Welcome to Ms Borgersen's digital art class

Visual Development 

It can go by many names: concept art, design, illustration, etc. I like to think of it as visual organization with a purpose. A VisDev artist can design anything from backgrounds to characters to props to vegetation and even furniture. But a great VisDev artist also understands how all of those elements fit together to serve the whole much like how there is a reason behind the number and types of dishes that come out in a multi-course menu.

VisDev can also apply to all levels big and small from the entire menu to a specific dish. Like a well-made salad, all of the ingredients within a well-designed painting can produce a pleasing and memorable experience.

Two important categories of Visual development  are environmental art and Character design 

Environment Design. Another popular area of concept art is digital environment design. Every fantasy world needs carefully-crafted environments for characters to roam. Whether these are harsh wilderness terrains or busy city streets, the environment artist is tasked with designing the look and feel of these areas
A notable enivrmental designer was Eyvind Earle.

.Eyvind Earle was an American artist, author and illustrator, noted for his contribution to the background illustration and styling of Disney's animated films in the 1950s. 

Project: Create a Enviorment for a creature.  

Extra Credit: Collage a image to then vector

to begin this project students will create a 3 or more piece collage landscape depicting a location (fictitious or real) that displays realistic depth ie a foreground middle ground and background
  • be composed of at least 3 different photos
  • Each collaged pic will represent background, middleground, foreground
  • Your landscape must depict a scene your creature would be in 

PArt one: Illustrator/Gravit Basics
vectoring your environment 

the second portion of this project is designed to introduce students to the pen tool.  Students are going to create a vectored environment by  tracing your trace their  landscape with the pen tool
 
  1. Trace a graphic silhouette of an animal
  2. Create a side profile silhouette from a photo (this one should relate to your landscape destination. 

Part Three: combine your character into the scene
vector your creature and place the lanscape inside with a clipping mask 

The Project: in a nutshell

Project:Landscape 

Choose a general destination  to create a landscape, silhouette and combination illustration from.  This lesson will take students through the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator. as well as demonstrate how to use the programs strenghts together.  Students will also bet introduced to the Hudson River School and the key principles of lanscape.  

​this project will be broken down into three grades

extra credit: LANDSCAPE Collage

  1. . Create a collage depicting a general location that has realistic depth with foreground middleground and a background
  2. use at least 3 different pics to create the whole landscape
  3. Use the poly lasso tool to cut and paste  intricate pieces showing the student’s proficiency
  4. Use the image adjustments to shade the image and give atmospheric perspective
  5. Demonstrates work ethic and effort

Part two: vector landscape

Part three: character/ Animal landscape illustration

  1. Create a graphic of a silhouetted animal with a  positive space landscape
  2. using the pen tool create a vector version of your landscape while keeping the realistic depth.
  3. Use the pen tool with proficiency demonstrating both hard and curved edges
  4. compose and arrange the landscape with the animal silhouette in a effective and appealing composition.
  5. Demonstrates work ethic and effort

Tutorial

Adobe Tutorials

Gravit Tutorial

Rubric