Alex Perkins

This course is designed for students who are interested in exploring the evolving world of digital illustration. Students will begin with traditional media and processes and then translate their ideas digitally in programs such as Procreate. Throughout the course, student build a portfolio of digital work that can exist online and as printed media, such as posters & zines. Project examples include character development, merchandise design (ex. enamel pins, stickers, and t-shirts), digital paintings, and children’s book illustrations. Faculty presentations will supplement the studio experience, featuring work by contemporary illustrators who are pushing the field of illustration using new tools and approaches to mark-making.

This course is designed for students who are interested in exploring the evolving world of digital illustration. Students will begin with traditional media and processes and then translate their ideas digitally in programs such as Procreate. Throughout the course, student build a portfolio of digital work that can exist online and as printed media, such as posters & zines. Project examples include character development, merchandise design (ex. enamel pins, stickers, and t-shirts), digital paintings, and children’s book illustrations. Faculty presentations will supplement the studio experience, featuring work by contemporary illustrators who are pushing the field of illustration using new tools and approaches to mark-making.

Investigate visual storytelling and drawing strategies through the contemporary art forms of comics and graphic novels. Explore a variety of illustrative approaches, such as writing, storyboarding, penciling, and inking/coloring. Building on this foundation, students learn research methods to develop ideas and produce projects that examine narrative structures, material choices, and the integration of text and image. Regular critiques, visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, and exposure to contemporary artists, illustrators, and designers supplement the studio experience. Previous drawing experience is helpful but not required.

This course emphasizes the artist's role in children's picture book illustration and focuses on the world of visual storytelling. Through demonstrations and in-class assignments, students working at a variety of skill levels explore materials and techniques used to create children's book illustrations; images that guide children into a whole new imaginative universe through a sequence of memorable visual images. Creating book dummies to organize their ideas, students learn to balance text and image on the page. Students should have basic drawing skills.