ART 216 : Introduction to Illustration
This course introduces students to a variety of commercial situations in illustration such as magazine illustration, books, CD covers and/or poster design, to acquaint them with the scope of commercial illustration. The course exposes students to a variety of media including pencil, charcoal, scratchboard, colored pencil, watercolor and/or gouache, pastel, and computer graphics. The course requires students to keep a notebook of sketches, project files, and a portfolio of all assignments.
Prerequisite: ART 111 or permission of instructor; ART 112 is recommended as a pre-requisite.
Three hours of critique and three hours of studio per week.
Instructional Support Fee applies.
Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.
Course Outcomes
Through project work and critique, students will demonstrate their ability to:
1. Identify and describe the major genres of commercial illustration — including editorial, advertising, sequential art, and book/magazine illustration — and explain how audience, context, and medium influence illustrative decision-making.
2. Apply foundational principles of draftsmanship, composition, and design to produce a series of thumbnail sketches and refined illustrations across a minimum of three traditional or digital media (such as watercolor, charcoal, graphite, Photoshop, Illustrator)
3. Analyze published illustrations and peer work by examining the relationships between concept, technique, medium, and intended audience, using discipline-specific vocabulary in written and verbal critique.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of their own illustrations through structured self-critique and portfolio review, using established criteria of professional quality, conceptual clarity, and technical execution to identify strengths and areas for revision.
5. Create a portfolio of original illustrations, developed from initial concept and thumbnail stage through to finished, publication-ready artwork, that demonstrates competency in ideation, media technique, and visual communication across multiple commercial illustration contexts.