Intro to Graphic Design and Illustration - Day 1

I have made a new blog for my Introduction to Graphic Design and Illustration
classes this fall at the University of Central Missouri. You can follow our course progress and view student blogs through the blog here:

http://ucmintrof09.blogspot.com

The first day's post is a detailed process on setting up their own blogs and online tools for class.

These include setting up a Gmail email account and thereby a Google account, a Picasa web album, and Delicious social bookmarking.

Studio Art Online Course

I have just completed teaching a 6 week online studio art course.
I think that it worked very well. This blog was created for that course. I had all of my students create their own blogs, you will find links to their sites in the sidebar. The course was titled: Digital Studio Techniques. Because all of our work had a digital end product to it we were able to easily share our work. A blog is a very easy way to post images. Another advantage of the blog format is that a student is forced to write/talk about their work at the same time. I love the way that a blog also provides a forum where peers and professor can comment on the work. It is a great way to create a real community among the students, similar to the way a group studio works. Many students either are not used to commenting and critiquing in class or are too shy to do so. The online format also allowed students to work whenever they could. I believe that I got far more working hours out of my students than I ever do in a face-to-face class. Lectures and demonstrations were recorded using Adobe Connect software and posted online. These lectures allowed me to record my screen and voice while I worked in applications to demonstrate techniques. We also used FTP programs to upload final, high resolution images, to a server. I hope that this course has jump started my students into an independent art and writing production process.

Pencil Technique From Photo

Here I have tried the new technique working from a photo by redrob2.co.uk. Seems to work. As always it will probably look better done from life.

Pencil Figure Drawing Technique

See the Blackboard Announcements for July 28th to view the 16 minute recording demo. I worked on finding some better techniques that would work in a life drawing situation. I found some hi-res images of Gil Elvgren's figure drawings on the Heritage Auctions site. I used the paper background to make a new paper that I could use as a background for any drawing. I sampled an even area of shading and defined it as a pattern. I then used the pattern stamp tool with my custom brush settings to paint back in the pencil texture. I use a fairly consistent diameter brush with opacity set to pen pressure for the shading and a size pressure brush with no opacity change for the line work. I was able to copy most kinds of drawing textures that he has fairly well.

Figure Drawing

I did the figure drawing thing with Jeff, Ryan, Dustin, & Tony on Friday. It was hard to get into it after not having done it for so long. I brought in a laptop and wacom tablet. It is a lot of fun to be able to work in layers and change things if they don't work. I like how the line work is going but shading tools still are hard to figure out.

Interpretation of DeCarlo Style

This is based on the Process Test Model image and pose from an earlier post. I think that a more cartoony style works far better than something that is so loyal to the photograph.

Old Cartoon Techniques DeCarlo

I like these old DeCarlo cartoons for several reasons. These ink and inkwash drawings are clean and simple with a great graphic quality.