intro to project.

Illustration project.
the concept of this project is that you are making a page or several pages from an illustrated children's book. The drawings should be mainly your own, although you can include elements of found copyright free line art. For example, you could include some backgrounds from the myth images to support your drawings. An example of a poor grade would be: completely excluding your own drawings, or simply coloring copyrighted material or another artist's work. remember there is no such thing as an authorless image. have the courage to focus on your own work, even if you are just using doodles.


Be accountable for all painting techniques taught in workshop sections. This means not missing class or being late. Each class for the next few weeks will begin with a painting technique demo. It is your responsibility to practice up on each technique and come on time to learn them. I cannot be responsible for your tardiness in my curriculum and I will not make the other students sit through the same demo twice. I will be looking for all of the painting techniques in the project grade I assign.

Scan your line drawings. Use File> Import and browse the name of the scanner from photoshop. Don't use independent scanning software. Make sure the length x width x depth numbers make sense and just struggle with the program until you figure out how to change them. an example of not making sense: 40 inches by 60 inches by 20 dpi. take turns on the scanners. you must always hit preview before you hit scan.


Include scanned, hand-written text. Imagine that the story of your children's book will be set typographically in handwriting. you may write your own story or illustrate an existing story that you like.


Layout:
this will be the same as the first project, oriented horizontally. 20 w x 15 h x 200 dpi. If you are a wizard at these techniques I expect you to produce several pages from your story at this size. Big size means a more difficult paste up, but it also means a more compelling portfolio, and the ability to work in full production with just a laser printer. I appreciate your hard work in paste up, and the expense of presentation boards, but that labor and expense are a pretty cheap purchase of a nice looking portfolio. Believe me, when someone says they are a digital designer or artist and they hand you a stack of 8x11 printouts as their portfolio, it is such a joke, and generally those go right in the trash. Output is everything, especially if you want to be in the same world as painting and illustration.

van gogh

links

video workshops
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/


photoshop online
https://www.photoshop.com/express


art history images
www.wga.hu

alligator
http://visualelements.blogspot.com/

If you are all done with the myth project and printing it...

Others need to catch up a little bit today.. So we will aspire to have an intense workday on this project. You may be among those that feel like you can't add anymore mask effects or details and that your project is totally done. That is ok too.

In that case you should:

1 print and trim and glue your project.


2 Scan your line drawings. Use File> Import and browse the name of the scanner from photoshop. Don't use independent scanning software. Make sure the length x width x depth numbers make sense and just struggle with the program until you figure out how to change them. an example of not making sense: 40 inches by 60 inches by 20 dpi. take turns on the scanner.

3 Help out someone next to you that is still struggling with masking and mask effects. Lots of people need help with these concepts, and I would ask you to pass your understanding on to someone else, because the class is large, I often unfortunately miss people in one to one work time.

4. Start on another black and white study. Start a new file size 10 x 16 x 200 in grayscale and use exactly the same methods we've been working with in your study. Find new imagery, expand on your original theme. Try to invent mask effects or work all with masks and filters. Push your mastery over the ideas.

5. Start a color study. Start a new file size 10 x 16 x 200 RGB. copy some of your figures and backgrounds into this file. Set line art to multiply blending mode. Recover selections from your figures and make masks. Paint in a layer below the figure and copy the mask onto the color layer. This is similar to what we will all work on together on Wednesday.

printing procedure

finished alligators