Children's Illustration and Fashion Illustration

SANAE ISHIDA: children's Flash design and fashion illustration

Flash

According to the blurb for Flash Hacks by Sham Bhangal (O’Reilly, 2004):

With Flash technology, you can create compelling web content, expressive user interfaces, and rich applications for the Internet--all of which dramatically enhance the user experience. But Flash is not just practical, it's a wellspring of opportunities to unleash your creativity and have fun.

Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX 2004 Professional are both profoundly powerful and ActionScript 2.0 is now an object-oriented scripting language, a significantly more robust iteration of its predecessor, ActionScript 1.0. Actionscripts 2.0 is the Lexus SUV to the Honda Civic hatchback of 1.0 (named thus after the release of ActionScript 2.0). But the ride is bumpier with 2.0, what with the vast amount of knowledge required to get it working right.

As a newbie to Flash, the steep learning curve and seemingly infinite possibilities for design and development are sometimes intimidating. However, there have been some great tutorials online and in print that have helped me quickly pick up the basics. I’m learning a plethora everyday. Here are some of my recommendations:

Lynda.com – For $25 a month, you get unlimited access to their numerous tutorials from basic to advanced levels. Learning Flash MX2004 was particularly helpful in getting me acclimated to the UI and beginning level animation.

Essential ActionScript 2.0 – (O’Reilly, 2004 by Colin Moock) The inimitable Colin Moock explains everything you ever wanted to know about ActionScript 2.0 in the practical, no-frills and accessible manner that O’Reilly books are known for.

Flash Hacks – (O’Reilly, 2004 by Sham Bhangal) The coolest Flash effects at your fingertips. The Honey helped me create the flower petals effect on my home page using this book.

Kottke.org – a veritable treasure chest of all things geeky and tech/design related.

Things have come a long way since the days when I struggled with BASIC in junior high. It took me hours to get that darn ball to move across the screen back then, and now I bow to the mightiness of tweening.

All Articles:

What's That?
Ode to Fashion Plates
Flash for the Novice
I'm a girl
The Very World Wide Web
Joys of a Wee CD-ROM

About

SANAE ISHIDA: children's Flash design and fashion illustration

Sanae Ishida creates children's illustration and fashion illustrations, CD-ROMs, Flash designs, websites and much more. She currently lives in Seattle, Washington. Sanae has been drawing for as long as she can remember and is heavily influenced by Japanese design and art. Her first exposure to children's illustrations came in large, telephone book-sized Japanese comic books. She also loved Japanese folk tales with woodblock print style images in somber colors that are not often seen in children's illustrations. As she grew older and the love for Japanese comic books gave way to a rather unhealthy obsession with Seventeen magazine, she started to draw fashion illustrations. She initially copied the fashion spreads in the magazines and gradually added her own design elements. She has been a professional doodler for over 20 years. For more information about Sanae's children's illustrations and fashion illustrations, contact me@sanaeishida.com.