Book of Trades

In 1568 Jost Amman published his Book of Trades, a collection of illustrations with text that described basic functions of human endeavor. The prints themselves are lovely - a clear focal point, figure/ground relationship and great line quality.

Lots of artists have tried to contend with basic professional descriptions of people - profession as a description of identity. Eric Doeringer made children's toys, but avoided "doctor" or "firefighter" options in favor of "Junky" and "Bag lady". Manchester based collective Dorothy created a line of green army men showing the effects of post traumatic stress disorder - rather than seeing the traditional army guys (flamethrower, machine gunner, radio guy) we now see wheelchair bound soldier, domestic violence soldier, suicidal soldier.

For our final illustrator project we'll be making our own Book of Trades illustration. Think about what kind of profession you hope to practice, that you're afraid you'll end up practicing, or just make a spoof of some option. Come prepared with photos or sketches of a person & negative space so that we can get to work right away. We'll also work with text, so consider a short descriptive (or comedic) description of the duties of whatever job you're planning to illustrate.

some more sophisticated tools

If you want to experiment with more tools try these:

pathfinder palette (unite, minus front, exclude, intersect)

make a clipping mask (2 objects that overlap, Object menu, Clipping Mask, Make)

effects menu (distort & transform, stylize & 3D options)

These tools will allow you to confine patterns to the boundaries of certain shapes (pathfinder), confine images to larger shapes (clipping mask) or add automatic effects to shapes (drop shadow). They can also be more trouble than they're worth, so use them selectively & experiment.

pen tool & tracing

For today's self portrait we'll be using the pen tool & eyedropper. Both tools offer more control & precision, and will allow you to have a solidly rendered portrait.

Go to File-Place and drop in your photo - remember not to "link" the photo! Lock Layer 1 and dim image to 70% create a new layer and then begin drawing on Layer 2. Now you can hide Layer 1 from time to time to see how your drawing is turning out.

Use the eyedropper to select colors for skin & hair tones, but limit the amount of color/value you use. I typically use only 5 per area, just to keep things consistent - if you select with the eyedropper from the photo you'll keep grabbing different pixels & different shades - it can get weird in a hurry.

Tools we used:

pen

add & delete anchor points

eyedropper

layers

create new

lock

hide/view

dim image to x%

Tomorrow we'll work on a 2nd variation of the portrait, either with a new photo, or by adding new elements to the first drawing you made. We'll avoid a strict naturalistic rendering in favor of an art image that's more descriptive of you and what you are - your alter ego.

wed project....

For tomorrow, bring a couple self portrait photos - we'll use them for the next project. I'll try to remember a camera just in case....

still life and more tools

line vs shape

gradients

transparency

smooth & erase pencils

scissors, knife & eraser

paintbrush vs pencil

brushes palette

stroke palette & width tool

mesh tool

symbol sprayer

swatches & pattern

warp tools

view menu:

smart guides

show/hide artboard

show/hide grid

show/hide edges

Work on this for a while, and then make some adjustments to create a focal point. What's the most important object/area? How will your audience know it? Adjust the scale (after grouping!), desaturate the colors or use repetition to make the focal point clear.

Scale: group object, use scale tool or black select arrow - hold shift to enlarge and keep proportional

Repetition: group, select, copy & paste (or option drag)

Desaturate: add a large grey shape on top of entire object, adjust the transparency (this lowers the chroma, robbing the intensity of color)

finishing up mom..

So yesterday we didn't get enough time to finish things up - we'll take another 20 minutes to wrap up that initial shape-only drawing. Here are some tools we didn't see yesterday:

paintbrush vs pencil

hand tool (spacebar)

group function

bring front/back (command [ and ])

undo (command z)

basic drawing tools

The basics:

Palettes & tear-offs

Tools

Artboard

Object

Paths

Anchor point

Fill

Stroke

The tools:

Selection (v)

Direct selection (a)

Rectangle (m)

Ellipse

Paintbrush (b)

Pencil (n)

Pen (p)

Hand (spacebar)

Zoom (z)

Group/ungroup

Bring to back/front

Undo (apple z)

Intro to the Mac -

Basic terms:

Start up

Desktop

Mouse

Cursor

Icon

Dock

Folder & views

Trash

Application & switching through them

Menus

Apple menu – sleep, shut down, force quit

Save, save as

Flash drive, ejecting & emptying trash on flash drives

CD-rom & volume adjustments

Welcome to Tyler!

Tyler Pre-College Summer Workshop 2011

Digital Illustration and Design (2D)

The world has become increasingly digitized. By integrating digital photography, existing images, and found objects, students will explore visual organization to discover new design solutions. Technical and aesthetic skills will integrate design elements of color, form, typography and composition. This workshop will focus on introducing the computer as a design tool. Students will create visually stimulating work using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on a Mac platform. Basic computer skills are recommended.

This ten-day workshop will allow artists to examine the basic tools and abilities of both Illustrator and Photoshop with a certain degree of depth, and will facilitate future ease of use. While ten days isn’t enough to really break through and learn it all, artists will feel comfortable exploring details and options on their own, and will have a good idea how to use the computer as an artmaking tool as well as integrating design principles.

The following course outline shows chronology and tools used, though the projects may vary to provide a little wiggle room.

	Program	Tools used, skills learned	Project
1	Intro to Mac, intro to Illustrator	Navigating the Mac, design basics, getting online, understanding vectors, navigating Illustrator
2	Illustrator	Shape tools, color modes, outline, fill, pattern & gradient – desaturation, repetition & scale impact on focal point	Still life w/variations
3	Illustrator	Pencil tool, transparency, stroke, brushes, grouping & locking shapes; more advanced shape & line tools – picture planes & visual path	Framed illustration
4	Illustrator	Pen tool, autotrace, layers	Self portrait with alter ego
5	Illustrator	More sophisticated tools	Self portrait with alter ego
6	Photoshop	Basic digital photography, taking & downloading photos, levels, color adjustments, contrast & brightness, resolution & file size	Basic photo alterations – diptych, saturated & desaturated color, b&w
7	Photoshop	Selecting, feathering, layering, creating a composite image	The mashup
8	Photoshop	Filters, stamp tool, cropping, scanning, print size, printing	Collaborative composite image
9		Bringing Illustrator into Photoshop	Vector & texture
10		Bringing Illustrator into Photoshop	Vector & texture