Here are some inspiration sites to get you started on Project 1!
PLEASE SHARE any other sites you find inspirational with the rest of the class in the comments below!
Since we are in New York City artists have many options to improve their life drawing skills by drawing from a model outside of this class. The only way to improve your drawing is to practice! Practicing our craft is VITAL! Take advantage of the resources in our city!
IN MANHATTAN:
The New York Society of Illustrators is an incredible resource for up and coming commercial artists. The sketch night is a great way to get to know this institution. Its lively with great models, live music, pro illustrators, and often comes with FOOD! This one is wonderful and is the cheapest option I’ve found for students!
IN BROOKLYN:
Shoestring Studio is a membership-based art studio serving painters, draftsmen, illustrators, and other artists in need of workspace, community, and shared resources. Their primary mission is to provide affordable, accessible workspace for artists in Crown Heights and the greater Brooklyn area. They host figure drawing sessions several days per week at a very affordable rate. You do not need to be a member to attend. Be sure to ask about student discounts!
Welcome to Introduction to Illustration! This course is a hands on introduction to the field of illustration. Our goal in this course will be to give you the professional tools used by illustrators working today as well as to cultivate your personal vision or voice as an illustrator.
On this site you will have access to materials presented in class, your weekly assignment pages, and additional helpful resources. Here you will also post your images to share with your classmates.
Carefully read the directions in the UPLOADING INSTRUCTIONS POST on how to post to this site and to your ePortfolio.
— Happy Drawing!
Please Read John Hendrix, This is Culture.
THEN, RESPOND TO IT IN OUR DISCUSSION FORUM:
In a few sentences discuss the article. Consider questions like:
What does Hendrix Define Illustration as?
What does he mean when he calls illustration a “powerful, profound, and unpretentious shaper of our visual lives” ?
Be sure to read eachother’s observations BEFORE posting your own.
This week’s sketchbook theme is… Meet the Artist!
Page 1: #meettheartist
Create a meet the artist page for yourself in your Sketchbook! Look on Instagram or fb for #meettheartist and then design one to introduce yourself. You may use any media and style you feel is appropriate! You may choose to include any information about yourself you wish.
Pages 2-4: LOVES and HATES
Draw imagery based on your list of LOVES and HATES… FROM REFERENCE!
For example, LOVE CATS? Fill a page with drawings based on photos of your furry friends. HATE SPIDERS? … DRAW THEM TO HELP DEAL WITH YOUR LOATHING!
Post your drawings when complete along with a blurb introducing yourself and a PHOTO of your WORKSPACE.
GO TO: CLASS SITE
DASHBOARD > POSTS > ADD NEW >
Write your post. Add a Descriptive title.
Choose CATEGORY (bottom right side): Week 1 Sketches
PUBLISH
Be sure to give the artwork a title. On our class site, write brief descriptions of the drawings, and be sure to reference the drawings’ titles. Your descriptions should include what you feel the aim of each drawing was, what you learned from making it, and what was challenging to do. Of course you may write other comments as well. For instance, you may ask questions for other students to answers.
How to Post to our class: On this class site, go to Post located on the left > Give your drawing a title in the subject line like this: Assignment 1, thumbnail drawings: “Evil Urges” > Write a brief description of the drawing in the Comments space > Just above your title click on the Add Media icon (it looks like a camera on top of a music note) and browse for your file > Click Insert > Click Drawings in the list of Categories on the right > Click Publish at the top right.
Your description should include what you feel the aim of the drawing was, what you learned from making it, and what was challenging to do. Of course you may include other thoughts as well.
How to Post to your ePortfolio: Go to Dashboard > New Page > Pages > Add New > Locate “Parent” in the Page Attributes > choose “Academics” from the pull-down menu. In the Title area of your ePortfolio, be sure to write the name of our class (Foundation Drawing) or our course code (COMD1103). Also be sure to Publish, and invite me to join your ePortfolio. In settings, be sure to state either “Public” or “Private>visible to City Tech members.” Otherwise no one will be able to see what you’ve posted.
To take the photo, find a spot with even light so that you will have no shadows or strange light gradations across the drawing. Frame the drawing so there is a small even frame on all sides. Optimize the file, or reduce it to 72 dpi, with a file size no more than 1MB (about 8-9 inches on one side). Rotate it if necessary to it uploads right-side-up. If you have access to any photo-correcting program, see if you can increase the contrast so that delicate drawing lines are visible.
We can trace pen-and-ink illustration’s roots back to the very earliest illuminated manuscripts.
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which text is supplemented by additional decoration. The earliest known examples come from the Byzantine Empire, from 400 to 600 CE.
Illuminated manuscript
But regardless of the antiquity of the medium, pen and ink are used all the time by contemporary illustrators, with a spectrum of different results.
Yuko Shimizu Work Process Shot
Illustration and the Art of Printing
Illustration’s development has paralleled the art of printing and reproduction, with very specific moments in history periodically reinventing our medium. We can boil these moments down to a few landmark inventions:
Arguably, the invention of the printing press is still the most important thing that has occurred in the history of our art form.
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, developing a movable type system in Europe between the years of 1440 and 1450, he completely revolutionized the world of human communication. He also initiated the marriage between illustration and publishing that still exists today.
Just as type could be reproduced for print, so could images. The invention of illustrating by means of cut woodblock followed closely the invention of moveable types for printing.
Early Chinese woodblock print
It’s important to note that Chinese were the first by far to use woodblock printing, with the earliest known work dating back to before 220 CE. However, in Western illustration the first woodblocks date from the beginning of the 15th century and the invention of Gutenberg’s press.
Gutenberg added illustrations—usually woodcuts—to his printed books. Very soon after that, books with woodcut illustrations became commonly available.
These illustrations were limited to black ink on white paper, forcing illustrators to render subject matter and to represent dimensionality using only lines, leading to the development of hatching in the pages shown here.
Illustrations by Erhard Ratdolt, 1488, in a book written by Persian astrologer Albumasar
Pen-and-ink drawings are usually created on different types of paper. The tooth or grain of the paper can affect the marks made by the pen. Because of this, most illustrators prefer to work on smoother surfaces that are still absorbent to the ink, creating detailed ink drawings in this way.
You can use ink to draw on your sketchbook paper, but over time this paper will warp or fray with the wetness of the ink. The paper in this sketchbook simply isn’t heavy or absorbent enough. For final work, illustrators usually choose something with a little more heft.
Bristol Board is a smooth-surfaced paper that’s heavier than regular drawing paper. It’s a popular choice for pen-and-ink drawings.
Another popular choice for ink drawings, and the paper used for this class, is hot-press watercolor paper. Hot press refers to the method used to make this special kind of paper. This paper’s surface has been ironed smooth, and is very versatile, allowing artists to make fine details in ink as well as combine other media such as watercolors or colored pencils.
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