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…
Category: Part 3 – Key Steps in Illustration
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…
Exercise: Viewpoint
Make a small collection of objects around a theme – choose from: Festival, The morning after, Summertime, Workshop Using a digital camera move around your set of objects. Look at them from above and from underneath. Zoom in and out. Look for interesting combinations of shapes and textures, and document them using photographs. Be unusual…
Exercise: Giving instructions
Using the internet, magazines, reference books leaflets, brochures and flyers make a collection of examples and reference materials that can help you with an illustration to fit one of the categories below. Making a cup of tea Getting to my house Playing a tune on an instrument Start by working out the information you need…
Exercise: Abstract illustration
Listen to a piece of instrumental music by a musician such as: George Gershwin The Gypsy Kings Beethoven Miles Davis As you listen to the music create marks which convey your interpretation of the essence or mood of the piece. Work quickly and intuitively to bring a degree of self-expression to the exercise. Be selective…
Exercise: Image development
Cut two ‘L’ shapes of card or stiff paper. You are going to use them to explore formats, to zoom in and out of compositions. Take an image which has a range of content – a family photo, and interior from a magazine or another artist’s work – and enlarge it to A4 and make…
Exercise: Reading an image
Look carefully at this image. Then in your learning log list the content of the picture – breaking the image into its constituent parts and answer the following questions: • What the image is about. What is it saying? • Work out the narrative and identify the story. • Describe the palette and tonal range…
Exercise: Illustrating visual space
Using internet searches or your own visual references select an image of: each of these A tree A child running or walking A building Photocopy them in black and white at different scales and sizes so that you have several versions of each image. Cut them into individual items with which to work. Working with…
Graphic Design 