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Enhanced Illustration Pencil Pen Paint and Pixels Short Course

Course description

Working by hand is always a great starting point in illustration or art making - drawing, painting, etc. - but today illustrators and artists often take a step further, using digital tools to mix, layer and manipulate their handmade art work, without losing its freshness and 'human touch'.

This course will help you develop your visual ideas and own personal visual language through a series of projects giving a flavour of the BA Illustration at Central Saint Martins. You'll be thinking creatively and exploring traditional illustration methods, but you'll also see how hand-made work is manipulated via computer and do this with your own projects.

You'll move back and forth from the art studio to the computer lab, learning techniques and experimenting in both. Professional practice will also be discussed and the work of successful illustrators examined. Resulting illustrations should add an exciting, knowledgeable dimension to your portfolio!


Course Outcomes

Those who take this course report a new realm of image-making has been opened to them. Some student feedback is below.

  • The course filled the gap between computer and hand drawn/fine art courses.
  • The course was one of the best investment I've made in relation to my illustration world!
  • Most important, the teacher is responsible and passionate!

See student work!

Entry requirements
Elementary computer skills are needed, and an ability to absorb more of them without huge difficulty. If you find learning new computer skills extremely difficult, that would probably be the case here as well. No Photoshop knowledge is required.

Who should take this course
Typically we have a great mix of students from two directions - those with knowledge of drawing, painting or illustration eager to find ways to take advantage of digital methods, and others who know something about computer graphics and want to add a handmade aspect to their work. Both are welcome!

If you have no experience with art and no experience with computers, you might take a more basic illustration workshop first. On the other hand, both the 'What's Photoshop?' artist and the 'I can't draw' computer person have thrived in this course.

Clear, easy to understand lessons:

  • Our tutors will explain things in easy to understand, accessible English. If they need to use any special terminology they will make sure they explain what they mean.
  • New methods will be shown to students through live demonstrations and in-class videos, in a way thats crystal clear and easy to understand.
  • Experience life on campus
  • Network and share ideas with students from across the globe
  • Access the technology and materials relevant to your discipline
  • Shop in our college shops for any materials you might need
  • Ask questions of your tutor in real time
  • Receive feedback and critique on your assignments
  • Experience the many sights of London on your down time

A certificate of completion:

  • You've put the work in so we want to make sure you have something to show for it!
  • As long as you attend a minimum of 80% of your classes, we will provide you with a certificate of attendance.
  • We always recommend you attend all of the classes so that you get the most out of the experience!
  • Certificates are great to compliment your cv.

Available dates

It can take a few moments for our course dates to load - if there are no available dates, please contact our customer service team who will help you find a course or email you when new dates become available.
Make an enquiry or call us on 0207 514 7015.

Details

Our projects will emphasise:

  • Ideas and visualisation
  • Hand-crafting with pencil, ink, paint and other media
  • Then digital development of your handmade work into expressive, vibrant illustrations 

Digital development refers to using Photoshop to:

  • Resize and reposition hand-drawn elements
  • Add hand-created colours or textures to an illustration
  • Edit line-work and change handmade colours 
  • Create transparent and overlapping colours/textures
  • Manipulate handmade lettering

...and much more, all the while maintaining a personal, hand-crafted look to your resulting illustration.  Beginning with simple steps, you'll see that working with your handmade work in Photoshop allows elements to be independently modified or replaced. Here’s an example: https://youtu.be/aAO6uGfvpTw 

Materials

Materials if taking the face-to-face version of this at Central Saint Martins

We'll have lots of art materials to use in the studio such as watercolours, acrylics, coloured inks, pastels, soft pastels, markers, charcoal, coloured pencils, printing ink, collage materials and various types of papers. Please bring any materials of your own you enjoy working with or would like to explore. However, you may want to try some studio materials before buying your own, or you can just use those provided.

You should, however, try to bring the following:

  • A4 sketchbook or notebook.
  • Graphite pencils (medium and soft).
  • Pencil sharpener.
  • Rubber (a/k/a eraser).
  • A pen or two. This could be something you're comfortable drawing with or you might get a pen such as the one shown in the link: https://www.staedtler.com/intl/en/products/product.
  • Smartphone
  • A USB port memory stick

There will be computers available for manipulating and combining your hand-made work, but if you have a laptop you like using, please bring it along. If coming to London from afar, a laptop will be most useful for working on projects outside class hours, which most students choose to do on home computers or personal laptops. If you don't have Photoshop on your computer, discuss that with Bill on day 1 of class.

And don't forget the memory stick!

IMPORTANT - Adobe ID Login for Short Course Students

Students will need to create an account with Adobe (unless you already have one) in order to access the Adobe suite at the college – instructions are included below. You will need to use a personal email address to create this. If you already have an account with Adobe, please make sure you bring your login details with you on the first day of the course.

Please note:

  • Creating an Adobe account is free.
  • The software will only be accessible when logged into a UAL networked computer
  • The same account can be used outside of the University, but software will only be accessible through a personal paid subscription that students will need to set up independently
  • You can still create an account on the day but doing this beforehand will save time and avoid delays to the start of the class.
  • If you already have an Adobe ID/ subscription you can use this on your short course rather than setting up a new account.

To create an account students will need to:

  • Go to Adobe Sign in page.
  • Select ‘Create an account’
  • Enter your details and select ‘Create account’
  • Meet the Tutor:

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    Combining handmade artwork and Photoshop is the focus of this illustration course. It's a good 'fit' for either face-to-face or online learning, because most of the teaching materials are on video, which can be re-accessed if needed, and - either online or face-to-face - students can share onscreen work and methods individually with the tutor.

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