Illustration and Advanced Illustration

Basic Illustration explores basic editorial and advertising illustration techniques from line art to painting to collage. Students will examine how the various techniques are applied to art as a storytelling medium. Traditional and non-traditional methods will be explored and students will be invited to explore digital means of manipulating illustrations for some projects using the Art Area computer lab. The course will include a review of the historical and current trends leaders and uses of illustration in publishing and other fields of visual communication.

Advanced Illustration explores advanced editorial and advertising illustration techniques as an extension of ART.-133 Basic Illustration Techniques and is intended for students who envision making illustration a possible career. Students will further examine how the various techniques are applied to art as a storytelling medium and will be encouraged to develop their own areas of specialization. Traditional and non-traditional methods will be encouraged including digital means of creating and manipulating illustrations using the Art Area computer lab.

  • Download the Basic
    Illustration Syllabus
  • Download the Advanced
    Illustration Syllabus
  • Basic Illustration Project 1
    The purpose of this assignment is explore both working in series as well as different styles. Illustrators often have to create series of similarly styled images for a project. For example, you may have to create illustrations for different vegetables. You want all the illustrations to have a similar look and feel even though they will be of different vegetables. You will want to use techniques like a similar color palette, similar line work, similar treatment of shapes, etc. to keep the illustrations looking similar.

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  • Basic Illustration Project 2
    For this project, you will create a series of at least 4 icons or badges that focus on a central theme of your choosing– animals, robots, spaceships, buildings, food, social media, etc. We will create them using Illustrator and creating them with basic vector shapes as an exercise in restraint and simplification. Like the last project, you will want to utilize similar design elements and a standard color palette to produce unity across the badges.

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  • Basic Illustration Project 3
    For this project, you will create a geometric illustration of animal or monster of your choosing. By “geometric illustration,” I am referring to a simple shape-based style where complex organic shapes are reduced to more basic, symmetrical forms. I strongly recommend using rules to define minimum shape sizes, angles, and types of shapes. This will help your final illustration achieve a consistent look. As you refine your illustration, take it to the next level with a pleasing color scheme and a style that conveys a feeling of personality. Remember, a good amount of trial and error will be required to determine what feels right — working with minimal shapes and maintaining recognition can be tricky to accomplish.

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  • Basic Illustration Project 4
    For this project, you will be creating a book cover for a fairy tale. I am open to any fairy tale you would like to choose from any culture. I would point out that while many fairy tales tend to be very sweet in their portrayal today but were originally very dark stories. After you choose your fairy tale, you will create one illustration that represents the story. The challenge is to create an illustration that gives a viewer an idea of what the story is about in one image. You will need to include the text for the title and author in the final file, but the focus should be on the illustration.

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  • Basic Illustration Project 5
    For this project, you will create a poster to advertise a particular destination. From a style stand point, I would like you to focus on more vintage styles. The poster should highlight a particular aspect of the destination that may appeal to a potential tourist. It may be a landmark or it may be something the destination is known for. For example, Florida is known for oranges so you may feature oranges prominently. You may also choose to incorporate a number of elements into the final design. The illustration portion will feature an interpretation of the landmark or other destination element(s). You will need to include text at minimum of the name of the destination. You may also want to include the word visit or a tag line like “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas”. You will also want to consider a vintage appropriate color palette.

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  • Advanced Illustration Project 1
    For this project, you will create a geometric illustration of a building or landmark of your choosing. By “geometric illustration,” I am referring to a simple shape-based style where complex organic shapes are reduced to more basic, symmetrical forms. I strongly recommend using rules to define minimum shape sizes, angles, and types of shapes. This will help your final illustration achieve a consistent look. As you refine your illustration, take it to the next level with a pleasing color scheme and a style that conveys a feeling of personality. Remember, a good amount of trial and error will be required to determine what feels right — working with minimal shapes and maintaining recognition can be tricky to accomplish.

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  • Advanced Illustration Project 2
    For this project, you will create a complete set of playing cards utilizing a central theme of your choosing– animals, robots, spaceships, buildings, food, etc. You will create them using Illustrator. You can use any illustration style you want, but you will want to utilize similar design elements and a standard color palette to produce unity across the playing cards. Each playing card should include the symbol for the suit (spade, heart, club, diamond), the number or letter of the card (K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A), and an image of some sort based on your theme. You need to have a different graphic for each of the 13 different types of cards.

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  • Advanced Illustration Project 3
    For this project, you will create a poster for a movie or band that will inspire fans and captivate fans-to-be. If creating a poster for a movie, it should include the name of the movie, the main actors, and the director. If creating a gig poster for a band, it should include the name of the band, the venue, the city and state of the event, and the date and time of the event. You may add other text as you deem appropriate. The poster should make a person either want to see the movie or attend the concert. You will need to limit yourself to three colors for the poster. I will award extra credit to any student who screen prints their poster. The poster should feature a clear concept representative of either the plot of a movie or what the band is about. You may want to focus on a particular album if choosing to make a gig poster.

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  • Advanced Illustration Project 4
    For this project, you will choose on of the articles listed below to create editorial illustrations for. You will need to create three illustrations—one main image to be used with the title and two smaller images to also accompany the article. The illustrations should speak to what the article is trying to get across. Ideally, your goal is to portray these ideas in a new way. The main illustration should highlight the overall ideas of the article while the smaller illustrations should highlight one important point within the article. Finally, you will use the illustrations in a four page magazine spread. It is helpful to see your illustrations in their final context.

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  • Advanced Illustration Project 5
    For this project, you will create a cut paper illustration depicting your dream weekend and then create a short animation utilizing the elements in the scene. Your cut paper project should have at least three layers of depth and use texture in some way. The animation will make use of stop motion techniques and should be 20 seconds in length at 20 frames per second.

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  • Basic & Advanced Illustration Final Project
    For the assignment, you will be creating a four minute animation to accompany a piece of music written by a student in the music composition class. You will start with the lyrics and then later receive the actual music. You do not need to speak with the student creating the lyrics. The final animation/illustration is completely open to your interpretation of the piece of music. You may decide you want to find harmony or you may prefer to have discord. You can think of this as a narrative project or as something without any deeper meaning. The goal is to create something visually interesting that has some connection to the piece of music you are given.

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