The client provided a low- to medium-quality image and requested conversion to Adobe Illustrator or Encapsulated Postscript file format. After a bit of research, I assembled the best elements out of various renditions of the Great Seal with a focus on remaining historically accurate with contemporary touches.
A first generation iPad Pro 12.9″ with Apple Pencil and the Adobe Illustrator Draw app were used to sketch and shade the image in grayscale. The project was then exported to Adobe Illustrator desktop version for final processing. Paths were simplified from around 100,000 points to approximately 20,000 points and color count was minimized, all while maintaining a high level of detail. The image was recolored to shades of green and yellow to fit the client’s purposes. The end result was a vector graphic suitable for large format printing or display.
