Freshmen Illustrator Sept. 26, 2009

As the class started and we watched a video on Jackson Pollock, an abstract artist. He was one of the first artists to begin the style of art called abstract expressionism. We talked about what art is. Does it have to be from a real picture? Does it have to be an object? Then the students used Illustrator to experiment with different types and thicknesses of brushes to create a drawing inspired by Jackson Pollock's style. Eliza demonstrated the different types of brushes and did an example drawing on the screen.

Clara's Pollock drawing

Sophia's Pollock Drawing

Aubrey's Pollock Drawing

Then Chou showed the students how to grab free vector pictures from the web and use those pictures and turn them into symbols.

Eliza then talked about how artists use lines, not just straight lines, but all kinds of lines and how they can be represented on a art board. We looked at a neoclassical painting to see how horizontal and vertical lines express stability and then we looked at a romantic period painting to see how curvy and diagonal lines express stability.

After the break, Chou showed the students CSSZenGarden.com, where they can look at example designs. Then the students worked on creating their own designs for a website. Chou and Eliza asked the students to work on their own without assistance for the first 10 minutes . . . and the majority of the students started coming up with great designs all on their own!

Besma's web design

Juan M's web design

Everyone then blogged about what art is, and what they think about abstract art.

First Day of Freshmen Illustrator Course

On September 12, 2009, half of the class of 2013 had their first Illustrator class. During the Education section, Chou gave us a brief introduction to some of the basic Illustrator tools. Then Eliza gave us a lesson about the Rule of Thirds. Both lessons seemed to go quite well and the students were listening and engaged. Some of the students wanted more explanation about the Rule of Thirds, so Chou did a drawing on the whiteboard to illustrate the concept again.

After a short break, we moved on to our challenge list. First, Chou talked about each of the challenges and then everyone started working on the list: make a penguin picture that illustrates the Rule of Thirds, use the stroke and fill tools to alter some interesting text, use the pen tool to connect the dots, and use the Radio Tower image to practice typing on a path. The students also used the warp tools to make their penguin pictures interesting, and they practiced making backgrounds to the images. Most of the students didn’t finish all of the projects, but they did end up spending a lot of time experimenting with different tools and effects with their penguin drawings. Some students were able to finish the connect-the-dots projects.

Nick's Radio Tower--type on a path

Marci's Snake
pen tool

Nandi's Penguin

Rule of Thirds

During the certification period, we did our first critique. Chou talked about not taking the critique to heart and not trash talking, and Eliza talked about phrases we could use to talk about the artwork. Then, the class looked at penguin drawings and commented on what the artist did well and what the artist could improve. We mostly focused on deciding if the artists applied the Rule of Thirds, but we also talked about the overall picture. Sophia used space really well by using the symbols library and changing the sizes of things to show distance. Saige had created a drawing with a horizon line that followed the Rule of Thirds and had also used space to show distance.

Sophia's Penguin
Notice the effect creation of a sense of space by resizing elements from the symbols library.
Notice, too, the effective placement of the penguin according to the Rule of Thirds.

Saige's Penguin
Notice the horizon and foreground set in accordance to the Rule of Thirds.
Notice, too, the placement of the penguin and the hut in accordance to the Rule of Thirds.

Overall, it was an excellent day. The students learned a lot, and even though we were not able to get to everything on the challenge list, the projects turned out well.

Photoshop Day 1: Chris, Tony and Ryan

Today was the first day of our Freshman Photoshop session, and it showed. Everyone was a little sluggish, a little tired and a little cautious about being here on what is arguably a beautiful day. Chris, being the unit coordinator and the lead for today's session, was having none of this negativity. Chris is able to work a room, and help people learn at the same time,which are both great skills in a teacher. Trying to get the students interested, Chris made sure to crack jokes, keep things educational but not too stuffy, and the students were able to catch on and get to work.

During the Education section, the students were told about the wide variety of ways Photoshop skills could be useful to them, including a great inspiring list of possible careers that Photoshop could be used in. Following their brief and general Photoshop intro, the students were introduced to the Design Concept of the day (The Rule of Thirds), as well as the Best Practice of the Day (Keeping Files Organized). In those lessons, students were taught the importance of the composition of an image to make it more visually pleasing. Students also learned the importance of keeping their files organized so that they can easily keep track of all of their Photoshop files and projects to refer back to/edit/re-edit any time!

Natalia did a great job of saving a version of her project in the original .psd format as well as in a finished .jpg format. This will not only allow her to always have a backup of her original project, but also to go back and re-work/re-edit her project at any time!

After those two short lessons, the challenges for the day were introduced and explained, and the students were released from their ITA work mind-frames with a 10-minute break (during which time it should be noted that a lot of students already began/continued exploring different things in Photoshop anyway!)

During the Exploration section, the students had 3 project challenges to work on/ choose from. The first challenge incorporated skills they learned from the Rule of Thirds lesson which was called "Crop Down A Big One" where they were to pick 3 to 5 photos from a folder provided, and crop them down using the Rule of Thirds in order to make them more visually pleasing. Unfortunately there are no examples to show for this challenge because none of the students chose to do this project (which is totally understandable seeing as how much more exciting the other two projects were).
The second challenge the students could work on was the "Pacman Fix." In this one, students were to use the distorted image of the Pacman game screenshot provided, and fix up/edit/manipulate various parts of the image (such as fix the broken blue borders, bring some of the pac-pallets back, move some the ghosts around, etc) using the list provided.
The third challenge was "Lil' Wayne's Road to Redemption" where, using the image of Lil' Wayne's tattooed face, the students were to use the same knowledge of Photoshop tools and navigation to completely remove all of Lil' Wayne's tattoos from his face ad make it appear as if they were never there. As an added bonus, the students could replace his "grilled out" diamond teeth with a full set of pearly whites!

Below are examples of the challenges that students did. Check 'em out!!

Pacman Fix Challenge

Provided Image

Dylan's Pacman Fix Project

Dylan did a great job of not only regenerating the boards and pac-pallets, but he also did well in mimicking how the original Pacman game begins (all of the ghosts in the center box, the number of lives, etc.)

Erica's Pacman Fix Project

Erica really demonstrated her knowledge and understanding of the assignment and how to use the tools introduced not only in the way she successfully rebuilt the Pac Board and pallets, but also in how effective she was with moving the Blue and Pink ghosts from their original placement and seamlessly re-patching the area to make it seem as if they were never there.


Lil' Wayne's Road to Redemption Challenge

Provided Image

Sarai's Road to Redemption Project

Sarai did an excellent job of removing the tatoos from Lil' Wayne's face as well as replacing his "grill" with a full set of pearly whites. She even began removing the other visible tattoos from his chest and arms!...which wasn't even part of the assignment, so way to go up and beyond in demonstrating your Photoshop skills Sarai!

Chris, given the insane amount of work to cover during our class period, has done a great job covering the material and the students, with all of their hard work, really got to create some great projects!