This blogpost is a collection of learning logs that I believe represent the journey that I have taken through the Key Steps in Illustration course module. Each of these have a link in the title of the section that will navigate you to the full learning log for each of the selected pieces. The learning…
Author: ishhodaszi
I'm a BA Graphic Design student at Open College of the Arts.
Assignment five – Seven days
The briefThe title is Seven days.These can be the seven days of the week or random days that tell a story. Your interpretation can be objective or subjective. You can produce seven separate, one large diagrammatic or a continuous strip illustration. You can decide on the media and methods you will use; the context –…
Exercise: Educational strip
You have been asked to produce an illustrated strip of up to five frames for use in schools explaining to young teenagers how to cope with the onset of puberty. You can decide on which aspect you want to tackle. Due to the subject matter and the intended age group, it is suggested that you…
Exercise: Working for children
Collect as many examples of imagery for children as possible. Group the illustrations you’ve collected into the target age groups. Include at least one image for each age group. Pre-reader, Pre-school (3–5), Early reader (5-7), Established reader (7–9), and Older age groups. Take two of these age groups and, for each one, go through a…
Exercise: Packaging
Produce a series of illustrations for packaging to be used for a new range of organic biscuits for children. There are three varieties in the range Raisin, Choc Chip and Ginger biscuits. The client specifically wants three illustrations featuring extinct animals interacting in some fun way with a biscuit to be used on the boxes….
Exercise: Text and image
Begin by taking each pair of words in turn from the list below and writing them in your own handwriting. Big Small | Fat Thin | Fast Slow | Fun Boring | Calm Mad Now write each pair of opposites in a way that is descriptive – use the shape and size of the word…
Exercise: Travel guides
Your brief is to produce three illustrations for a series of books jackets, at the size of an existing travel guide, for the locations Istanbul, Helsinki and Milan. The client would like you to create illustrations in which many elements are brought together in a diagrammatic way. They would also like the type to be…
Exercise: Editorial Illustration
Buy a newspaper with a supplement and go through cutting out any article that contains an illustration. Notice the heading for each article and read the text that the illustration refers to. Make a mental note about the way the illustration relates to the text, how its ideas relate to the meaning of the piece,…
Exercise: Your own work
Most of the work you’ve created so far has been as a result of specific exercises with clear objectives defining the outcome. However, every drawing, every mark, every image you produce belongs to you and, as your property, has a potential value beyond the satisfying of a brief or exercise. Go through the artwork you’ve…
Assignment four: Magazine illustration
This assignment should give you the opportunity to show off your developing style and use of tools and materials. If you decide to work digitally save the early stages of your image and print out key points of your experimentation. Often illustrators working editorially for newspapers and magazines will be given a very loose brief…
Exercise: Character development
Collect as many examples as possible of different characters – newspapers and magazines are a particular good source. Catalogue these characters as types – babies, children, sportsmen, old women – create your own category headings. Decide upon a character you would like to create. This might be one from a book or story, or based…
Exercise: Visual distortion
This exercise is designed to push you through a deliberate process of stylisation. Tackle it with an open mind and be prepared to adapt or adopt some of the approaches you discover. Begin by drawing a cat or dog. Use reference from any source – life, photos or images from the internet. Draw the animal…
Exercise: A tattoo
A friend has asked you to design a tattoo for them based on the word Mum. He would also like you to make it into a greeting card that he can send his mother. (What a good idea for Mother’s Day). Research the history and conventions of tattoos and body art – as well as…
Exercise: A menu card
For this exercise you are asked to provide an illustration for use on the menu of a sophisticated, quality fish restaurant – one in a chain sited in major European cities. The menu uses fresh ingredients and the ambience of the restaurant is modern, bright and contemporary in design. Any food depicted needs to be…
Exercise: A children’s book cover
You are asked to produce a cover illustration for a natural history book for children (age 7–11) entitled Animals from Around the World. The image is to be used as a full colour front jacket to encourage children to choose this book from the library shelf. There is a long history of covers for children’s…
Exercise: Museum posters
You have been asked to produce three illustrations be used as part of a series of A3 posters to publicise the museum to the following audiences: Child aged (5–9) Teenager (13–16) General adult audience The museum wants to encourage diverse sections of the population to visit and to perceive it as a place of interest….
Exercise: Identifying tools and materials
Find a range of illustrators who use a particular medium. You may focus on the traditional such as pencil, watercolour, paint, gouache, coloured pencils, oil or acrylic paint, coloured pencils, collage, prints or on the more obviously digital processes – including digital collage, photography, digital drawing and painting. Catalogue the illustrators according to similarities in…
Assignment three: A poster
The brief To design an illustration for a poster for a music event. An Early Music concert, a Jazz evening or for a pop group. You can choose. The finished poster will be reproduced at A3 size, but you can work at the size, in proportion, that you feel most comfortable with. You will need…
Exercise: Making a mock–up
For this exercise you are going to mock-up a book cover. From your book shelves or the library choose a book title that appeals to you. Read the blurb on the back of the book (or the whole book if you have time). Examine the design of the cover to identify what the brief would…
Exercise Client visuals
This exercise is to help you to edit an image to its main structural form and to practice creating a clear visual. From the work you have collected pick at least two finished illustrations. These illustrations should contain a range of content. They can be representational, diagrammatic or metaphorical.Measure the image at the size it…
Graphic Design 