ART 220 · Charleston Southern University · Fall 2026
Digital Illustration
Syllabus · 3 credits · Prerequisite ART 215 and ART 216 · Abe Garcia · afgarcia@csuniv.edu
How the course runs
Tue and Thu, 12:30 to 3:20 PM, CSU LB 104. Aug 25 to Dec 3; finals Dec 8 to Dec 14. 28 sessions in 2 parts.
- Part I · Editorial
- Illustration that runs beside writing: vector spots for an article, then a poster drawn by hand and finished digitally. Editorial art runs wherever the article runs, a page, a phone, a newsletter, a share card, so the work is judged at every size it appears. Sessions 1 through 15. Fall Break falls inside Project 2, so the poster critique is the first class back.
- Part II · Surface and Motion
- Illustration on a package, then illustration that moves. Sessions 16 through 28, and the final critique in the exam slot.
Assignments
| Assignment | Due | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| ExercisesShort technique assignments completed in class and handed in the same day: pen tool and curve work, shape building, color systems, scanning and clean-up, flatting, rigging and easing. An exercise scores 2 for correct completion, 1 if it has errors or is submitted incorrectly, and 3 at the instructor's discretion for work that substantially exceeds the requirements. An average of 2 is full credit. Late exercises are never accepted, but your lowest score is dropped. | All term | 15% |
| Project 1. Editorial Illustration (3 weeks)A publication has assigned you the art for one feature article: a featured illustration that runs as the hero at the top of the story, and two spot illustrations that run through it. The article runs on the web, in the newsletter, and as a card in a feed. Read the article, then design a hero that carries what it argues and two spots that belong to the same family: one palette, one drawing logic, one voice. Hand in production-ready vector files. You will learn the pen tool and curve construction, shape building and boolean operations, color as a reusable system, and how design principles work at editorial scale. | Sep 17 | 15% |
| Concepts and thumbnailsBring the article you chose and at least twelve thumbnails across three different concepts, with the hero frame marked in each. We will pin them up and go through them as a group. | Sep 3 | Checkpoint |
| Vector draftsThe hero and both spots roughed in Illustrator, in one file, with a working color palette. | Sep 10 | Checkpoint |
| Project 2. Illustrated Poster (4 weeks, with Fall Break)A poster for a real Charleston exhibition or festival, or a recent film or book, made from a drawing you make by hand. You pick one subject from a list of thirteen, and the words the poster has to carry are given to you. You finish a real drawing on paper, then capture it and build the poster from it at 18 by 24 inches, in whatever software suits it: cleaned and colored in Photoshop, traced to vector in Illustrator, or anything else. The words can be drawn by hand, set in a font, or kept small so the picture does the talking; whichever you choose, you plan them in the first thumbnail. The file is set up for screenprint, with each color on its own solid black layer and registration marks, so it is ready if we get into a screenprint shop to print. That may not happen. It has to stop someone from across a room and still read as a small image on a phone. You will learn how poster artists handle words and pictures together, mark-making that survives capture, scanning and clean-up, and color under a drawn line. | Oct 15 | 15% |
| Title, thumbnails and words studyYour subject from the list and the exact words the poster carries. Your thumbnail pages: the subject worked through as an object, a symbol, a pattern, words, and a scene, one folded page of eight each, plus the sheet where you refined the ones you liked, with the one you are taking forward marked. One study of the words at a larger size: drawn letters, or your font printed and placed on the sketch. | Sep 24 | Checkpoint |
| Finished drawing, capturedYour finished drawing on paper, lettering included if you drew it, captured in class and cleaned up, with the line separated from the background in a working file, Photoshop or Illustrator. | Oct 1 | Checkpoint |
| Project 3. Packaging Illustration (3 weeks)A small food or beverage company needs packaging for a new product. The logo already exists; you are given a simple wordmark to place. You will design the package and the illustration system that covers it. The artwork has to work on a dieline, survive a fold, and hold up on a shelf. Hand in production files and a photographed mockup. You will learn dielines and package structure, how an illustration behaves on a surface that wraps, pattern and repeat, and print production basics: bleed and color separation. | Nov 5 | 20% |
| Illustration on the flat dielineYour product named, and the illustration roughed onto the flat carton dieline: the front panel resolved in sketch, and how the art continues around the folds. | Oct 22 | Checkpoint |
| First mockupThe carton printed, cut, folded and photographed, with the illustration and the repeat on it. It can be rough; it has to be built. | Oct 29 | Checkpoint |
| Final Project. Animated Illustration (4 weeks)You choose the subject and the venue. Design an illustration that moves and deliver it as a seamless loop along with the still image it came from. You will learn to prepare artwork for animation, timing and easing, and loop construction and export, using every tool the term has covered. | Dec 8 | 25% |
| Motion studyOne short study: a single element moving, eased, looping cleanly. This confirms your tools and your export work before the project depends on them. | Nov 17 | Checkpoint |
| Rough loopThe whole piece moving, rough. Timing should be readable; the artwork does not have to be finished. | Nov 24 | Checkpoint |
| ProfessionalismCome to class prepared with your supplies, files and sketches. Take part in critique and be ready to comment on other students' work. Attendance at critiques is mandatory, and you may be marked absent if you do not have the required work to present. | All term | 10% |
| Final critiqueThe final loops screened and defended, in the exam slot the registrar assigns. The final project is due at the start. You talk about what the image is for, what you tried, and what you would do next. | Dec 8 to Dec 14 | |
| Total | 100% |
How work is marked
Every piece of work is marked on four counts, evenly weighted.
- Participation/Process · 25%
- Contributing to class discussions and critiques; improving work as a result of research and iteration.
- Concept · 25%
- Responding to the problem statement innovatively; thinking critically about work based on critiques, readings and discussions.
- Formal Resolution · 25%
- Making work that is aesthetically sophisticated, effective and appropriate given concept and context.
- Craft · 25%
- Taking care in manufacture of work; showing technical ability.
Books
Read in selections, never whole. Each session lists what to read before that class.
- Recommended
- Adobe Illustrator Classroom in a Book: 2025 Release. Brian Wood, Adobe Press, 2024. ISBN 9780135376843.
No class
- Oct 13
- Fall Break. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
- Nov 26
- Thanksgiving. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
The rules
- Format
- The semester consists of workshops, exercises, projects and critiques. Workshops are in-class lessons on a specific technique or process. Exercises are short assignments you complete and hand in the same day. Projects happen largely outside of class and are investigations based on a given problem statement. Critiques are scheduled class sessions where work is presented and discussed as a group, and attendance at them is mandatory.
- Attendance
- CSU's FA policy is enforced. Seven absences results in a grade of FA, failure for absences. Students arriving thirty minutes late or more will be marked absent, and students who leave before class is dismissed will be marked absent. If you miss a class you are responsible for catching up; ask a classmate for notes. Emails asking for the lecture material or the assignment will not be answered.
- Late work
- Projects are due at the beginning of class without exception. Have your files ready before class starts and come to class on time. Five points are deducted if work is not in at the due time, fifteen if it is not in before that class ends, and twenty if it comes in the following day. Work is not accepted after that. You need to be in class and present your project on the due date; otherwise it is counted late even if you submitted it. All work is submitted through Blackboard.
- AI use
- The Art and Graphic Design department uses a Level 2 AI policy. Every assignment is designated Open Use or Closed Use in its brief, and permitted use has to be disclosed and cited. In this course, ideation is Open and output is Closed. You may use generative AI for research, reference, moodboards and concept development. Cite it in the department's format: name the tool, name the provider, and say what you used it for. The finished artwork has to be made by you. If an assignment opens the output as well, the brief will say so. Undisclosed use is plagiarism under policy R-58.
- Materials
- Bring a sketchbook, a drawing tool, and a flash drive or external drive to every class. Project 2 is drawn on paper before it is finished digitally, and thumbnail reviews are done on paper in class. A drawing tablet, iPad or Wacom, is useful but not required. Every technique in this course can be completed without one.
- Software and accounts
- The machines in LB 103 and LB 104 run Adobe Creative Cloud. You need your own Adobe ID to use them. Log in when you sit down and log out when you leave; if you stay logged in, anything done on your account is your responsibility. Do not plan on working out of Adobe's cloud storage. There is not enough bandwidth for a full class to upload or download large files at the same time.
- Backups
- Keep your work in at least two places outside this classroom. Lab machines crash, files get deleted by accident, and drives are lost. Work lost for any reason is still work not handed in, and it will not be shown leniency.
- Critique
- Work is presented and discussed as a group. You are expected to comment on other students' work as well as present your own. Phones and watches are silent and out of sight on critique days. Students arriving late on final critique day lose five points from the final grade; thirty minutes or more is fifteen points.
- Academic integrity
- Academic dishonesty results in a grade of FD, failure due to academic dishonesty, and may carry further discipline. See the Student Handbook for the definition and the appeal process. Plagiarism checkers are used. Do not use images, text or code from online without attribution. You may not submit a project made for another class, including one adjusted for this one.
- Accessibility
- If you need accommodations based on a disability, contact the Office of Accessibility Services in The Hub, on the second floor of the library, at 843-863-7159 or awatson@csuniv.edu. Once your accommodations are approved, contact me so we can arrange them. Accommodations are not retroactive, so do this early rather than at the first deadline it affects.
- Nondiscrimination
- Charleston Southern University does not illegally discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, disability, age, religion, genetic information, veteran or military status, or any other basis. Inquiries go to the Title IX Coordinator at 843-863-7374. The Student Handbook carries your rights and remedies in full.
- Title IX
- The university prohibits sex and gender-based discrimination and harassment, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking, and it prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or recovery from either. Pregnant and parenting students can arrange accommodations through the Title IX Coordinator. Faculty are responsible employees, which means anything disclosed to me on these matters goes to the Title IX Coordinator, who provides support and keeps it private. That is Shannon Morrison, with Justin Brown as deputy, at titleix@csuniv.edu.
- Grades of record
- A is 90 and above. B+ is 88 to 89. B is 80 to 87. C+ is 78 to 79. C is 70 to 77. D is 60 to 69. F is 59 and below. An I is given only when circumstances beyond your control prevent you from completing a segment of the course. Graphic Design majors need a C or better for a major course to count toward the degree.
Time each week
- A meeting
- 170 minutes, 160 of them usable.
- Reading
- Up to minutes a week, and each week's readings are counted against that.