by series like The Legend of Korra, a sequel to another favorite of hers, Avatar: The Last Airbender. “The moment I saw that particular show,” she says, “I was like, OK, I’m going to take up animation.’”
Since completing her studies four years ago, at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in Manila, Philippines, Abellera has applied her design skills to a range of projects — including explainer videos, advertising campaigns, and even a Christmas-themed music video for a Japanese band called Snail’s House, which she both directed and animated.
While experimenting with the new Adobe Illustrator on the iPad app, Abellera had the chance to take a short break from working in motion to pause and reflect on the past year spent in quarantine. Here, Abellera walks us through the process of creating her latest illustration project, “Aquarium,” from sketch to final.
Step 1: Define your concept.
“The illustration I wanted to make depicts people in fishbowls and miniature aquariums — to visualize what I’ve been feeling, and what I think many others may also be feeling, since the start of the pandemic,” Abellera says. “Everyone is feeling a little bit confined, cramped in their homes. In the sketch, I wanted to show some characters pondering the world outside of their little spaces. Mainly, the goal was to have fun and create something that was visually interesting, and that would allow me to play around with all of the features on the app.”
Abellera’s sketches, made with Illustrator on the iPad.
Step 2: Ready your vectors.
“Sometimes I’ll create a sketch on paper, but these days I find it a little bit more convenient to just do it digitally,” Abellera says. With her initial concept set, Abellera began sketching directly in Illustrator on the iPad, creating outlines using the Pen and Shape Builder tools, as well as Clipping Masks. “When it comes to vectors, I’m very particular about the points — I’m not as keen on using the Pencil. I’ll just meticulously do everything using the Pen tool. For me, I find the points are easier to manage.”
Step 3: Explore the colorful world of gradients.
“Usually, instead of choosing a set color palette, I’ll go back and forth between different colors. For this particular illustration, I was just using instinct,” says Abellera, who took to the Gradient tool with much enthusiasm, filling in each plane of color with a vibrant range of hues. “I just found the Gradient tool to be so much fun — especially because you can add as many points and colors as you’d like. When I discovered that feature, I thought, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna go wild!’”
Step 4: Complete your composition.
With all three aquarium illustrations complete, Abellera then arranged each into a single composition, as she considered how she’d fill in the backdrop. To finish off the piece, she manually duplicated and scaled elements from inside each aquarium to create a patterned array — a visual reminder, Abellera says, of the world outside each of our current bubbles. “I also wanted it to look as busy as possible because I didn’t like all that blank space.”
Watch Abellera in action as she documents her process creating Aquarium from start to finish with Illustrator on the iPad.
Step 5: Enjoy your finished quarantine creation.
Before this project, “I hadn’t actually done any personal work for months, and I think it’s cool to be able to, just to de-stress and to remember why artists fall in love with drawing in the first place,” says Abellera. “I wanted this piece to feel a bit artificial. Right now, I’m surrounding myself with very artificial sources of distraction, just to get by — but like these characters staring outside of their aquariums, I’m also daydreaming as well, of the time when we can finally go back to ‘normal.’”
Check out more from Sofia Abellera on Behance and Instagram.
See more inspiring articles about Illustrator on the iPad.
Header image made with Adobe Illustrator on the iPad.
