Illustration Put on some music and then...

• Environmental Observation --> set up for comic.
  • Go through the city. Draw characters, props, objects, creatures, all relevant parts of the environment, of the experience. These things will interact and populate your story.
  • You could also go through an RPG. But you must then reinvent an environment that has already been invented/reimagined from pieces of real life.
  • Use these concepts to create linework/a story board for a comic.
  • Then color/tone this in Illustrator. Tell a little story.
    • If you want to change the genre, or reimagine the setting into some other context fine, but base the environment off of your original observations.
• Create a series of illustrations that show the passage of time.
• Illustrate a song.
• Create an isometric illustration, sketch to vector
• Fancy pants vector type
• Create Emoticons
• Make a narrative advertisement for a sandwich.
• Illustrate your favorite childhood memory.
• Make a children’s book spread for a fairy tale.
• Illustrate the four seasons.
• Make a series of black and white “chapter” drawings for a novel.
• Retell a short story in graphic form.
• Create a series of illustrations that shows a person aging.
• Make an instructional poster for a favorite recipe.
• Illustrate a day in the life of a cat, dog, fish, or monkey.
• Make a picture book dummy.
• Illustrate the seven days of the Creation.
• Interesting stories to consider: The Odyssey, the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, nursery rhymes
• Illustrate a famous historical event from: 20 years ago, 100 years ago, 1000 years ago, Prehistoric times
• Illustrate family life in the future, at least 100 years from now.

Character Design The Objective: Create original full-body trading card characters that could conceivably be made into action figures; keep in mind: 1) dynamic poses 2) nonverbal communication 3) dynamic color scheme 4) props 5) costume/attire 6) environment 7) animal totem

• NAME CHALLENGE: Create 5 characters based off of 5 names.
  • Consider era/context.
• PET CHALLENGE: Design a pet & its owner.
• RIVAL CHALLENGE: Design 2 rival characters.
• FOOD CHALLENGE: Design a human character based off of the shape/color of a fruit or vegetable.
• EXPRESSION CHALLENGE: Design 4 different expressions for a character. Sketch. Ink. Color.
• LIFESPAN CHALLENGE: Draw your character as a child, teenager, young adult, middle age, senior.
• BUDDY CHALLENGE: Design a best friend, sidekick, partner or rival for your character.
• STYLE CHALLENGE: Draw your character in the styles of 5 different artists.
• OPPOSITES CHALLENGE: Design your character. Now create a character that is his/her opposite.
• PROP CHALLENGE: Design a prop. Now design a character based off of that prop.
  • Extra Credit: Next-- design a character that you would not expect to see with that prop...to throw in some irony.
• ANTHROPOMORPHISM CHALLENGE: Look around you at your immediate surroundings, find an object. Draw this object as a person.
• GENDER CHALLENGE: Take one of your existing characters & change his/her gender.
• PERSONIFICATION CHALLENGE: Design a character that will act as the personification of a concept i.e. chaos, order, magnetism, war, peace, love, hate, etc.
• PERSONALITY CHALLENGE: Design a character based off of a given personality trait i.e. cute, evil, wise, etc.
• TYPE CHALLENGE:
  • Design 10 robots.
  • Design 10 Vikings.
  • Design 10 Wizards/witches.
  • Design 10 demons.
  • Design 10 unicorns.
  • Design 10 leprechauns.
  • Design 10 clouds.
  • Design 10 dragons.
• CONVEYANCE CHALLENGE: draw one subject (person, place or thing) 5+ different times, conveying the concept of this subject in 5+ different ways
  • Change lines. Size. Color. Pattern. Distort, shrink, enlarge, mess with proportions, simplify, complicate, build this subject out of something else (smaller parts?), change the material that it is made out of. Change the mood/theme. Time of day. Weather.

Observational Sketch Assignments

• Find an expressions reference sheet or make one and then sketch all the expressions - 4 minutes each.
• 2 minute Animal sketches; Look up an image & sketch (in 2 min.)...
  • Mammal
    • feline
    • canine
    • equine
    • rodent
    • other
  • Bird
    • songbird
    • raptor
    • other
  • Reptile
  • Amphibian
  • Insect/Arthropod/Arachnid
• 2 minute plant sketches
• 20 minute for 10 landscape thumbnails (just focus on conveying the idea)
  • desert
  • mountains
  • river
  • beach

Illustration

• Design a tattoo for
  • Magician
  • Dancer
  • Mortician
• Draw thirteen black cats. You figure out how, with what media, in what context, etc.
• Weird things to find in jars. If it helps, make a list, then illustrate that list.
  • 2 ways of doing this: 1) blank page o' jars template 2) students design their own jars as they go.
• Design a cabinet of curiosities.

Book Assignments

• Conceptualize, write, illustrate & publish a childrens' book.

In Groups

• Design a videogame
  • As a group, determine the plot/theme of the game
  • Assign aspects of game design to each person:
    • Item concepts & design
    • NPC concepts & design
    • Playable character concepts & design
    • Environmental concepts & design
    • Game 'look' concepts & design