Foreword
Recently, my class and I designed raccoons using Illustrator, a template, and our imagination. I typically use Photoshop if I want to do a personal project, so it was a nice change to use a different program. I found that I enjoyed Illustrator much more than I did last year, and with the skills I have learned recently I hope to use it more often at home.Raccoon with Leaves and Berries
My first experience with the raccoon was with this introductory project, in which we were given a template to make the raccoon itself, and then freedom to do what we wanted with the background and accessories. Making it was not very difficult, with only simple shapes and colors to deal with. Originally, pathfinder was not working properly for me, and I wasn't able to remove some shapes from the final design, but I worked through it, and finished the raccoon. The background and accessories gave us more freedom, even though a template was still used for reference. I used the berry template to make berries, and then modified it to be leaves for the trees.Postcard
The postcard gave us a lot more freedom to do what we wanted, with the only guideline being: use the raccoon in some way and scan in text. I enjoyed scanning in my own handwritten text, and because my handwriting is not the best, I used the light board and traced over a font I printed off. This was fun because it gave me my own handwritten flare and taught me how to remove the background in order to put it on the postcard. Making the card itself was nice because it gave me complete control over what I wanted to do with the project. All in all, I enjoyed this project and how much of it was up to me. 
