Above is the final Adobe Illustrator .ai file provided to the boat wrap installer. It shows the approximate edges of the boat shape and where the graphics should fall inside this area, with generous amounts of extra outer image area to include, if needed.
Below: The file is set up with each subject's artwork collected in its layer, organized by collections of sublayers. This allows for the most efficient movement of the subject's artwork in the layout if needed and to quickly locate sublayers that may need editing.
Below is the side view of the client's 27' fishing boat. The area where he wanted the wrap to be visible is the full length of the boat and between a 4' area above and just below the water line.
Below is the mockup of the design I sketched to show arrangement and placement plans for the client to approve before creating the vector artwork. The client wanted a theme of a Mako shark having bitten a Yellowfin Tuna and chasing it while the rest of the school of Yellowfin Tuna swam away.
Finding an image of a Mako shark in the pose the client requested was difficult. He wanted to see the Mako shark coming up behind the Yellowfin Tuna, with most of its mouth and underside showing. I couldn't find the image I was looking for from either a stock image vendor or through a Google search. I decided to try Midjourney for an AI-generated image of what I was looking for with which to redraw as vector art in Illustrator.
Entering a "mako shark" prompt in Midjourney, yielded four variations, with the fourth being the closest to what I was looking for.
I then focused on the fourth variation which I wanted to increase image resolution and see what sort of additional details might be included when I upscaled it to creative" with the result below:
I liked this version, but I was hoping for more defined edges with which to guide the vector drawing, so I tried enhancing the image quality by upscaling it to subtle, with the result below:
I was happy with this version and downloaded it. I opened the file in Illustrator and redrew every detail as vector art with my creative choices for a color palette, shades and tints, placement/angles, and styling to be harmonious with the rest of the composition. The image below shows an example of the many layers needed to create the shark.
The background deep ocean artwork is a vector file purchased from Adobe Stock. The Yellowfin Tuna artwork I needed was as hard to find as the Mako Shark, so I found something as close as I could get on Adobe Stock, purchased it, and redrew it to my specifications in Illustrator:
The school of Yellowfin Tuna in the angle I wanted was hard to find as well, so, once again, I found something as similar as I could on Adobe Stock, purchased it, and redrew it to my specifications in Illustrator:
I created a grid for a guide in the Illustrator file, whereby each cube equaled a 6" x 6" area. The boat wrap installer wanted the art file to be set up to 50% of the actual size.
"Sunshine" in regular weight is the font I chose for the boat name. It felt like an appropriate style to compliment the "gritty" theme of the composition.
The final resulting art file is below. I am still waiting on an image from the installer of the boat with the wrap on it. Once I have it, I will update my portfolio and share it here. This was the first boat wrap design that I created. It was a fun learning experience. I figured it out on my own as I went along! The wrap installer wants to come to me with design work in the future, so hopefully I'll have more to share!
