Illustration ART 322B - Illustration 2
Instructor: Erik Mark Sandberg
Office hours: M 5-7pm W 5-6pm Office: ADC 507
Classroom: ADC 505 M/W 11-1:45
Email: erik.sandberg@csun.edu / happy@eriksandberg.net
Course Description
Image making is used in many markets including: publishing, advertising, entertainment industry,
corporations, merchandising and electronic media. Images are used for many products including:
books, magazines, greeting cards, calendars, clothing, house wares, posters, annual reports, CDs,
packaging, limited edition prints, etc. Professional illustrators have technical expertise,
personal style, problem-solving ability and conceptual creativity. This course is an introduction
to illustration as an art form and profession. This is a lab class that meets for six hours a
week.
The Goals of the Art Department are establishing and developing for students an inclusive and
balanced program in visual art, which encompass four areas of study: Art Education, Art History,
Studio Art, and Visual Communications.
Art Department Program Goals Addressed In This Course
Basic Skills: Developing a foundation of art knowledge, theories, skills, craftsmanship and
technologies, where ideas and concepts are communicated in writing, speaking and art making.
Art Knowledge: Broadening art and design knowledge through contemporary examples and to develop an
understanding of art within theoretical, cultural, and historical contexts.
Critical Thinking: Analyzing, interpreting, and questioning traditional methodologies and preconceived notions of art and art making through the process of generating and solving problems.
Interdisciplinary Connections: Exploring and engaging in interdisciplinary forms of art making.
Global Perspectives: Promoting an appreciation and tolerance of diverse perspectives dealing with
art, culture, teaching and learning.
Collaboration: Encouraging
faculty, and community.
both
individual
and
collaborative
art
experiences
among
students,
Professional Preparation: Developing career paths for various art professions and an understanding
of the demands and expectations of those areas.
Student Learning Outcomes
-To discover and apply various two-dimensional art media and techniques.
-To enable you to utilize and control the Elements and Principles of two-dimensional design.
-Students will acquire conceptual knowledge of art, accurately define and utilize the formal
vocabulary of the visual arts (Elements and Principles of design) to analyze works of art.
-Explore and utilize methods for visual problem-solving, acquire and demonstrate conceptual
knowledge of a diversity of 2-D forms, purposes, media, and functions of art as they respond to,
analyze, interpret and critique their own and others’ artworks.
-Students will acquire and demonstrate conceptual knowledge of 2-Dart in cultural context,
including the visual nature of contemporary culture, fine art and design, world arts, the history
and diversity of art in societies past and present.
-Students will be introduced to connections and relationships between visual and other arts, and
those between visual art and other discipline areas.
Course Objectives
Encourage conceptual thinking and ability to communicate to specific audiences. Develop students
personal voice, creativity, and artistic vision. Promote strong skills in design, research, and
new media techniques for execution. Study image making in terms of professional issues, markets,
exhibitions, and various commercial practices. Familiarize student with contemporary illustration,
Fine Art, and Printmaking.
Course Methods
Instruction will be achieved through slide presentations, media demonstrations, lectures,
individual and group critiques. All students are required to participate in group critiques.
Attendance Policy
Attendance is required. The following will be applied in determining the final grade in the
course. Two absences are allowed without penalty. If a family or work emergency occurs, that will
count as an absence. If you are sick, that counts as an absence. If your car breaks down and you
miss class, that counts as one absence. If you decide the beach is more important than class, that
counts as one absence. There is no such thing as an excused absence. If you have used up your two
absences, and you get sick and miss a third day, your final letter grade for the course gets
dropped by one-third, and so on for each additional absence. If illness requires more than four
absences, a medical withdrawal from the course is recommended. Late arrivals and early departures
of 20 minutes or more are considered absences Roll will be taken at the beginning of every class.
Three tardies count as 1 absence.
Texting or talking on the phone in class will be considered an absence.
Missed Critiques will result in an automatic grade reduction for that project.
Missed Class Policy
Lectures and demonstrations will not be repeated. Get the names and email of other students in the
class to contact them for missed information.
Name________________________________________ email_______________________________________
Name________________________________________ email_______________________________________
Grading Project Rubric: will be given on a standard 100 point scale.
You will be graded on the following:
Image Making: Use of images & understanding of image implementation in work.
Ideation & Iteration: Evaluation of process and artists work from start to finish.
Visual Literacy & Critical Analysis: How you relate to your work, how you understand your
development formally & critically & place this in a larger theoretical / social / educational
context.
Media Exploration: Not like craft, artist’s use of & experimental materials & making
methodologies.
Craft: How does the work look physically & in documentation.
A grading rubric sheet with will be given out after each project is completed. Your final grade
will be based on the numerical average of the 4 project grading sheets.
Grading is in accordance with university policy: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, and F
A= outstanding, B= good, C= average, D= unsatisfactory, F= failure
Assignments
Assignment I - Drawing Series
Assignment II - Silk Screen Poster
Assignment III - Editorial Series
Experimental Sketch Book (graded in 2 parts)
GRADE EARNED
______________________25%
______________________25%
______________________25%
______________________25%
Supplies
The supplies you need will depend upon the techniques you decide to use for your assignments. This
can be completely open from everything from found material ex.(old books, road signs, oil paint,
oil bars, watercolor, gouache, resin, inks, mylar, canvas, synskin, plaster, silk-screen, etching,
block printing, Polaroid’s, digital prints, markers, graphite, acrylic paint, cloth, hair, food
coloring, plastic, wood, foam, wax, auto paint, bark, fur, fabric, felt, clay, wire, over sized
Xerox, cardboard, rope, twine, house paint, spray paint, glitter, video, video projection etc. or
any combination of these. Medium is open for all projects.
Please consult with me about the appropriate materials for execution of final art.
How to Present Your Work
All work presented for a grade should be clean and camera ready. This means it should be free of
fingerprints, dirt, tape, and anything else you would not want reproduced. Treat your final work
like you are a paper conservator for a museum with respect and utmost care. Cover your work with
glycine, tissue, ph neutral paper, or tracing paper if needed. Carry fragile works in a hard
folder, or 2 sheets of foam core two prevent damage.
Please use a large envelope or ring binder to house all preparatory drawings, process sketches,
reference, and inspirational material.
Preliminary Work
All students are required to use professional preparatory working methods in the development of
their illustrations, unless otherwise directed under project outline. Written work, concept lists,
and all other reference material.
Thumbnails – small drawings to work out some basic conceptual ideas and compositional elements,
these loose drawings are for you to get started forming the design of the visual image. These
drawings are for you to get started and not for sketch critique.
Comps – 1 drawing per 8 ½” X 11” inch paper with border reference drawn to give format indication.
Comp drawings should be clear enough for an art director… all elements, conceptual and visual must
resolved and communicate clearly in the sketch. - 4 required for each assignment you will be
hanging these on the wall for sketch critiques. You may write notes on the outside of the sketch
to clarify some color or material ideas.
Tight line drawing – final size and materials worked out with all resolved details and execution
plans, based on your continued research and original comp refinement.
Color study - (if needed)– can be done digitally, or with acrylic, oil, mixed media, colored
pencil, etc over light copy of your sketch. This step is a good idea when working out a multiple
colored image.
Final Art – Completed final piece camera ready and for final critique. Final art can be a digital
print or file.
Assignments
1)
EXPERIMENTAL SKETCHBOOK - This will be an semester long project and will be formally presented
near the end of the semester and reviewed by your peers.
2)
Portraiture Series with a Focus on Contemporary Drawing
Medium: “Drawing”
Format: Open Must have minimum of 3 drawings in the series
Subject: Depends on chance
Procedure:
You will choose 3 words out of the ‘Wishing Well’
Discard one of the words or subject.
You will make a series of 3 illustrations based on your remaining 2 words or subjects. Your
objective is to creatively illustrate the words and or subject’s relationship, or non existent
relationship. You will explore the meaning of the words and or subjects and how you personally
relate to them and their cultural significance and or meaning. Make a series of drawings based
imagery clarifying your conceptual and visual explorations. The amount of significance you put on
each word or subject depends on you.
Please avoid all cliché’s and obvious
commenting on how the subjects can be
contemporary image making. The images
narrative based, representational, or
importantly say something interesting
references you understand.
visual solutions for your images. Work on visually
related to the “now”, your personal experiences, ideas, and
can be fun, serious, satirical with a social message,
abstract etc. Art is a language nothing more, most
and new. It sometimes helps to stick to metaphors and
Objective: To explore the ideas of contemporary drawing and how it can utilized in finished image
making. To familiarize yourself with new approaches to drawing of cut photographs, etching,
cyanotype, oil bars, graphite, digital output, ink, etc and how different materials effect the
communication of the drawing.
Books to look at:
Vitamin D, Drawing Now 8 Propositions, Drawing Now Between the lines of Contemporary Art, American
Illustration.
What’s due?:
Six different comps clear enough for an art director: Revised comps with resolved details, three
final pieces of art superbly executed for final group critique, evidence of research. Please think
about and understand the visual references you are making with your elements.
3)
Silk-Screen Poster
Medium: Silk Screen, with hand embellishing optional
Format: 1 poster illustration, horizontal or vertical proportional to 11” X 17” inches image size
on a 15” X 22” inch piece of 250 gsm paper. Can be larger if desired.
Subject: Choose a subject for the poster, can be real or fictional ex) space travel, rock band,
zoo, cultural event, art event, shop sign, etc. Can be typed based or image based or both.
4)
For What You Are About To Receive (Magazine/ Periodical Cover)
Medium: ANY
Format: 1 cover illustration (Vertical proportional to 9.5” X 12” inches) 1 spot illustration (any
size)
Subject: Will hand out 5 choices of copy (articles) prior to assignment.
Procedure for Magazine Cover
Create a piece based for an existing magazine cover format. For class purposes, we are going to
focus on two periodicals: Flaunt, and LA Weekly. Both publications are artistically progressive
in nature, intend to use young, emerging, and contemporary artists for their images. Both
periodicals tend to have a contemporary illustration slant.
Prior to the assignment you will be given 7 currently featured articles to choose from. Your image
will have a purpose: to invoke readership for the periodical. The best covers tend to be
metaphorical, visually interesting, clever and sophisticated. Please avoid all cliché images and
metaphors for this assignment, UNLESS it is intentional.
What’s Due?
Three cover comps, 3 spot comps
One piece of finished cover art, one finished spot illustration.
Mon, Aug 24
Class Introduction. Slide Show Lecture, Recycle book project given
Wed, Aug 26
Slide Show Lecture/ Project 1 given
Mon, Aug 31
COMPS DUE FOR PROJECT 1 - GROUP CLASS CRITIQUE
Wed Sept 2
Cyanotype Demo
Mon, Sept 7
No Class Labor Day
Wed, Sept 9
1 on 1 meeting to look over revised project 1 comps.
Mon, Sept 14
In class work on first assignment
Wed, Sept 16
In class work on first assignment
Mon, Sept 21
WISHING WELL FINAL DUE - GROUP CLASS CRITIQUE
Wed, Sept 23
project 2 given SLIDE LECTURE
Mon, Sept 28
SCREEN PRINTING DEMO
Wed, Sept 30
SCREEN PRINTING DEMO CONT
Mon, Oct 5
COMPS DUE FOR PROJECT 2 - GROUP CLASS CRITIQUE
Wed, Oct 7
In class work on second assignment
Mon, Oct 12
In class work on second assignment
Wed, Oct 14
In class work on second assignment
Mon, Oct 19
In class work on second assignment
Wed, Oct 21
In class work on second assignment
Mon, Oct 26
Mid Way Alternative Sketchbook Graded Review
Wed, Oct 28
Slide Lecture - project 3 given
Mon, Nov 2
POSTER ASSIGNMENT DUE - GROUP CLASS CRITIQUE
Wed, Nov 4
In class work on third assignment / alternative sketchbooks
Mon, Nov 9
COMPS DUE FOR PROJECT 3
Wed, Nov 11
No class due to holiday
Mon, Nov 16
In class work on third assignment
Wed, Nov 18
In class work on third assignment
Mon, Nov 23
In class work on third assignment
Wed, Nov 25
In class work on third assignment
Mon, Nov 30
EXPERIMENTAL SKETCHBOOK DUE - PEER GRADING SESSION
Wed, Dec 2
In class work on third assignment
Mon, Dec 7
PROJECT 3 FINAL DUE - GROUP CLASS CRITIQUE
Finals Week - Shop clean up.
All revisions for change of grade are due in the drop box by end of finals week.
Handing in work:
We will be using a drop box account for handing in all projects and comps. During final in class
critiques you will be hanging original works. Please photograph or scan them to be handed in on
drop box (72 dpi jpeg files.) I will be reviewing these files when filling out the grading
rubrics.
322B > find the folder labeled with your name.
Dropbox.com
Username: info@eriksandberg.net
Password: accd1488!