I decided that I’d like the site favicon for this blog to be the silhouette of Blue Opal. The creation process was:
- grab the image from Sailboat Data that shows the profile view,
- set it as a locked layer in Illustrator,
- trace over the hull and deck shape, throwing away some bits that won’t be visible as an icon,
- pick a colour that’s kind of like Blue Opal’s hull colour,
- join various vectors to make shapes that can be filled,
- do some math to work out how tall the lines for the mast needed to be, based on the I/J/P/E numbers,
- convert the Victoria Yachts logo from the association website to a vector, pixel peeping to make sure all the angles were right,
- put the main in without a backstay, draw in the backstay, realise the main’s shape can’t be right, fix the main,
- export for screens.
In reality, the coach roof area isn’t dark blue, but the colour difference wouldn’t be significantly visible in a favicon or mobile bookmark.
