Week Fourteen - Final Assignment!

Final Assignment -

Create a 2-3 page storyboard or comic of your choice (short comic, commercial, animation idea, etc.), using a variety of techniques learned over the semester.  Start by thoroughly sketching thumbnails that detail the events of the sequence. Once you've thought out the flow of the story and actions, complete the final piece on 2-3 pages of Bristol. Each frame of your story should be a detailed drawing, incorporating a variety of techniques you've learned over the semester (line quality, mark-making and value, perspective, color theory, etc.), and should hold up as unified and finished story. Think about presentation and neatness. These are final projects, make them impressive!

Week Twelve - Storyboarding

Week Twelve – 11/19/14

• Critique on Typography and Logo assignments.
• Introduction to Storyboarding.

In-Class:  Storyboarding Assignment.Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence.  Storyboards are the equivalent to time-based media as thumbnails are to 2D and 3D arts.

Utilizing strong positive and negative space and a broad range of value and color, storyboard and complete the following story:

• Person A walks into a room and sees that it is a mess.
• Person A begins to clean up the room.
• While cleaning the room, Person A discovers some money on the floor.
• While Person A is picking up the money, Person B enters the room.
• Person B approaches Person A.
• What happens next?

Make a storyboard sheet by using thumbnails, mapping out your composition and story.  You may use pencil, colored pencils, brush & ink, pen, sharpie and/or marker.  

Click here for Storyboard examples

Homework: Transfer the final storyboarding sequence onto an 11” x 14” Bristol sheet.
*note* If you would like to create a story other than what is mapped out above, you're welcome to do so, but keep it simple. That is a template if you need some help creating a story. 

Week Eleven - Typography

 Typography Powerpoint

In-Class:  Create a design using the letters from the word “Typography.”  The letters do not have to read as a word, but rather look at the individual letter forms and make an interesting statement about Typography by using all the letters.  You can create a new image using the word or individual letter.  You should use all the other Elements of Art that we’ve gone over in class (space, line, shape, value, texture, & color) to enhance the design.
Do a sheet of thumbnails to work out your composition before beginning your final design.  This design can be used as preliminary work leading into the homework assignment.

Homework:  Logo Design:
Using Typography and any of the Elements of Art that apply, design your own Logo for a T-shirt.  You may use whatever format, method, and media that suits your design the best, however, the design should use the full Bristol page.
Be prepared to discuss your Color scheme, Format, and Basic Ideas for your Design.

Week Ten - Color Theory

 - Intro to Color Theory
- Warm and Cool Color Wheels
- Light vs. Shadow
- Atmospheric Perspective


Color Theory (This Power Point will explain some basic concepts of color theory)

Warm and Cool Primaries
 There are cool and warm versions of each primary color. You can create two separate color wheels with each, one warm and one cool. Sometimes mixing a warm blue with a cool yellow will give you a muddy green. To create a bright green, try using a cool blue and a cool yellow.

 Double Primary Color Wheel

Color of Light vs. Color of Shadow

Shadows are typically the complimentary color of the light. Using the light is warm and the shadow is cool. On a sunny day in the winter, the light will be warm and yellow or orange. This means the shadows will be cool and blue or purple.

Atmospheric Perspective

As objects recede in space, the colors typically become lighter and cooler. This affect that the atmosphere has on the way we perceive color is usually seen with objects FAR away in space, like what can be seen in a landscape.

In-Class:  Complete a Color Wheel(s) using colored pencils and/or markers. This should look like the color wheel at the top of this post. The outer ring is for the primary, complementary, and tertiary colors.  The middle ring is for shades (you add black to the colors).  The inner ring is for tints (you add white to the colors). Since you probably don't have a large selection of colors to work with, don't be concerned with making both a warm and cool color wheel. Just use the primary colors you have to complete a single color wheel.

Homework Assignment:  Create and incorporate a new layer onto your Overlay Assignment using Color, or start a fresh drawing using color – use colored pencils and/or markers.
Colored Pencil Example:

Week Nine - Overlay Technique

The term “overlay” in traditional media refers to the use of tracing paper over a series of studies to arrive at an end result.  In New Media “overlay” refers to combining different images, textural layers, color layers, blending, etc. to arrive at an end result.
When working with a client, it is good to be able to show all of the different design layers and different versions of your completed work.
You are to create an interior or exterior environment, either from your imagination or from direct observation, utilizing multiple-point perspective—i.e. draw your horizon line and create your environment in 1pt or 2pt perspective, and then have other objects at different angles with different vanishing points.

Step 1:  Compositional Studies
Begin with compositional thumbnails in your sketchbook, brainstorming ideas with a strong primary focal point and good use of space.
Potential ideas:

• Building or House setting
• Stylized Graphic Design Environment
• Object from observation in an environment or  3D space
• Recreate an Old Masters artwork.

Step 2:  Sketch Study
On Bristol Board, refine your sketch in Blue-Line Pencil, creating contour line detail.
Step 3:  Single Line Blow-up
Tape a piece of Tracing Paper along the top edge of your Bristol Board paper so that it overlays the Bristol Board cleanly and neatly.  Next, ink all of the contour line work, crisp and cleanly.
Step 4:  Tone and Shadow
Tape another Tracing Paper layer.  Using Marker, build up value scale from lightest to darkest.  Note:  You can break the value into even more additional layers of Tracing Papers.
Step 5:  Texture and Materials
Tape another Tracing Paper layer.  Use Mark-making to build up additional value and texture to the environment and objects through cross-hatching, stippling, etc.
Note:  Steps 3 through 5 are interchangeable in their order to achieve different effects, i.e. Single Line Blow-Up contour line can be put on top of Tone and Shadow andTexture to make the hard lines pop out more and be more crisp and clean; or you can make the design softer by having Tone and Shadow on top of Single Line Blow-Upand Texture.
Step 6:  Final Drawing
Put all of the Study Overlays together in the proper sequence to achieve the completed effect and design.

Study Examples:
Sketch Study & Single Line Blow-up


Tone and Shadow


Texture and Materials


Final Drawing




student example 1
student example 2

Homework due November 6th: Complete the Overlay Technique Assignment

Week Eight - Line as Movement

• Critique on Paper Bag Still-Life with Sharpie Marker .
  
• Introduction to Line as Graphic or Abstract Design Element.
• Introduction to Brush and Ink.

In-Class:  Paperbag still-life with 2 strong light sources that create high contrast and crossing shadows.  Do 3 compositional thumbnails and 1 final 11″ x 14″ drawing of the still-life on Bristol Paper, filling the entire page and using brush and ink for all of the value.  The entire page should have value– the only white paper that should show through should only be for brightest highlights.  Squint your eyes to reduce the detail and better show the full range of highlight, middle gray and dark value.  Pencil in all of your composition first.  Then, using dilution of ink, build up your lightest gray value up to your darkest shadow value.  There are 2 basic methods you could use here: 1.  Use the ink to fill in your contour line detail first, and then, using ink washes, add value on top of that.  2.  Using ink washes, fill in and build up all of your value first, and then add the black contour line detail on top of all of that.

Homework Assignment:  Line As Movement

Using black ink and brush, create a design on 11” x 14” Bristol paper that expresses
rhythm, movement, and emotion through variation in line. Listen to music, set the tip
of your brush down on the paper, and, without thinking about what to draw, let your
hands flow with the rhythm of the music with each stroke. This is more of an abstract and
conceptual exercise– Do not try and draw a specific picture or object.

 Incorporate the following design ideas:
1) Experiment with contour and cross-contour (lines perpendicular to contour lines)
creating rhythmical lines and shapes.
2) Create a sense of depth and space by having the line shapes overlap each other and by
changing the scale of the lines (larger, thicker lines up close in the foreground, smaller
and thinner lines receding into the background to create illusion of distance and space).
3) Increase the contrast between black and white by making it look like there are white
lines on a black background or black shapes.
In addition to black brush strokes, you may experiment with gray washes and lines
by diluting your ink with water in a separate cup, or simply dipping your inked
brush in water. You may also experiment with subtle color usage, so long as the
color itself does not dominate and become the focal point of the composition.
Example 1 Example 2 Example 3

Line as Movement Examples

Note:  For next week bring the additional supply of 11″ x 14″ Tracing Paper.

Week Seven - Mark-Making and Value Continued

• Critique on Mark-Making and Value assignments.
• Continue working with mark-making.

In-Class: Paper Bag Still-Life 1 with Sharpie Marker:
Draw at minimum 3 compositional thumbnails of still-life.  Do all preliminary notes and techniques on these thumbnails, and any other important info and decisions– think out the composition and techniques all in the thumbnails and/or rough drawings on any other scrap paper.  Once you begin the 11″ x 14″ final drawing on the Bristol Paper, all work must be done in Sharpie Marker and Pen– NO PENCIL.  Use cross-hatching, hatching, contour-hatching, scribbling, and stippling to build up all value.  THE ONLY WHITE AREAS SHOULD BE FOR THE BRIGHTEST HIGHLIGHTS.  Build up layers and density for the dark shadows, and look for shadows within shadows. PUSH YOURSELVES AND TAKE RISKS– GO DARK, PUSH CONTRAST.  If you make a mistake on this, don’t freak out– sharpie marker is an unforgiving medium, so just roll with it and keep going.  Use the mistake to your advantage.  I’d rather see a drawing that went too dark and messy rather than one that’s too light.  The challenge of this is to do enough pre-planning and preparation, and then to just dive in and lose hesitation and tentativeness.

Homework:  Finish Paper-Bag Still-Life.

Note:  Remember to bring Brush & Ink to class next week.