Monday, 14 September 2015

Extended Study - Handdrawn type for poster

Your task is to design lettering (type) for use in the 'Inspirational Posters'.
Work in any medium you wish, but remember that you may easily colour in Photoshop.
Don't worry about creating the poster... we'll do that bit in Photoshop.
Look on my Type Pinboard (HERE) for inspiration.
...and see all the resources available in the post below for help :)

Tip! Draw lots and draw small.
Deadline: Wednesday 2nd Oct - period 1
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Below is a video explanation of the extended study task...










Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Planning the page content




Objective
To enable the effective page planning of the song lyric book.

Task
Using the example above–ten panels on each page–draw the template into your sketchbook.
Complete the pages by in putting the imagery on the left side and the lyrics on the right.
N.B. Ensure that your imagery and page lyrics match up! E.G. Left side - Cowboy on old TV / Right side - The lyrics ‘watching cowboy films on gloomy afternoons’


Presentation
Photograph (preferred) or scan into a new blog post. Post title: Planning the page content.


Checklist for Assessment
Neatness, clarity of information, clear images.


Deadline
tba

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Creating your book - InDesgin Template






**USE Google Chrome**
Download the template HERE

Objective
To complete the lyrics book using InDesign. Printing, cutting and stapling.

Task
Download the InDesign template. 
Place your existing artwork into order starting on page 1. Frame the artwork thoughtfully.
Use your favouring artwork for the front / back spread.
Choose a single, readable typeface for the whole book. Arrange your lyrics on the page in a sympathetic manner.

Presentation
3 Screenshots of work in progress, full screen.
Photos of final printed book.

Checklist for assessment
Pages flow in chronological order / bleed and crop taken into account / typeface has been sympathetically chosen and is easy to read /   

Deadline

tbc

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Painting in the style of Gipi



Objective
To improve your understanding of the process involved in watercolour.
To introduce the work of relevant practitioners.

Info
Gipi often paints a set of panels that feature variations on two colours. He may use one colour as the more dominant hue, and use the other for creating tone and texture. This is called using a 'limited palette'.
Look at the image below, he also employs an scheme with low saturation.
A good reason for utilising a 2 colour palette is that the colour scheme will more likely achieve unity. (see the basic Principles on the class wall.) This is also the reason why I have limited the colours available in the watercolours by removing all but the dark earths and the primaries. 

Task
Mix a muted dominant colour that you can use for your iconography. Don't
worry too much about achieving local colour. Lay the paint on the drawing and allow it to gather in pools. !! Ensure that you leave the white of the paper for the lightest areas !!

Repeat for each of your drawings.

When this is completely dry—use the hairdryer—mix up a good amount of mid tone blue/brown mix. Tone can be adjusted by the amount of water added.

Use this mix to add shadow. Enjoy laying it partly over the previous colour—you   now have 4 colors at play in your image.

Mix up a dark tone using the blue / brown—us this for the really dark tones in
your image.

Presentation
Take a photo of your pages and post to the blog.

Checklist for assessment
Loose painting style / layering of paint / white paper left for highest value.

Time needed
40 mins.


s

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Drawing in the Style of Gipi

q
Objective
To improve your understanding of the process involved in line and watercolour.
To introduce the work of relevant practitioners.
To partly address assessment objective 2 & 3 'experiment' and 'record'. 

Task
Gather 4 examples of relevant iconography (subject matter).
Draw them in the style of the graphic artist Gipi—his work is shown below.
  Gipi's drawing style is loose. He has a wandering, broken line that is partly a 
  result of holding the pen further up the shaft. (I have included a video of 
  drawing of shoes executed in the same manner.)
Fill a spread (or A3 page) with examples of iconography from your book.

Presentation
Take a photo of your pages and post to the blog.

Checklist for assessment
Loose but accurate drawing style with a wandering, broken line.

Time needed
40 mins.
s WQ



“The ceramics teacher announced that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. At grading time, a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”
- Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Creating a pattern tile using Adobe Illustrator




Objective
To introduce Adobe Illustrator as a potential design tool.
To complete another page in your lyrics book.
To create a repeating pattern.

Task
To get to this stage you first need to draw various items to do with your subject matter.

Focussing on another page in your book, choose 5 items related to your subject matter. 
e.g. if subject matter is Fruit = images of fruit stickers would be an interesting choice.

Use any medium (pencil, fineliner, ink) and work small. Fill your page line drawings - try not to become disheartened if you think they look bad - just keep going and fill your page.

Done?
Scan in your page and open Adobe Illustrator and follow the tutorial above.

Presentation
Photo of your sketchbook book page.
3 work in progress shots - whole screen
Jpeg of final design.

Checklist for assessment
Full page of confident drawings / full tile completed in illustrator / consideration given to layout of tile.

Deadline

tbc

Extension task 1: attempt this same process using colour.
Extension task 2: attempt this same process using photos.

Monday, 27 January 2014

Squaring Up
















Objective
To strengthen your ability to recognise tonal gradation.
To dissect and reconstruct your subject matter into tonal values.
To broaden your palette of image making techniques.

To complete another page for your book.

Task
Look at your book plan and choose another page. It will work best for portraits.
Find a photograph from the web that has a range of tones in it—from white to black.
Make a new Photoshop doc—size WxH 8x11cm.
Place the photograph in the new doc and resize it (cmd T / hold Shift) to fit the frame of the doc.
Print it off in black and white—keep the size 8x11cm.
Mark every 5mm around the edge—lightly, and in pencil, join them together to form a grid.
Outside the box, write numbers 1-16 across the top edge and A-V down the side.

Go to a new spread in your sketchbook and draw a 16x22cm box, central on the right hand page.
Mark centimetres around the edge—lightly, and in pencil, join them together to form a grid.
Outside the box, write numbers 1-16 across the top edge and A-V down the side. See below.

This is the important bit:
Look closely at your photograph—study each square carefully.  
Your job is to find the dominant tone in each square and translate that tone into the corresponding tone on the larger empty grid—shade the whole square in that tone only, use no detail.
Begin with the darkest tones.

Presentation
Take progress shots as you go along—aprox 5, photograph the finished drawing.

Checklist for assessment
Neat and parallel grids, attention to detail when looking at tones.

Deadline
tbc




Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Six Basic Photo Edits in Photoshop




Objective
To improve your skills when editing photos in Photoshop.

Task
Look on your book plan and choose another image. Using one sourced from the web one of your own images, complete the six 'basic photo edit' tutorials below.

Presentation
In one post, put jpegs of your six finished Photoshop examples. State underneath each, which process was used.

Checklist for assessment
Examples should be visually interesting and not just done for the sake of getting them on your blog.

Deadline
tbc











Monday, 16 December 2013

Cover lesson task, Wednesday the 18th of Dec



Objective
To improve drawing skills  
To encourage an alternative method for starting work
To provide a different way of presenting work
To encourage a worry-free drawing experience

Task
Take a good look at your research page.  In your sketchbook, you are going to be drawing from the images that you have collected. You will also be using some different methods to kickstart your drawings.
Below is a list of ways that you can approach the (often daunting) white page.
Tip1: work smallish. Try to make your drawings absolutely no bigger than the palm of your hand...smaller if possible.

Draw with a continuous line.
Draw with your left hand - continuous line.
Draw from memory.
Draw with the papers upside down.
Draw with a shortening time limit.

Extras...
Draw the reverse of the subject.
Draw the 'negative space' only.
Draw by the dice.
Draw the altered scale.

Presentation
Photographed pages of your sketchbook.

Checklist for assessment 
All methods have bee attempted with enthusiasm and retried when things don;t go to plan.
Don't rip pages from your book, they may come in handy at a later date.

Deadline
Whatever is not completed in class, please ensure is done either at home or during lunch session. This work must be posted up by Wed the 8th of January 2014.

Friday, 13 December 2013

Research hwk - for Wednesday the 18th of Dec



Objectives
Prepare for the next page in the lyrics book
Improve drawing skills

Task
Choose another page from your plan. Look at your Pinterest research (and do some more) and select interesting images connected with the subject of the page.
My subject was a cigarette packet; I've allowed the search to offer up other interesting options like the hare smoking and the figure with a smoking head.
Select 4 or 5 (or like me...9) and paste them onto an A4 sheet.
If you can use Photoshop, make a new A4 and paste them onto that. 
Print it off in B&W.
Take to lesson on Wednesday the 18th of Dec.

Presentation
Post to your blog and Print in black and white.

Checklist for assessment
Interesting images.

Time needed
20 mins

Deadline

Wednesday the 18th of Dec

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Pen Portrait 2



James Gulliver Hancock. HERE

Objective
To complete one of the images for the lyrics book.
To increase skills in digital and  traditional processes—custom colour palettes / colouring line only / blending modes / making patterns / pattern stamp tool.

Task
Scan your drawing. Forgotten? See below—watch until 1.48.
Complete the tutorials below in order

Presentation
Take whole screen shots of process / post with your final design.  



Checklist for assessment
?



Deadline
tbc








Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Pen Portrait 1


Objective
To improve line drawing skills.
To create a single illustration for the song lyrics book.

Task
- Look on your boards and find an image that you wish to use. A portrait would be best for this. If not then use an object from your list.
- Print it off in black and white—A5 size.
- Using layout paper (or printer paper if you are on a lightbox) trace the image. 
- Then have another go—but do it freehand.
- Look again at the image above—the artists has drawn only the lines, block tone and details—no shading
- Use a dark felt tip for the thick lines and a biro, fineliner or pencil.

Presentation
Photograph (preferred) or scan to your blog.

Checklist for assessment
tbc

Deadline
tbc


Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Set up a Pinterest account.






Objective
Create a place where all the research that is accumulated during the course can be organised and referred back to.

Tasks
• Go to Pinterest.com and create an account.
• Create six boards (or one for all) that contain images for the music video book. Extra boards for cute cats are not only accepted, they are encouraged.


Presentation
Create a new page on your blog that links to your Pinterest boards.

Extended study: Covering your sketchbook


We are going to have some enforced fun covering our sketchbooks!! 
Woohoo!! You will smile.

N.B. If you haven't already bought a sketchbook, then you can pick one up from me for a fiver. Hardback, nice paper, chunky and a handy compact-ish format.

Lookey HERE for a link to a pinboard full of sketchbook cover examples... but you could really look anywhere for inspiration.

Your task starts now. Look around you and collect stuff to stick on the front and back.  Think about collecting example of type, texture, labels, patterns etc etc.  Other than that, you could draw separate things and overlap them in a sticker-ish manner. When you cover your book, you be required to not leave and black exposed, other than considered design choices.

Seriously, don't turn up this Tues without plenty of stuff or it'll be this...




Brainstorming your lyrics

Objective: 
To use the lyrics get as many visual ideas as possible.
To understand that early planning is best done using a pencil.  It's much faster and sparks the brain 10x faster than a word processor.

Task: 
Take your lyrics (12pt, left align on an A4 page, space in between every line) and print off.
Using a pen or pencil, go through the words and associate any image you can–however obvious.  Go for beautiful poetic interpretation.

Presentation:
Scan or photograph them and post them to your blog. Post name–Brainstorming lyrics.
To get a the best mark you can, ensure that your pages are busy and full.







Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Assessment for type posters

Type Posters - Deadline: Thurs 24th of October 
When I assess the blog posts for your type poster project, I will be looking for the following:

Development - Initial draft drawing
Experimentation - A few work-in-progress shots of Photoshop (whole screen is best)
Presentation - X-Large images, Concise annotations of your posts - write about what is happening in the post.
Final Designs - Choice of type / image / alignment
Clear images of your final posters
Evaluation - Write a post. what went well? what didn't? what did you enjoy? what didn't you enjoy? How would you change it?

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Homework - Choose lyrics.



Over the coming weeks, you will be embarking on a Song Book Illustration Project.  You will be researching existing book layout, developing your own illustration ideas, experimenting with different processes and techniques and finally presenting a finished book. Your book will be at least 8 pages long.

The subject of your book will be illustrations of a song lyric - using the whole or part of a song(s).

Task: Choose a suitable song, (believe me, it takes longer than you think)  If you are struggling to find a whole song, choose 6 or more different ones that you find interesting - and could work well visually.
You don't have to understand what the lyrics are referring to, they could be very vague - the most important thing is that they are creating images in your head.



Post just the lyrics them to your blog before the lesson on Wednesday the 23rd of October. Post title 'Possible Song Book Lyrics'