Undergraduate Course: Developing Digital Illustration (LLLA07261)
Course Outline
| School | Centre for Open Learning |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course is aimed at those who may already have a basic knowledge of Adobe software and wish to develop their skills and approaches by applying them to a range of Digital Illustration projects.
Students will develop a working knowledge of contemporary illustration techniques, including digital drawing and painting, and learn how digital media can be used to enhance an existing illustrative/artistic practice.
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| Course description |
1) Academic Description
The aim of this course is to develop a student's existing skills and knowledge of Adobe software and enhance their creative approaches for illustration. Beginning with project-led tasks and exercises, exploring and employing various Adobe techniques and practical research approaches, students will begin to develop their individual styles, before embarking on a self-directed project.
It is expected that those students taking the course will have basic Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator skills, but students will be taught more advanced techniques and shown how to make the most of and apply digital processes. The potentials and limitations of the format will be discussed alongside the history of illustration, and how new media techniques have changed the industry in recent years.
We will look at how students can replicate traditional drawing and painting techniques digitally, using Adobe software, and explore why you would choose to use digital processes instead of traditional ones. Students will also explore how both approaches can be used in tandem, with digital media being used to enhance their existing artistic practice, rather than as a replacement for their current way of working.
Students will have the opportunity within the self-directed projects to focus on their particular areas of interest, but the course will also focus on the varied applications of illustration, from logo design and character design to illustration for book covers and as well as many others.
2) Outline Content
Students will explore digital illustration through a series of set briefs and a final self-directed project, to create a varied and diverse body of work.
Students will:
- Be introduced to Adobe Photoshop as a tool for painting and drawing using drawing tablets to replicate traditional techniques.
- Develop skills in Adobe Illustrator as a tool for image manipulation.
- Develop skills in Adobe Illustrator and vector-based image creation. Tracing images and working from source materials.
- Understand workflow, from reading and understanding a brief, pitching initial ideas, to development to a well-resolved conclusion.
- Develop contextual awareness of contemporary and historical examples of illustrators working in digital and non-digital media through producing case studies and research on illustrators, movements and ideas.
- Take an idea from conception through development to a final resolved conclusion.
3) Student Learning Experience
During the first 5-weeks of the course, emphasis shall be placed on developing students' practical skills, focusing on various approaches for researching and developing a project brief. These sessions shall also engage the students in developing and enhancing a range of technical skills in the use of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. During this period, short class-based presentations shall be given, underpinning the design theory and providing a wider Illustration context.
Students will then develop a short self-directed project for the remaining 5-weeks of the course. Employing new ways of thinking for developing personal research, practical skills in using Adobe and supported by appropriate contextual references, evolving their own ideas and practice.
Students will leave the course with a body of work that is an exploration of various illustration techniques and styles, through using various digital approaches.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a range of research which explores the use of digital techniques for developing personal ideas, supported by contextual research and references.
- Show a confidence in using a range of established and experimental digital techniques to explore visual ideas, developing a personal visual language through an illustration project.
- Evidence appropriate judgement to document, select, edit and present a body of coherent works.
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Reading List
Davis. E, 2018, Why Art, Fantagraphics
Ware. C, 2001, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Jonathan Cape
Various, 2009, Digital Painting Techniques: Practical Techniques of Digital Art Masters (Digital Art Masters Series), Routledge
Christiane. P, 2015, Digital Art (World of Art), Thames and Hudson LTD
www.itsnicethat.com
https://illustrationage.com
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/user-guide.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/user-guide.html
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Demonstrate an ability to employ various research methods.
Develop a capacity to expand critical and self-reflective research practice.
Develop an understanding of the use of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
Work with others in a constructive and cooperative way.
Contextual understanding of contemporary Digital Illustration.
Develop a project using both traditional and new media techniques
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| Keywords | Illustration,Digital,Design,Illustrator,Photoshop,print,web,new media,project based |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Oliver Reed
Tel:
Email: Oliver.Reed@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Kameliya Skerleva
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email: Kameliya.Skerleva@ed.ac.uk |
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