Illustrator and Linear design

Illustrator is a difficult program to just jump into. I think of illustrator as being a really complex board game, that takes a few rounds to understand. The first time you play it, the "game" can be frustrating and confusing, but as soon as you learn all the rules, the challenges become very fun and rewarding.

To start us in Illustrator, I start with the easiest tool the brush tool. Now you may be thinking, "GIRL, this is Basic!" But the truth is, illustrator can be frustrating, and students can get so frustrated with the other tools they will give up before they get to them. So I give them a pretty involved tracing project first and allow them to immerse themselves in just learning the capabilities of the brush tool. 

Steps:

1. Choose an image, preferably one you took 

2. Place it in illustrator 

3. Add a new layer on top of the image

4. lock the layer your image is one so you don't accidentally move it, or draw on it. 

5. Trace your image

6. Add a new layer under your "line layer"

7. Add a shade of gray or minimal color to your image to add interest and depth. 

8. Esport as screen, save and a jpg 

This was the first time I taught illustrator, that I had students state they enjoyed it. Every other time I get almost tearful reactions, of "illustrator is the worst."

Here are a few student examples. Enjoy!

AP Digital Design

We are getting Further along  in the AP year so I just wanted to give a few student examples from my advanced students.

This selection is from a few different lessons, so the variety is strong with this grouping. It's a mix of their own concentration pieces as well as a few assignments I had them complete. The student are all independent study, so they have already gotten many of these lesson in the first 2 classes they take with me, this year when they complete the lessons they are supposed to review what they did last year and take it a step further.

They are doing an amazing job and they are going to have a variety of work to turn into the AP board.

The Portrait unit

So Portraiture is a huge part of photography. However, portraiture can often turn into a point and shoot operation, so to make the lesson more meaningful I added some extra challenges and expectation to make the student think a little more about their images. 

Assignment:

10 photos total 

1- must have a blank background 

       - This does not have to be just a wall or a black sheet this just refers to controlling the background, so there is nothing else in it. 

1- must be of at least two people

1- Must be a candid photo

1- use portrait editing to the extreme

        - We go through a few step by step lessons on how to fix pores, add hair use the liquify filter, and repair blemishes. This is also where the students learn to never trust images that are in the magazine, because they can see how easy it is to change their own images. 

1- must use a filter(shoot through something ex: tree, reflection, window, glass, crystal, smoke, dust, thrown snow, grass. )

5- images can be any style of portrait you like. find you personal style

All images must be edited 

save them as JPG's

name them

I use this video to learn up on skin editing, and this Youtuber has a link on the video to her free frequency separation download.  So I highly recommend giving it a try. 

Here are a few of my student examples!