A3 - Illustrator Presentation

Part of the process of becoming a good illustrator is knowing who have come before, their process and philosophy, and success. To help facilitate this, you will research, layout and present a 5 minute presentation (PowerPoint/or PDF) on a significant illustrator of  your choice.

Your presentation should include the following information:

– The name of the chosen illustrator, historical, geographical, and educational information about them, and the social and economic context (market) in which he/she work(ed).

– At least a half-dozen large, excellent examples of their work.

– An analysis of one of their illustrations as a message: including a description of the sender (client) of the illustration, the audience the illustration was aimed to, and the message/purpose the illustration was predominately conveying and/or striving for.

– A presentation of the illustrator’s process, his/her creative approach, and the impact it has on their style and message-making. Include examples of concept drawings, sketches, working iterations, finished illustrations, and final applications if possible.

– Any other information you deem important to understanding the illustrator and his/her success.

Note: Blogs are a great place to research and find specific information about illustration work and process. The Illustrator’s Market (theillustratorsmarket.blogspot.com) is a blog with interviews of professionals currently working in the field.

Three Illustrator Presentations will be held each of the following days. Please choose when you would like to present your illustrator to the class:

Thursday, April 5th
Aubre & Sam

Tuesday, April 10th
Tifinny, Brindle & Jen

Thursday, April 12th
Thomas, Ted, Adriane

NOTE: The class schedule for presentations has changed. No formal class will be held on Thursday, April 19th, and the last day of class has been moved to Tuesday, April 24th. As a consequence, presentations previously scheduled for the 17th and 19th have moved to the 24th.

Tuesday, April 17th
Uriel, Stella, Courtney & Neli

Thursday, April 19th
Zoe, Jasmine, MJ & Kerby

Tuesday, April 24th
Uriel, Stella, Courtney, Neli, Zoe, Jasmine, MJ & Kerby

Presentations will be due on your individual class blog no later than:
Tuesday, April 24th.

Object, Process or Concept?

Most illustrations convey information about a person, place, or thing, one of three ways. These three modes of communication have a big influence on what the illustration communicates, often much more than the style of the illustration


They are either illustrations of OBJECTS, or what things ARE…

or illustrations of PROCESS, or what things DO…

or illustrations of CONCEPTS, or what things might STAND FOR…

or they can be combinations, such as OBJECT / PROCESS…

or OBJECT / CONCEPT…

or  OBJECT / PROCESS / CONCEPT…

Style comes into play where it supports the OBJECT / PROCESS or CONCEPT mode of message communication.

Illustration Process - Gregg Newbold

Greg Newbold is a professional illustrator living in Utah who also happens to be my next door neighbor. His studio light can be seen through the trees from my front door, and most evenings it is on late into the night.

The following are links to posts on his blog which show his illustration process on two projects for Barnes & Noble…

http://gregnewbold.blogspot.com/2015/05/barnes-noble-table-topper.html

I chose the first post because it s how a nice collection of rough concept sketches that he created poster project:


This second post shows another project for the bookstore chain, but this time it is a mural for the Tribeca Store in New York City.

http://gregnewbold.blogspot.com/2015/12/barnes-noble-tribeca-store-mural.html


























While this post is lacking initial rough concept sketches like the first project, it does show the in depth interaction an illustrator typically has with a client start to finish on an big illustration project:


You can see more of Greg's illustration blog postings at http://gregnewbold.blogspot.com.

Illustration Approach & Style

All good illustrations (and designs) are based upon an idea. In design and illustration we call the idea a concept. Once a good concept or two has been brainstormed based upon your illustration's communication objective, then the next step is to explore the illustration’s best message approach.


Common types of illustrative messages include descriptive, narrative and conceptual.

Descriptive Illustrations visually describe something - a place, a person, or an event.
They can run the gamut from representational to post-representational, collage and even
visual mashups.

Narrative Illustrations tell a story. They can include cartoons, graphic novels, descriptive illustration and sometimes are even conceptual in nature.

Conceptual Illustrations are effective when an idea or a point-of-view needs to be front and center. They can range from metaphor to signs and symbols, and usually are serendipitous to the viewer.

Illustration Style, or the formal approach the illustrator takes to express the message, needs to be in-concert with the subject, appropriate to the sender of the message, and an accessible vernacular with the audience, as the style literally becomes the visual voice of the illustration’s concept.

The work of the following contemporary illustrators each constitute a wide range of styles and message types. Their work is a bit hard to segregate into specific genres, but can somewhat be viewed accordingly:

Descriptive Illustration              (Representational/Post-Representational)
   - Andreas Lie                          www.andreaslie.com
   - Eero Lampinen                     www.eerolampinen.com
   - Alice Tye                              intern-mag.com/alice-tye

Descriptive Illustration               (Collage/Juxtaposition)
   - David Sparshott                    www.davidsparshott.com
   - Rick Berkelmans                  hedof.com

Narrative Illustration                   (Story Telling)
   - Robert Samuel Hanson         www.robertsamuelhanson.com

Conceptual Illustration                (Symbol/Metaphor/POV)
   - Christoph Niemann               www.christophniemann.com
   - Harry Campbell                     drawger.com/hwc

IP4 - Illustrated Story

Our next illustration class project is to illustrate a multiple-page story or narrative of your choice. The objective of the assignment is to visually communicate a message over six pages. The size of the pages will be approximately 6x9 and the print format will be an accordion fold book.

The first step in the project is to choose a story, a set of instructions, a nursery rhyme (maybe a poem or song) — in short, a narrative — you are interested in. The text should not constitute more than twelve words or two sentences per page, for a total of 72 words or 12 sentences.

Post the text on your blog no later than the end of class, Thursday, March 22nd.

The second step is to research the project—write a project brief, and create an image board, and envision the illustrated story through a series of quick sketches on a six-page format.

This is due on your blog the beginning of class, Tuesday, March 27th.

_______________________________________________________

The final schedule for the project will be as follows:

• Work in class, Thursday, April 5th.

• Full story rough (xerox dummy) due Tuesday, April 10th.

• Work in class, Thursday, April 12th.

• Full story comp (laser dummy) due Tuesday, April 17th.

The client just called and moved the final due date to Tuesday, April, 24th. 
There will be NO formal class held Thursday, April 19th so you can prepare for the 24th.

• Final printed story due Thursday, April 19th Tuesday, April 24th, the last day of class.

  Be sure to also post the final illustrated story on your blog.

Head & Hands

Drawing the Head & Hands by Andrew Loomis

Andrew Loomis was a great American illustrator who wrote a series of instructional books in the 1940s and 50s.

He was known not only for how well he could render objects, but perhaps more so for his knowledge of human anatomy.

You can upload a full copy of his book Drawing the Head & Hands, which is copyright free, on the web at: Andrew Loomis - Drawing the Head and Hands.pdf

 

IP3 - Portrait / Caricature

Our next illustration assignment is an editorial portrait commissioned by Rolling Stone magazine of a living or dead, well-known sports person, entertainer, writer or artist. The accomplished person must be someone who creates and/or is known for achieving something at a cultural level. For example, you may want to choose an Olympic champion currently competing at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Here is an example of a caricature of President Trump by Iranian illustrator Hadi-Asadi:

































Part I:

We will have a visiting illustrator, Joshua Peterson, who will introduce this project with a series of preliminary drawing demonstrations and exercises.

To prepare for his visit on Tuesday, February 20th, you will need to have the following posted on your blog by the BEGINNING of class that day.

•  Choose a living or dead, well-known sports person, entertainer, writer or artist.
•  Write a creative brief for this editorial portrait assignment.

•  Create two image research boards:
    - Photos and scrap of your chosen person.
    - At least three examples of professionally illustration portraits/caricatures from 
      three points-of-view:
      • Humorist / Satire;
      • Cute / Childlike;
      • Realistic / Exaggerated

 Part II:

The next phase of this assignment is to create a minimum of three portrait sketches of your chosen subject from the same points-of-view you researched professionally illustrated portraits:
 • Humorist / Satire;
• Cute / Childlike;
• Realistic / Exaggerated

Josh will revisit the class on Tuesday, February 28th to critique your three portrait explorations. Please have them post on your blog, as well as printed out and posted on the crit wall by the BEGINNING of class that day.

 Part III:

The final phase of this assignment is to create the actual illustration for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. If you visit the web site of the magazine and download their media guide you will find the size of the magazine - 8 x 10.875.

Here is a sample layout of a Rolling Stone magazine cover.While you will need to leave appropriate space in your illustration for the masthead, you are not required to add the masthead to your illustration.

If you wish to do so however, please output that as a separate file and also you also write and add a cover article title as well. Be sure to use Rolling Stone’s actual masthead and  magazine typefaces.

As a side note, the magazine’s actual print resolution requirement is 100% size at 133 dpi. A rule of thumb is to set up your digital file twice (2X) the print resolution, or in this case 267 ppi, with 300 dpi the usual standard. The final digital file format required by the magazine to print the illustration is also a PDF-1XA file. You will need to covert your final illustration to a smaller jpg format however in order to post it to your student blog

The schedule for the final assignment illustration is as follows:
– Concept Roughs due Thursday, March 1st.
– A Tight Illustration Comp due Tuesday, March 13th.
– The Final Finished Illustration due Thursday, March 15th.

ATTENTION! An extension for this project has been given:

– The Final Critique for the Illustration in situ as a Magazine Cover is Tuesday, March 20th. Print out to size, on the best printer you can afford, have it posted on the crit wall.

As this assignment constitutes a month’s worth of class work, it will have a large impact on your overall class grade. Put in time and effort into the project to make it the strongest and best illustration you have created to date.