Class Blogs

Hello Class,

Please write a comment to this post that includes the URL to the blog that you created for this class. I will create a blog list in the sidebar that will provide easy access to your blogs to the rest of the class. You are welcome to add the class blogs to your bloglist too. Just make sure that this blog is easy to get to.

Scott Mccloud Cartoon Universality

Consider this excerpt from Scott Mccloud's book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
available on Amazon:

Scott Mccloud's website

Semiotics - Study of Meaning of Signs

To be smart when you are talking about Visual Communication it helps if you know some basic ideas in Semiotics. Semiotics is the study of how things mean something and the signs that make that possible. Some examples of types of signs are: symbols (that we learn as denoting the subject), icons (that resemble the subject), and indexes (that are related to the subject). A sign has parts that we can analyze and see if it is working the way we want it to. An obvious part of a sign is its visual nature. That is the part that we as Designers and Illustrators are good at making look excellent. Another part of how a sign means something is how people read it, what they think it means; this is the connotation of the sign, the final message. A third part is our intent, what we were trying to show in hopes of communicating something specific; this is the denotation. When we look at our designs from the perspective of how other people might understand them or what variety of things it could possibly mean we are better able to refine it to an effective and specific communication with all of the nuances of communication that we could hope for.

Looking for Graphical Opportunities

A complex graphical communication may have many parts. To avoid a cluttered or busy look it helps to impose some order and consolidation. Here are three methods that may help:

1. Side by Side Comparison- two objects are placed side by side or stacked vertically to get us to look at them as a similar pair. We relate the two because of their similarity and imagine logical connections or metaphors.


2. Form a Single Object - draw the two as one object while maintaining the details from each that make it identifiable. This may involve sacrificing a portion of the object that is not necessary for recognition and allowing it to take on the form of the other.


3. Positive and Negative Space - The holes or edge details in one object can take on the characteristics of the second object.

Two Methods for Developing Graphic Images

A strong graphical image is one that is clear, clean, quick, simple, abstract, and simplified.
Two strategies may help you make a better graphic image.

1. Try to reconstruct the form using only geometric primitives:
   
   circles, rectangles, triangles, etc. . .


2. Emphasize the stylistic elements that describe the form best while eliminating others:
   
   if your image is curvy, eliminate everything except the curves.

How to Draw an Eye

Draw an eye. Go ahead, I'll give you a few minutes.
What did you draw?


Most art students will draw a fairly detailed eye with iris, pupil, highlight, eyelid, eyelashes. This is what they have been taught to do. They are taught that the more "realistic" and more complex they can make their drawing the better it is. So this is where I have to un-teach them. Sometimes the best drawing of an eye is just a single dot. It is quick and easy to draw, and in the right context, it is easy and quick to identify. The single point eye is a powerful universal symbol for an eye where a realistic looking eye gets tied down to representing a specific age, race, sex, or character. When communication is the goal the quicker, more universal, less complex eye is better. There is no need to impress anyone with your rendering virtuosity, just show me an eye and make it quick.

Day 1, Blog

Day 1 recorded lectures

Here you will find recorded video lectures for the first day of class showing how to set up a blog for our class. Please go through all the steps and have your blog ready and working by the second class day. If you already have a Blogger/Blogspot blog you may use it if you add the tools you will need to it. You may want to sign up for a gmail account, but you can certainly use your university email to register.

create_blog
blog_settings
blog_listsetup
delicious_setup
delicious_use
blog_imageposting
blog commenting