ART219 Illustration

Society of Illustrators Poster Illustration

New Illustration assignment.

Size: 16 x 20 final printout, mounted with one inch black border.

Prompt: Need a kick-butt image to be used on the poster side of the Call for Entry direct mailer that the Society of Illustrator's mail out to professional illustrators and students. As the art director and client, I want to see an illustration that will excite participation in this competition. Solid technique and professional quality is a must. What this illustration is and how you do it is up to you. A creative concept would be good. If you have done this project in VCII, you have to have a new concept behind the illustration you are going to produce. You are not designing the poster, just creating the illustration that a designer will use in the design.

5 idea sketches on Monday 24th that I can approve one from. A frigg'n tight color comp to approve is due on Weds 26th and the butt-kicking final illustration to approve is due on Weds., Nov 2. Print-out is due November 7th.

New project never before attempted in ART219

New Size Information: Albums are 12.375 inches square - CDs are 4.75 inches square (Thanks Michelle) The iTunes cover art is 131 pixels square at 72 ppi.

This is a totally new project. You will determine if it will ever be assigned again in the future. So, start thinking about, planning and making some decisions for this new project. This should be something you will like. This is a cover art/concept illustration for your favorite band or music artist. Essentially, name your poison. Technique is wide open, you choose how to execute the illustration.

Parameters:

• The illustration will be used at three different sizes: Traditional LP Record, CD and iTunes cover art. Figure out the actual sizes. OK, here are the 100% for LP, 36% for CD and 15% for iTunes.
• The illustration is conceptual in nature based upon the album title: No illustrated images of band member/artist(s). Get creative. This does not have to be a contemporary group/artist. Any genre is an option.
• The artwork should function at all three sizes - 2 print and 1 digital applications

Presentation:

• All three will be printed and mounted individually on black foamcore - 1 inch border
• Blog everything: write something worth reading about the project... conceptual, process, success/failure...

Timeline:

• Novemeber 10: Initial marker comp of illustration
• November 29: Final art approval
• December 10: Final printouts and mounted for presentation
• December 15: Take down from hallway display

 

Cheesy Airbrush

OK. Here is the Cheesy assignment to showcase your new airbrush skills. No pre-drawn, illustrated or existing cartoon characters. In fact, this assignment doesn't even have to be a cartoon. Your prompt is "Cheesy". What can you creatively and visually do with it?

Actual size/Print size: 10 x 14 inch.

Timeline:

November 15: Color Comp - 5 x 7 in

December 10: Final printout, mounted black foamcore - 1 inch border

Product Illustrations Blog picks

Here is the fresh batch of blog picks for the Product Illustration.

 
Reina Koyano

Becky Hernandez

Emma Dunlap

Julianne Gross

 

Rocio Hopson

3 Image Gouache Montage

This project is about working with gouache and the techniques you have just been introduced to. Pick three non-related images and assemble into a single unified composition. You can use acquired images or shoot pics yourself. Size of original 10 x 12.5, Size out final output (inkjet) 8 x 10. 80% of the original. We will be working with an approval process to start with, so have a Marker Comp (4 x 5) ready to be approved on Friday, October 29. Have all your work items with you on Monday so you can make revisions or move into production.

Final Illustration is due on Friday, November 5. Scan, Blog, Save .pdf and Printed/Mounted (1 inch border on Black foamcore).

Past years examples:

 

Post mid-term project - Product illustration

So, although the Red Barn pamphlet project was a significant project for you to try to execute at an approveable level... This new project is our first post-midterm assignment. What is needed by your "client" is a tightly rendered illustration of their product (you pick the product or... name your own poison). No painted backgrounds, just the really well executed image of the product. This illustration would be used in ads, or as a drop in image in a brochure or on a website. The background should be white to allow for a COB/BDO (cut out background or background drop out). The technique/style you use is also up to you. It just has to be a tight representation of the product. Simple. Make it look good.

Due on Friday, October 29 at the beginning of class, printed to 8.5 x 11 glossy/luster inkjet (COB to drop out background texture), mounted on black foamcore with 1 inch border, scanned, blogged and a pdf ready to turn in to me. We will work in class on Monday.

Go back on the blog to see earlier class work examples. This level of work is what I'm expecting from all of you. Be the first class of all of you doing this well. Make that product look sexy.

Mural Design

I know, this is an impulse project. But it is a good exerices in process and dealing with a specific visual problem.

Parameters for the initial design of the Mural:

• mural on the southern wall of the newly-renovated Ryle cafeteria - 52 x 8 ft.
• a design or ideas for a design that encompass campus/community/global diversity
• artists or other helpers interested in showcasing their work by tracing and then painting the design onto the wall

Now, as your "boss", "art director" and "creative director", I want something visually striking and not overly cliché-ish. Please, no globes, different colored hands linking together, etc... Please, don't make me puke. If you do use a cliché, it should be retasked and reinterpreted to be something new. Be creative in your initial concepts. Think of integrating type as a visual into this. Unless you intend to produce the mural yourself, keep in mind the imagery and how unskilled workers could accomplish the production. I have no visual preconceptions as to imagery or style. Sell me on what you want to do. This is a boiler-plate visual problem you will be expected to resolve when working as a designer.

Initial sketches (proportionally scaled - 52 x 8 ft.) on Weds.

 

Brochure Illustrations for Red Barn

You are producing two line art and color illustrations for a Red Barn promotional pamphlet. One will be used on the cover and the other on the inside spread of an 8.5 x 11 trifold pamphlet. This is a four color print job. Go to Red Barn this weekend for inspiration and to shoot photographic reference for this project. For the two illustrations you as a freelance illustrator are being paid $1000.00. How much time do you have to accomplish two approveable illustrations. What is your hourly rate? Figure it up and that is how much time you have to do this project. This is an Arts organization, so the artwork you produce has to be really good. Can you do it?

Client (me) approves on Weds.

So for Weds., we are looking at .pdfs of your lineart/color poster illustrations in your poster design. This could either be me approving it as an art director or as a client. We will see if there are any that I think are at a high degree of execution, technique and concept. You need to look at what you have produced and ask yourself if it is approveable. If not... what should you do? Hang your head in shame, appologize for being so lame or be proactive and redo it until you are confident it is approveable. It is up to you. Your future in the profession depends upon you nailing this. Good guilt trip?

Also we will be looking at your larger (13 x 19) scaled up watercolor. Did scale help, hurt or just annoy? Make sure you are blogging. I'm going to be checking the blog on Tuesday and Wedsday to assign your early progress report Blackboard/banner. Get some images for me to look at so I can be oh so judgemental.

Scaling it up

OK. Like how I start the posts with OK. Sorry. I'll stop. The next project is to push technique with watercolor to a larger size. So far it has been small little watercolors. This time work on a 13 x 19, watercolor only. Let's see if scale is a factor in what you can do with your growing technique. Roughly, a watercolor of this size will take 4 or 5 hours. Topic/subject is your choice. Get several pieces of paper or cold-press illustration board and don't be afraid to start over if you screw it up. The more you do, the better you get. Remember, there is always color in a white goat.