Readings

Course Introduction

Introductions, a walk through the syllabus, and an overview of the toolsets the course covers. Project 1 is assigned.

Reading an Editorial Brief

Where editorial illustration runs now: article pages, newsletters, apps, social cards. Developing a concept from a piece of writing, and making an image that reads at every size it will run. Thumbnailing on paper, in class. Also covered: using AI for research and concepting, and how to cite it. Christoph Niemann's TED talk on visual language is screened in class.

5 readings

The Pen Tool

First, editorial illustration: three kinds of it, how illustrators find the idea in an article and draw that, and where to find the best of it. Then the pen tool, demonstrated: anchor points, handles, and building a curve with as few points as possible. Exercise 1 in class.

1 reading · 2 decks · 1 handout · due: Pen tool trace

Thumbnail Review

We start in the L. Mendel Rivers Library: what it holds on design and illustration that you can use as reference, and how to use its flatbed scanner on the main level, which is free. Then back to the room. Thumbnails pinned up and read as a group. We are looking for three different concepts, not three versions of one, and for whether an idea still reads at stamp size. Leave with one direction chosen.

4 readings · 1 handout · due: Concepts and thumbnails

Shape Building and Pathfinder

Today you make pictures without the pen tool. Thirty circles on paper first: one shape, thirty meanings. Then the same idea in Illustrator with twelve given shapes you can move, turn, copy, and cut, but never resize and never redraw. Three pictures, then one pushed further. Work time on your vector drafts after.

due: Shape building

Color Systems

Global swatches, and why they exist: edit once, and everything painted with it changes. Value first: a picture that fails in gray fails in color. Then a tour of how illustrators use color, on the real pictures, from Malika Favre's three-color covers to Saul Bass, Whistler, Jon Klassen, Mary Blair, Tomer Hanuka and Hiroshige, with each picture's own count under it, so a palette reads as a choice among many and not the only one. Then the tools: Adobe Color, Coolors, oklch, Color Oracle, and Swatches, Color Guide and Recolor Artwork in Illustrator, with the same ideas in Photoshop. Exercise 3 runs in class on your own Project 1 set: every loose color down to three globals without losing the read. Vector drafts are desk-checked at the start. The target is one palette across the hero and both spots by the end of the day.

1 reading · 2 decks · 8 handouts · due: Vector drafts, Color systems

Type and Image

The last taught block of Project 1. Where the illustration meets the type: lockups, the clearance a headline needs, the share crop and the thumbnail, and what a designer needs in the file. Then a long work session: the family placed in a real article layout, proofed at run size and at one inch, and the file cleaned for Thursday.

2 decks · 3 handouts

Project 1 Hand-In, Project 2 Opens

No group critique today. Project 1 is handed in on Blackboard: the first hour is a file check against the hand-in list, and the upload closes at 1:30. With the file goes one sentence on what the article argues and how your hero carries it. Then Project 2 is assigned: an illustrated poster for a real Charleston exhibition or festival, or a recent film or book. It is drawn on paper and set up for screenprint. We look at how poster artists handle words, drawn, set, or kept small, and at posters where the picture does the work. In class: sort posters by how they handle words, then pick a title and try its words three ways on paper.

2 decks · 2 handouts · due: Project 1. Editorial Illustration (3 weeks)

Capturing a Drawing

Mark sheet first: twenty minutes, every mark you own. We scan a few and photograph a few and compare them. Then how to capture a drawing: scanner or phone, resolution, black and white points. Then Corita Kent, the artist of the day: a teacher in Los Angeles who made posters out of words, cut or written by hand, three colors at a time, and printed enough for everyone. Then thumbnails. This is the thinking part of the project. Fold a sheet into eight frames and work through your subject one way at a time: as an object, as a symbol, as a pattern, as words, and then as a scene. One page each. Then take the ones you liked and refine them on a fresh sheet. Saul Bass, Noma Bar, Shigeo Fukuda, Alexander Girard, Corita Kent and Tomer Hanuka show each page done all the way.

2 decks · 9 handouts

Starting the Drawing

Thumbnails on the wall first: everyone's refined sheet pinned up, one question each, what is it for and the one thing to fix, then a word about the work between now and the critique. Then the drawing starts, from the chosen thumbnail onto the full sheet, 9 by 12 or bigger, and that is most of the day. While you draw: Tomer Hanuka, the artist of the day, who draws and inks by hand and colors on the computer, and then the basics of shadow and texture in Illustrator and in Photoshop, so you know where the drawing goes after it is scanned. Tuesday is scanning and importing. The drawing is due finished Thursday, October 1, scanned and turned in that day.

1 reading · 2 decks · 2 handouts · due: Title, thumbnails and words study

Brushes From Your Own Marks

Your mark sheet becomes a set of brushes. Three illustrators whose texture comes from their own hand, pictures only: Jon Klassen, Owen Davey and Tom Haugomat. Then how to turn a scanned mark into a brush tip in Photoshop, and into Art and Scatter brushes in Illustrator. Exercise 4: three brushes from your own marks, a line, a tone and a texture, a test sheet, and one brush tried on your poster. After the break, drawing time. The drawing is due finished Thursday, when we scan it in class.

2 decks · 1 handout · due: Brushes from your marks

Capture and Check-in

Your finished drawing, in black ink on paper, is due at the start. Today it goes into the computer as a clean black and white image, with the words included if you drew them, and from here on the color, shading and refining all happen digitally. First the two weeks left until the poster is due on Oct 15, and a check-in: everyone says which step their poster is on. Then scan the drawing in class, to pure black ink on pure white paper. If it is not finished, the library's flatbed scanner is free. Then AI in production: one thumbnail from Tuesday's class run through four tools, Krea, Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude, with the prompts shown and what each one got wrong. Exercise 5: color your scan on the computer, the black line on top and the color on layers under it, in Photoshop or Illustrator. Then work time with desk visits.

3 decks · 1 handout · due: Finished drawing, captured, Coloring your scan

Color for Print

Color as light, then color as ink. Why there are three primaries, how screens went from the first mechanical TV through color tubes to the blue LED in your phone, and why print runs on cyan, magenta, yellow and black instead. Then how things get printed, walked back from the office laser printer to the copier, offset, the halftone and the woodblock. Then the risograph and screenprint, how they work and where they came from, with dance flyers from the 1990s and a riso zine from 2020 as the examples. Then the limited palettes from session 6 again, one color, black and a spot, tints, with the paper counted as a color. Last, the inks in your file and the separations you hand in on Oct 15. Then work time with desk visits: get your poster to three colors plus the line, each on its own ink layer.

2 decks

Setting Up for Screenprint

How a screen gets made from your file, and why every film is black on white. Then we set up your own poster for screenprint, one step at a time, in Illustrator and Photoshop: inks in printing order, color run under the line, traps where colors meet, lighter shades turned into dots, marks and a label on every film, the films themselves, and a last check. Then everyone presents their poster as it stands, followed by work time with desk visits, the last class before Fall Break. Finish the poster over the break and make the separations before Oct 15.

2 decks

Project 2 Critique

Full critique, the first class back from Fall Break. Each proof hangs next to its original drawing. Project 3 is assigned at the end: one supplied carton, one package face.

due: Project 2. Illustrated Poster (4 weeks, with Fall Break)

Package Structure and the Dieline

The supplied carton: panels, folds, glue flaps, and what the shelf sees first. Fold a blank one in class. Then name your product and start roughing the illustration on the flat dieline.

Illustration on a Dieline

p3a is due at the start: the illustration roughed on the flat dieline. Print it at 100 percent, fold it, and see where the folds cut the art. Getting artwork to behave across panels, and the shelf-distance test. Work session.

due: Illustration on the flat dieline

Pattern and Repeat

The repeat: tiling a motif for a side panel, the back, or the inside. Work session toward the first printed mockup Thursday.

Mockups

p3b is due at the start: the carton printed, folded and photographed. Photographing a mockup honestly. Fix what the fold showed you. Work session.

due: First mockup

Print Production

Bleed, trapping, and spot versus process color. Preparing files for a printer. Work session.

Project 3 Critique

Full critique. Present the package on the form. The final project is assigned.

due: Project 3. Packaging Illustration (3 weeks)

Illustration in Motion

How illustration is used in motion. Loops, easing, and the AI motion tools we will use.

1 reading

Preparing Artwork to Move

Layer structure and anchor points. Setting up a file before animating. Work session.

Timing and Easing

Easing, holds, and the difference between a loop that reads and one that stutters. Studies played at the desk. A study that exports cleanly here is proof the file will hold for the whole piece.

due: Motion study

Loops and Export

Building a seamless loop. File formats, sizes, and what to deliver. Work session.

Rough Loop Review

The whole piece moving, played as a group. Timing is the subject and unfinished artwork is expected. Leave knowing what to fix over the break.

due: Rough loop

Final Work Session

Work session. Desk critiques on the piece as it stands.

Final Work Session and Export Check

The last class is a work day. Export checks: format, size, and whether the loop still holds on the second pass. The final critique is in the exam slot.