Drawing is one of the most immediate and powerful forms of expression in the visual arts. The refinement of technique and self-expression within narrative traditions has challenged masters throughout the ages. Now it's your turn. In this class students will develop and explore personal and contemporary narrative themes. The familiar elements of drawing will be reassessed for their specific expressive possibilities. Writers and film makers as well as artists will provide inspirational narrative structures. We will explore how the interplay between narrator/artist and viewer influences content. How is viewpoint being manipulated? Is the narrator telling the truth? How can memory, dreams or discontinuity in time be conveyed visually? These are just a few of the exciting issues we will explore. You will broaden and deepen your ideas and your ability to communicate in this challenging course. Experimentation and development of media proficiency will be encouraged.
Major elective; Illustration majors only

This course will build on the skills established in Sophomore Painting, while broadening the students' understanding of options available to the painter. The primary work of the semester will be on individually directed projects, worked on both in and out of class. Overall, a goal of establishing a personal visual vocabulary of facture and image will be emphasized. Students will be encouraged to particularize their use of the painting medium and their approach to subject and statement through color, painterly touch, format, use of materials, drawing and compositional decisions, stylistic reference and implied narrative. The core medium of the class will be oil paint, but this may be augmented or extended by other media. The course will include group exercises designed to solidify a basic understanding of drawing, the use of the medium and the principles of color. Periodic outside assignments will extend this practice while emphasizing personal choice and expressive adjustment based on individual priorities. A flexible format for in-class work on personal projects will allow group interaction to coexist with individually directed work. The semester's goal for each student will be to define a direction for future work in painting.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

The ability to bring a creative project to a full and successful level of finish is often neglected in the academic environment, but is an essential professional skill. This course requires students meet goals they set for themselves through individualized projects, but that they meet them fully with the highest degree of resolution and polish. In a written proposal, each student will present his or her project for the semester: a graphic novel, a series of paintings or drawings, a children's book, a suite of prints or posters. Work may be in any medium, in any format and on any theme, but these parameters must be clearly established at the outset. Work on the project will be conducted in the studio during class time and outside of class, and will be focused on full realization of a finished product that meets the specific standards established in the original proposal. Consistency and quality of execution will be the goal, and less successful or preliminary pieces will be re-worked to elevate them to the level of the project as a whole. Students will have one on one crits each week and group crits as needed. Finally, students will mount a professional-level juried exhibition of the completed projects in the ISB gallery, with an emphasis on presentation, marketing and a public opening.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors.

This course takes observational sculpture to the next level by increasing the students' understanding of human anatomy as it relates to figure sculpture. The class will feature lectures on specific aspects of human anatomy and over the course of the semester, students will work from the model to create three clay figure sculptures. They will also make a sculptural anatomical study based on Houdon's "l'ecorche," a quintessential life-sized model for anatomical reference. "Ensemble", each aspect or form of the sculpture working in harmony to make a cohesive visual statement, will be a central theme, with topics including structure, proportion, balance and rhythm. Students will leave this course with an enhanced ability to accurately represent the human form from memory by applying the principles of structural anatomy.
Estimated cost of materials: $70.00
Major elective; restricted to Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

This course will examine various storytelling techniques used in cinema that are essential in guiding the look and feel of a film. These will include storyboarding, color key creation, and production illustrations. Our goal is to build the essential skills needed to participate in the narrative process of filmmaking. You will work both individually and in groups on a series of assignments to create finished works that build your individual skills, and demonstrate your abilities to work on a story team in a cinematic production. We will examine camera placement and frame-to-frame clarity by creating storyboards for different scenarios. In addition, to explore the emotional beats of a narrative, you will create lighting and color keys. In the final weeks, we will create a finished production illustration for a narrative that will be either supplied or created by the student.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

A course intended to help students design with color through the use of acrylics, watercolor and a medium of their choice. We will explore ways of creating harmony, contrast, focus and space in a work of art by developing an understanding of opacity, transparency, temperature, value and intensity of color. Students will be expected to experiment with various color grounds as well as a variety of limited palettes. Assignments will include color charts, figure work, still lives and will focus on a final series.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

This class is designed to train students in the art of creature creation/design. Students will study animal anatomy and physiology with a focus on adaptions to meet specific environments. Following a structured process to design beasts for a variety of genres, the class will explore the genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror. Also featured will be class discussion regarding the psychological implications of different aesthetic choices using existing creatures from film and literature as case studies.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

This is an introduction to 3D computer graphics as a medium for illustration. The software used is Cinema 4D, a fully featured 3D program that is both affordable and relatively easy to learn. Topics covered will include modeling, texturing, lighting and composition for illustration as well as frequent examples and discussions of the various uses 3D can have for the illustrator. The final month of class time will be dedicated to helping the student develop a portfolio of images that use 3D as part of their expression. While familiarity with a computer is helpful, there are no technical prerequisites for this class.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration and FAV juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration majors.

The ability to articulate ideas visually is the most important skill an illustrator has. Drawing is fundamental to such articulation. This course is designed to develop the student's recording, describing and communicating skills through weekly exercise in drawing from direct observation. Fall semester focuses primarily on space and objects in space. Emphasis is on developing a basic understanding of and familiarity with perspective as a means of organizing space and defining point of view.
Major requirement; restricted to sophomore Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. Registration by Illustration department, course not available via web registration

Color is arguably the single most expressive and mysterious tool available to the artist. However, many artists who are skilled in black and white drawing have difficulty when they turn their hand to color. Crayon creates a bridge, which is at once less intimidating than more traditional media, while at the same time capable of producing highly sophisticated imagery. Through classroom exercises an awareness of the transformative power of color is awoken. Limited color underdrawings are further developed with multiple layers of color. The use of warm and cool color relationships as well as the exploration of polarities of color, in order to create rich, dramatic effects, is examined in depth.
Class work gives the student the opportunity to work from the live model. For homework, the student is encouraged to engage in subject matter which has personal significance, perhaps something one had always wanted to create but hadn't had the opportunity.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Magazines, newspapers and other publications rely heavily on pictures to illuminate messages initiated by writers, and more than any other genre of illustration, the editorial field gives voice to the artist. In this alternately reactive and expressive line of work, the illustrator engages in a powerful partnership with the written word, effectively becoming an author of opinions and ideas. This class will approach several editorial assignments, all of which involve an illustrated response to written text.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.
This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

This course surveys the history of western illustration from illuminated manuscripts through approximately 2000 AD. The work shown is culled from a vast cache of artistic production for its power to convey ideas and ideals, report and editorialize events or serve as an enhancement to literature. We consider how evolving technologies in printing and communication have influenced artistic processes, shaped aesthetics and facilitated the distribution of illustration. We study Illustration's role in reflecting and influencing culture, and its variable relationship to fine art. Each session includes a lecture to which students respond with a critical brief to be handed in upon exiting the class. Additionally there are weekly readings, 2 tests, and one long and one short research paper. There is no textbook for this class. However, students will be able to access study images and readings through Artstor and on RISD Digication.
Course Level: Sophomore; Junior; Senior

In the best illustration, art is a delivery system for ideas and feelings. The skilled hand is there to serve the head, to articulate insight, wit, emotion. The purpose of Illustration Concepts i and II is to elicit the best imaginative response,to provoke the most original and apt concepts for visual communication.
Major requirement; restricted to sophomore Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. Registration by Illustration department, course not available via web registration.

Major elective; permission of instructor required; restricted to Illustration and FAV majors; contact FAV Department Coordinator to register.This course is designed to explore different animation techniques and materials, including working directly on film, drawing on paper, painting under the camera, object animation, cut-outs, and pixilation. It also teaches the fundamentals of animated movement and timing. Students in this course each make six short animations, with separate, synchronized sound tracks. At the end of the course, students create a DVD compilation of all their projects. A wide range of independent animated films are screened to demonstrate different techniques and approaches to animation.
Major elective; permission of instructor required; restricted to Illustration and FAV majors; contact FAV Department Coordinator to register.

This course introduces digital media for Illustrators using three types of computer applications: image editing (Photoshop), vector graphics (Illustrator), and digital painting (Painter). While orienting students to the technical aspects of digital media, the class also provides an essential link to the Illustration Department's drawing, painting and conceptual curriculum.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.
This course fulfills the computer literacy requirement for Illustration majors.

Throughout history, the natural environment has been a subject of charm and awe for the artist, from the delicately painted frescoes in ancient Roman homes to the 16th century, when the landscape transcended the role of 'background', and gained momentum as a sublime subject in its own right. This is a course on the history of techniques, concepts, possibilities, and purposes in landscape painting. The class will encourage exploration of landscape as sublime subject, as metaphor for human experience or as the battleground for politically charged debate of environmental issues, among other possible approaches. Students will work on location and in studio, learning approaches to plein air painting as well as incorporation of references in the construction of natural environments.
Major elective; Open to Non-Majors.

The ability to play is a complex activity that is at the core of human learning. From Monopoly to poker, Doom to the baseball diamond, games allow us to explore social interactions, take risks, set goals, develop skills and expand our imaginations while entertaining us without serious consequences. What makes a game fun? Or memorable? In this class, we will explore the intersections of learning, experimentation, and play. In our constructed projects, we will search for innovative ways to expand or reinvent game traditions. Through individual and collaborative projects, we will examine how game mechanics (rules/systems) thoughtfully combined with game aesthetics (visuals/story) can be used to craft engaging, memorable and informative user/player experiences. Our goal is to develop primarily non-digital games that are conceptually innovative responses to various questions you pose related to play. Quality assurance and usability concerns will be explored through focus group play tests.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

This course focuses on the exploration of combining a variety of media with the expectation of discovering a new, personal approach to creating images. Students are taught initially the specific properties and use of watercolor, gouache and acrylic and then explore combinations of these media with pastel, colored pencil, inks, collage material, charcoal, and found objects. There will be discussion and experimentation with various techniques, materials, and finishes. Students will work in class from set ups, photo references and the model, and will develop weekly homework assignments using the techniques and media combinations explored in class.
Major elective; Illustration majors only

An oil painting/color course in which, by working from life, lessons on the use of color to establish spatial relationships, light, shadow and expressive inflection are drawn from and related to visual fact.
Major requirement; restricted to sophomore Illustration majors;
open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. Registration by Illustration department, course not available via web registrationRegistration by Illustration department, course not available via web registration

This course introduces students to a variety of pen and scratchboard styles through a series of assignments which include drawing from life and executing well-defined illustrative problems. A variety of pen tips and their effect on pen handling are explored. Other aspects of pen drawing to be considered: Intelligent design of page with subject, the compositional impact of the arrangement of tone, and the sensitive selection of appropriate pen and scratchboard styles for a given problem.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor

This course considers the camera as a tool of the illustrator; It involves the use of the original photographic image as resource, as partial design element and as finished illustration. Various techniques are addressed, particularly the integration of photography with drawing and painting.
Major elective; Illustration majors only

This is a team-taught course which must be taken in conjunction with an English course,"Writing and Illustrating Children's Books," LAS E508; students must register for both courses. In the Illustration half of the course students will undertake projects that concentrate on the integration of language and image in the children's picture book, including the illustration of an original text written in the English half of the course.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. Students in this class must also register for: LAS E416

To begin at the beginning: a premise is an idea with consequences. Students in this course will conceive and visually develop a premise for each of four distinct projects: an illustrated children's book; in illustrated book for adults; a thematic calendar; and an individually defined project. None of these will be completed in this course. The object, rather, is to give in each instance sufficient visible evidence of your imagination's potential.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

This course surveys a wide range of effects possible through versatile printmaking methods including monotype, relief printing and drypoint.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

"Sequential art" is an evolving and global art form whose recent history is grounded in three distinct forms: Comic, Manga, and Bande dessinée. This course offers an intensive introduction to the storytelling possibilities that they present, and teaches storytelling and technical approaches that will enhance an artist's ability to thrive in both 'sequential art' and other narrative driven fields. This course is also designed to resolve any lingering deficiencies in composition, value, color, perspective, and drawing fluency, all of which are essential.
In addition to short assignments and in class exercises, the course will include the showing of exceptional examples of comics, manga, and bandes dessinée work by artists including: Winsor McCay, Osamu Tezuka, Hergé, Hayao Miyazaki, Moebius, and R. Crumb. Students are encouraged to bring in their favorite examples of 'sequential art' to share with and inform the class, as well.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Illustration is an art of visual communication. Style is simply the illustrator's vocabulary. Substance is what the illustrator has chosen to express. The success of an illustration depends on the seamless connection of these two entities. In this course students encounter a wide variety of subject matter drawn from a variety of fields. They are asked to create illustrations with a particular emphasis on the development of a personal vision as well as the successful communication of wisely chosen ideas. Style, its strengths and limitations, is examined in the light of its importance in the marketplace.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

This 6-credit course invites undergraduate and graduate students to improve their skills in communicating and illustrating science. The general topic is changing biodiversity, how humans impact plants, animals, and their environment. Examples will be presented from around the world, as well as from Rhode Island. Through a series of exercises, students will practice analyzing and interpreting scientific information in order to both understand and present it. The science content will be delivered through lectures, visits to research labs, and to a nearby nature sanctuary. The course is designed to introduce students to relevant scientific concepts and challenge them to use their art to make these ideas more concrete and meaningful. In some cases, the goal may be to educate; in others, it may be to raise awareness, stimulate debate, or entertain. Students will explore the use of different media, including 2-D, 3-D animated, and interactive modes. They will also target different audiences and venues, including: general interest or editorial publications, art for public spaces including galleries, educational and peer-to-peer science materials. Class work includes assigned reading, several minor projects, an exam, and a comprehensive final project. Students will choose a recent research study on the topic of human impacts on biodiversity for the subject of their final project, which is a written paper combined with original artwork designed for a public space or public interaction. The Departments of Illustration and History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences will teach the course collaboratively. Students must register for both LAEL 1513 and IDISC 1513. Students taking this class must also register for LAEL-1513

At their very core, all books convey a sequence of ideas, but the execution varies widely from one volume to another. In this course, juniors and seniors strive to extend this concept outside of traditional book parameters to achieve their own creative interpretation. Working from their own themes, students mold an innovative presentation of images and concepts--in two dimensions or three, using concrete depictions or abstract forms--into the construction of their own unique artist's book. Assignments include the study of different folds, narrative problems, poetic counting, lost and found, and a free project of the student's choice. Students are encouraged to continue their own media that might include painting, construction, printmaking, etc.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Writers and visual creatives are redefining the book using tablets and new forms of storytelling, interactively, and visual display of concepts and data. The goal of this six-credit. one term studio course is to create a web-based e-book for tablets that explores how the ecology of the Narragansett Bay is changing as the oceans warm and sour steadily. Students will engage with the relevant scientific information through close analysis of appropriate technical literature, interviews with working scientists or scientific presentations, and visits to research sites and laboratories. The collaborative process of building the e-book will evolve: exploring new modes of narrative, multi-faceted story arc, or other structures using linear and non-linear navigation methods; storyboarding visual concepts and user experience; illustration, typography, and graphic design; and creating multi-media content. The goal is a cohesive work, that enlivens, explores and contextualizes how Rhode Island's gateway to the sea is changing.
While the primary focus of the course would be on content development and visual storytelling, technology is obviously a crucial element. Technologies explored will include HTML5, CSS3 and iOS5.
Elective, Open to sophomore and above
This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirements for Illustration majors

This is a course in the business of art and design, with an emphasis on transforming creative impulse from the studio into marketable enterprise. This elective course, open to both Illustration and Graphic Design majors, is co-taught over one full day in a collaborative environment, combining the studio experience with business basics: marketing and branding as an essential part of the creative process.

This class encourages students to think beyond the confines of traditional markets, working collaboratively toward the goal of employing inventive thinking in the workplace and eventually developing an independently owned and operated enterprise.

A fundamental objective of this class is for students to understand a basic business vocabulary, to explore how design vocabulary and creative studio thinking overlap, complement and enhance business vocabulary, and to understand how creative skills can be used to identify and execute business opportunities. Students will be introduced to business concepts through lectures, case studies, assignments and class discussion. Homework assignments will work off the classroom pedagogy and topics covered will be business models, marketing, finance, and strategy as they relate to studio activity.
Major elective; 15 seats available to Illustration majors. 9 additional seats for Graphic Design majors are available with permission of student's department head and the course instructors.
Illustration majors may web register.
Graphic Design students should contact the Illustration Department office to register.
Permission of instructor required.

This course will present the transparent watercolor medium to students in a manner both logical and painless. Students will explore the broad uses for watercolor through still life, figure painting, and outdoor landscape painting. Guest critics and demonstrations may augment class discussions.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Students apply basic computer skills (ILLUS 5225, Digital Illustration or equivalent) to problems in designing and illustrating for the World Wide Web. Coursework is primarily in Dreamweaver with an introduction to basic Flash concepts, and stresses the underlying structure of html in digital design. Students develop personal, interactive web pages and complete a finished portfolio site while exploring the expressive possibilities of interactivity.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration majors.

When we choose a story to read, retell, or illustrate, that choice reveals something about ourselves. What motivates an artist to explore one particular theme over another, whether it is a political issue, personal obsession, or a "purely aesthetic" interest? This course will require students to mine personal meaning in the narrative sources they choose for class projects, ultimately using these analytical conclusions to shape each project's character. Assignments will include the creation of the following: a storyboard; an historical narrative image, a series for a book, a comic and a game or toy. Discussions will include: formatting a single narrative image or a series of images; telling text-free stories; illustrating stories for adults and for children, analyzing plot, character, pacing, and style and communicating the essential meaning of a story to an audience.
Major elective Illustration majors only
This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Juniors

A smile is recognition. Laughter is conspiracy. To be tickled is to be vulnerable.
This course will invite students to integrate language and image in the pursuit of visual wit. Not the comic, nor the comical. Not comics. Rather it will seek to provoke insights that are best expressed visually and verbally, as humor. Humor as the means, not the end, of the illustrative gesture. A funny-bone to pick.
Assignments will include inversions of expectation, the uses of the inappropriate, the various guises of the satirical, of parody, single frame cartoons, black comedy. Wit. ("Wit" is merely insight made delightful). These will seek to elicit from the student a series of illustrations that will be as self-descriptive as any portfolio, as definitive as any 'style'. Humor is intensely idiosyncratic, personal. But when it 'works', when it achieves its audience, it is a particularly intimate and effective means of communication. In other words, illustration.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

In this course, students conceptualize, edit design and produce either a book or the first issue of an original publication. Possibilities include: artist's book, magazine, comic book, zine, e-zine on the web, etc. Emphasis is on concept and design. We discuss editorial ideas and look at existing artists' books and publications, especially alternative forms. Using computers, we work on typography, layout and design. Collaborations both within and outside of the class are encouraged. To take this course, you must have some rudimentary knowledge of the computer and some ideas for content.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor; This course fulfills either the Illustration Concepts requirement or the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration majors.

This course will teach the painting techniques of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The techniques will include gilding, pure egg-yolk tempera, combined methods of oil and tempera and painting with oil glazes. For the first three weeks of Wintersession, students will work in Providence, to be followed by a twelve-day trip to Florence, Italy, during which time students will be able to examine first-hand relevant art and consider art historical issues related to growth and development of these techniques. This trip will include three days in Rome and visits to Assisi and Siena.
Permission of instructor required.
Estimated travel cost: This course has significant fees for travel and academic expenses which will be listed as soon as they are available. The entire fee must be paid at the time of registration which will be held between October 10 and October 31, 2013.
FEE: estimated at $3,492.00
***Off-campus Study***

Illustration is of course visual communication, but the vast range of illustrative statement requires varied and resourceful modes of expression to communicate with grace and force. Very often, and historically almost always, illustration has confined itself to two dimensions: art made flat, reproduced flat. But isn't it likely that for certain statements the best visual articulation involves the third dimension? Might not eloquence occasionally require that a line lift off the page, that color sculpt itself into shape, that form not be wholly illusory?

The answer is "yes". The evidence and justification for this assertion, however, will be provided by students in this course.The semester begins with weekly assignments that combine illustration objectives with a playful spirit of exploring materials for its own sake. Simple ingredients include plain paper & junk mail: cut, crimped, ripped, twisted, poked, prodded & glued. Layered cutouts extracted from old publications will be added & subtracted. Quick experiments will be the basis for compositions that will animate shadow boxes and tell stories.

Techniques with polymer & air-dry clays will be demonstrated (modeling on wooden board for low-relief images as well as formed over armatures for more dimensional figures). Scavenged objects to be disassembled & reconstructed in fresh configurations will offer another way to make images. Whatever the initial steps, pieces will be finished by incorporating mixed media, collage and other surface treatments that unify the whole.

The semester culminates with a four-week final project of stylistically-consistent narratives. Idea and technique come together in the resulting pieces; these illustrations that will be anything but shallow.

So 2-D or not 2-D? That is the question. Or it will be after taking this class.

Students will investigate the mechanics of comics storytelling through a series of exercises designed to deconstruct the comics language. Clarity is key to engaging the reader, and this course emphasizes communication regardless of style. Discussion will include a concise history of the medium and the rise of manga and the graphic novel. This course is structured around a series of cumulative exercises introducing a new element of the comics language each week, designed to equip the student for further work in this important art form.

This course will be a survey regarding the concepts, techniques and methodology of illustration specifically designed for Freshman students who are considering illustration as a major. Students will examine illustration genres, including book, editorial and corporate illustration, while working with a variety of methods and materials.

Oil painting is one of the richest, most powerfully expressive mediums that exist. It offers a vast diversity of approaches and provides the most flexibility of all the painting materials. To take advantage of that variety, certain technical knowledge is essential. This class is geared as a thorough introduction to the newer oil painter. Our early class focus will be on understanding materials through a variety of life study exercises. Focus on color and composition will promote effectively orchestrated images. Our ultimate goal will be to make powerful images that marry appropriate approaches to oil painting with personal vision. The class emphasis will balance the technical mastery of materials with the clarity of effective visual communication.

Basic to all visual expression is the ability to articulate what one sees. Skill and sensitivity in drawing are the essence of such articulation. The object of this course will be to develop the student's skill as a draughtsman, to make the hand a more gifted servant of the eye. High competence is not a prerequisite for this course; commitment is.

The ability to merge imagery from various sources is an essential skill for illustrators and fine artists alike. In a series of projects, students will gather sketches, drawings and photographs, and combine them to exist solidly and convincingly together in space. We will discuss the importance of lighting, color, and value in creating a believable scene, and explore the methods and techniques used by illustrators and painters past and present. Class time will be divided between the computer lab (where students will manipulate their images using Photoshop and other tools) and the studio, where illustrations and paintings will be completed using a variety of media, including pen and ink, watercolor, and acrylic paint.

Restricted to Illustration Majors, Junior and above, during Fall or Spring. Non-majors by permission during Add/Drop.
Open to all during Wintersession, when offered.

A basic black-and-white course in photographic technique and visualization. Students learn to use the camera, process film, and make prints, as well as to apply creative aspects of the medium. No prior experience in photography is required, but students must have their own 35mm camera with manual aperture and shutter-speed controls.
$100.00 Refundable Deposit: for any equipment that is borrowed and returned in excellent condition
Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Students will develop and install temporary public projects in Providence. The course is widely interdisciplinary, so the projects can take any form: from objects or imagery, to performance, to social practice or community-based work, to network-based work, and beyond.
To develop the skills to make successful public projects, we will look at the history of contemporary public practice, and look at the ways it has evolved, changing with pivotal events. We will explore diverse approaches to making work in the public sphere, and enter into current debates around such issues as site-specificity; ideas of community and audience; defining the public and public space; temporary vs. permanent work; among other topics. Students will learn "real world" skills to navigate the business of public art, and we will discuss career possibilities in the field.
There will be a trip to New York to visit notable works and talk to artists and arts administrators.

This course will be a short introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy illustration in the form they are most frequently seen--book covers. Subjects will include (besides the usual aliens, futuristic looking machinery, and dragons) materials and techniques, reference gathering, working with a manuscript, working with the paperback format, etc . . . The goal of the course is to familiarize the interested student with the means and methods of producing a realistic illustration of an unreal scene.

This course will focus on the creation of expressive imagery, through the combination of collage and mixed media. Students will work with a wide range of media and collage elements, including their own drawings and paintings, photographic images and found objects. Techniques used for developing layers of both texture and meaning will be explored and later applied to specific illustration problems.

This course is meant to give students and understanding of the process of serigraphy. Using the basic American T-shirt as the format, emphasis will be on creating and developing a concept: learning and implementing the techniques of silk-screen in order to produce wearable illustration. The course will also include historical and contemporary issues on the phenomenon of the printed shirt, i.e., uses ranging from social protest to advertising and the use of the body as a substrate for images. A variety of techniques will explore everything from simple handmade stencils to the use of photo/computer technology to create individual designs. Assignments will be given through the developmental phase, and in-class critiques will play an important role in determining the final product. By the end of the semester, students will also investigate the business/commercial side of silk-screening, including at-home studio setup, recordkeeping and selling the product.

In this course we will explore the fundamentals of typography and image combined with motion graphics. The students will work on several assignments utilizing InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and/or other programs. The projects will cover a wide range of topics, from traditional design to motion graphic and interactive applications, with the goal of learning how to combine these tools to realize successful visual communication.

Writing and image-making are both important languages to process and communicate personal ideas and experiences with immediacy. How can they be used most fruitfully together? In this class, we will examine the relationship between the voice and vision of the artist-writer through a series of projects that intertwine written and visual communication. Projects may include image-making which is stimulated by writing (or vice-versa), blogging and visual journalism for the artist-writer, as well as creative writing projects which consider a significant visual element. We will look to Artist?s Books and notebooks, developments in literature, blogs, and on-line communications. Students will be encouraged to mine areas of personal interest in the development of a body of work.

In this course, we examine gender-not your biologically assigned equipment but those social constructs which shape and define what is male and what is female. Illustrations pivot around the traditional role of women and men in American culture. We'll turn past and present stereotypes inside out, flip popular icons upside down, and rework familiar images from hallowed museums. Assignments may require an informed portrait of a notable activist, a gender-blurred composting of a distinctly guy's guy with the ultimate woman, or a guerrilla girl rewrite of art history. Other illustration problems may require wholly fresh depictions of abstract concepts like conception, contraception, relationships, power, etc. This course shifts radically between male and female-centric themes and offers equal opportunity for XX's and XY's.
This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for juniors
Restricted to Illustration majors, Junior and above during Fall and Spring
Open to everyone during Wintersession

While most illustrations are flat, working in 3 dimensions allows for the engagement of a whole new range of material and conceptual possibilities. Whether using plaster, Sculpy, paper clay, wood, latex, fabric, foam or found objects, sculptural materials are enormously nuanced in what they can suggest. In this class we will examine how objects and various sculptural strategies can be used to convey complex concepts and ideas. A survey of contemporary sculpture and 3D illustration will provide plenty of conceptual, process and material inspiration.

Projects are structured to introduce you to a variety of materials and methods of working. Character design, model-making, casting, and work with found objects are some of the areas we will explore. A visit to the Rapid Prototyping facility at RISD will illuminate how digital files can be translated into 3D objects. Additionally students will learn how to light and photograph three-dimensional work for reproduction or portfolio. The class promotes development of personal expression, strong conceptual solutions, excellent craftsmanship and good design.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Students in this course will investigate the specific physical structure of the human body, with the aim of producing drawings of greater structural and visual integrity and more fluid descriptions of movement and weight in the figure. We will proceed through the skeletal and muscular systems at a brisk but reasonable pace, learning names, points of articulation and the dynamic functions of each component of the body. Each weekly assignment will consist of a careful, descriptive drawing of an element of the skeletal or muscular system, and a 'dynamic' drawing in which that same element is shown in action in the living figure. We will also review the work of artists, both contemporary and historical, who have made vital artistic use of the elements of anatomical study. The course includes an optional field trip to the Brown University Evolutionary Biology Lab to draw from cadavers. There will be at least one written test on anatomical facts and terminology. The course culminates in a final project on the theme of 'A Human Ideal', exploring past concepts of idealized form in the figure in relation to anatomical reality and contemporary cultural perspectives.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

This course will require students to research, sketch, illustrate and create actual prototypes of their ideas for imagery on: sporting good, apparel, giftware, infant goods, greeting cards, fabrics, puzzles and games, furniture, etc.
There will be several small projects and one major project - the development of a COLLECTION: it will involve developing a brand, logo, packaging, prototypes and a variety of applications. We will visit the Textile Collections in the Museum, check out various blogs and sites, have guest artists who license their work, visit the classroom and will culminate in a field trip to the SURTEX (Surface and Textile) trade show in New York city.

This course offers an introduction to the many artistic and technical aspects of designing and producing characters, environments and props for 3D games. Among the topics we will explore are the design of effective low-polygon characters and scenes, texturing and UV mapping, simple character rigging and effective collaborative design and execution. Software used: Photoshop and Maya (PLE).
Knowledge of Photoshop, basic computer skills. Some familiarity with 3D computer modeling is helpful, but not essential.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.
This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration.

While character design has always been an integral part of children's book illustration, its application to diverse and emerging illustration markets such as digital game design, animation, comic books, film, merchandising and marketing make it an exciting career path. In this class you will be asked to push beyond conventional designs to develop two-dimensional characters and environments that are both personally and culturally resonant and imaginative. Particular emphasis will be placed on the expressive power of facial expression, body posture, color and costume. Through exploring our own perceptions of good and evil, success and failure, as well as beauty and ugliness, we will create characters that are highly original. Research, thorough craftsmanship, and strong compositions will be stressed.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Portraiture in oils doesn't simply begin and end with a likeness. In this class we will explore ideas and techniques employed by great painters since the Renaissance to create truly lifelike representations. We will begin with limited color underpaintings and thereby establish the basic image which frees us up to explore color through glazing. As the semester progresses we will move on to opaque painting techniques and finally to thickly applied paint using the palette knife. Emphasis is placed on color mixing and the use of a limited palette. We will examine how color can convey life and how this can be achieved through the use of subtle warm and cool color relationships.
Although the assignments are essentially figure and portrait related, the student is given great latitude in the choice of subject and how it is handled.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Not illustration. Not creative writing. Comics has its own language resulting from images and words working together. As students demonstrate mastery they will move from highly structured lessons and exercises to more personal and experimental long forms. Students will devote the last third of the course to creating and self-publishing a 24 page mini-comic of their own. Be prepared to write and draw a lot of pages.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

What is it like to make a living creating imagery for the numerous printed outlets of American culture in contemporary times? This course will emphasize problem-solving in a commercial situation while steadfastly holding on to your personal integrity. In addition to responding to editorial-based assignments, the student will be exposed, through slide lectures to the work of artists and illustrators who are burning a path right through the past and into the future of illustration.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

The finest illustrated book covers - from graphic novels to literary classics - captivate the reader both emotionally and intellectually, reflecting the essence of narrative content through potent imagery. This course explores the generative process of making illustrations for book covers - from sketch to finish, from comprehensive image to final revisions. Student will be engaged in analysis of narrative content, preparatory drawings and finished work. Weekly demonstrations will provide an intensive look at how an illustrator approaches formal material and aesthetic decisions in support of content, helping students gain confidence in the use of processes and materials.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

The goal of this course is to allow students to apply conceptual skills and image-making talents to issues that matter to society and the world. This course combines image-making, infographics, graphic design, brand identity, and story-telling. Working across print, digital, mobile and social media platforms, this course will challenge students with assignments that will cause them to think and create innovative visual communication that motivates people around a social cause.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

The ability to articulate ideas visually is the most important skill an illustrator has. Drawing is fundamental to such articulation. This course is designed to develop the student's recording, describing and communicating skills through weekly exercise in drawing from direct observation. Spring semester will focus primarily on figure. Basic anatomical considerations will be addressed in order to help the students better understand and therefore draw what he or she is looking at.
Major requirement; restricted to sophomore Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. Registration by Illustration department; course not available via web registration.

In the best illustration, art is a delivery system for ideas and feelings. The skilled hand is there to serve the head, to articulate insight, wit, emotion. The purpose of Illustration Concepts I and II is to elicit the best imaginative response, to provoke the most original and apt concepts for visual communication.
Major requirement; restricted to sophomore Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. Registration by Illustration department, course not available via web registration.

This course explores the role of illustrator as graphic designer, with a focus on the fundamentals of designing with imagery, the relationship between verbal and visual communication, and the complementary partnership between graphic design and illustration. Students are encouraged to have some fundamental experience with computers before enrolling in this course.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.
This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration majors

This course seeks to apply a design sensibility to the creation of illustrations. The formal characteristics include flatness, strong graphic quality, awareness of figure/ground, scale, color, placement--these all take precedence over naturalistic concerns, rendering and perspective. This is a stylistic approach that lends itself to clear, conceptual communication. The goal of communication is always primary; and assignments will require problem-solving as well as development of a clear and refined graphic approach.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.
This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration.

Major elective; permission of instructor required; restricted to Illustration and FAV majors; contact FAV Department Coordinator to register.This course is designed to explore different animation techniques and materials, including working directly on film, drawing on paper, painting under the camera, object animation, cut-outs, and pixilation. It also teaches the fundamentals of animated movement and timing. Students in this course each make six short animations, with separate, synchronized sound tracks. At the end of the course, students create a DVD compilation of all their projects. A wide range of independent animated films are screened to demonstrate different techniques and approaches to animation.
Major elective; permission of instructor required; restricted to Illustration and FAV majors; contact FAV Department Coordinator to register.

This course introduces digital media for Illustrators using three types of computer applications: image editing (Photoshop), vector graphics (Illustrator), and digital painting (Painter). While orienting students to the technical aspects of digital media, the class also provides an essential link to the Illustration Department's drawing, painting and conceptual curriculum.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.
This course fulfills the computer literacy requirement for Illustration majors.

How did Caravaggio finesse such powerful chiaroscuro in his masterpiece, The Conversion of Saul? What's beneath the surface of a Titian? Why are the details in Rembrandt portraits so alluring? And how did Vermeer so perfectly capture the north light in his tranquil domestic scenes? Knowledge of painting technique is vital but often neglected. This course presents the techniques of four great Late Renaissance and Baroque artists: Titian, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Vermeer. Students paint from life in the studio, deciphering the techniques of these artists in painting from observation while guided through demonstrations and discussions of visual examples by these artists. Four figurative compositions inspired by the masters are completed during the semester, exploring materials and methods such as colored grounds, underpainting, glazing and scumbling to better understand and build upon the unique contributions of each of these artists..
Major elective; Illustration majors only

In this course students will make series? of prints using photo-plate lithography. These relatively simple to use plates can produce effects can combine hand-drawn, photographic or digitally generated imagery. Students will explore the enormous range of possibilities including combining mark-making styles such as crayon, wash, scratchboard, pen and nick; experiment with incorporating found textures or integrating digital images and typography or hand drawn text. Printing in stages also insures the flexibility to print in various colors to achieve the most successful iteration of the image. Basic knowledge of Photoshop is desirable.
Major elective Illustration majors only

The New Yorker is one of the most respected periodicals in America, if not the English-speaking world. Its commentary, analysis and interpretation of the broadest spectrum of cultural concern are almost always articulate and influential. More importantly, it invariably has an illustrated cover. Students in this course develop a portfolio of cover solutions to different requirements defined by world events, the passing seasons and areas of cultural interest. A light touch, a strong grasp and cultural reach are helpful.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

An oil painting/color course in which, by working from life, lessons on the use of color to establish spatial relationships, light, shadow and expressive inflection are drawn from and related to visual fact. A continuation of ILLUS 5201.
Major requirement; restricted to sophomore Illustration majors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. Registration by Illustration department; course not available via web registration.

This course will focus on extending issues of personal imagery, style and use of materials begun in Advanced Painting and other departmental electives. Studio work will be done outside of class time, which will be devoted to rotating group critiques, alternating with individual meetings with the instructor. In addition, there will be a weekly slide lecture, with related reading and writing assignments, to familiarize students with aspects of contemporary and modern art. The 'movements' of the 20th Century, which dissected and reassembled the visual arts in radical ways, will be analyzed for useful insights into creative possibilities for the painter and illustrator. Discussion of problems and opportunities facing the contemporary artist will be augmented by a field trip to New York City. Students will ultimately be responsible for developing a strong direction in their independent work, based on a thorough investigation of concept and media, and will be responsible for preparing a written statement of artistic purpose over the course of the semester.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

This is a figure painting course designed to enhance students' understanding of the human form. Oil sketches and more developed figure paintings will be made from direct observation and executed in the spirit of intense visual investigation. As a result, students can expect to gain insight into the profound art of seeing as it pertains to any subject in the visible world.
Major elective Illustration majors only
Prerequisite: Two semesters of oil painting in either Illustration or Painting.

The marketplace for illustrators and artists is always changing and evolving from children's books to animation, game design to galleries. This course is designed to help students develop a focus for their professional aspirations. Students will create a traditional and an online portfolio of their work, and design promotional materials, business cards, resume, invoices and contracts. New pieces will be created to complement existing works and help focus the portfolio for the chosen field. Visiting art directors and illustrators will shed some light on the professional world with their experiences. There will be at least one "real" job, where students will work on a project with a professional in the field and have a chance to have their work published, and a chance to earn real dollars.
Major elective; Illustration seniors only

Persuasive argument takes many forms: Exhortation, denunciation, advocacy, inducement, subtle manipulation, etc. Students in this course will make such arguments in visual terms: posters, editorial pieces, advertisements. The object will be to construct images that combine force and elegance, though not necessarily in the service of truth.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

This course is an opportunity to follow your own passion by developing a series of original projects. You are encouraged to work in the media and technique of your choice--painting, illustration, 3d, etc. Your ultimate goal might be creating material for graduate school application, a portfolio that is ready to show, or simply knockout work that is reflective of your RISD career.
Major elective; Illustration seniors only

From Leonardo's rich notebook studies to Audubon's great horned owl, to NASA's Mars Rover simulations, scientific illustration derives from rich traditions stressing scientific investigation, good design, close observation and technical mastery. We will begin with a study of the structuring strategies nature uses to create its enormous diversity of forms. Scientific drawing conventions, interesting drawing techniques and tools will be presented. Students will produce a variety of black and white, color and digital solutions exploring aspects of this broad field. The class will culminate with a final project allowing each student to explore a scientific area of interest.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

Illustration is an art of visual communication. Style is simply the illustrator's vocabulary. Substance is what the illustrator has chosen to express. The success of an illustration depends on the seamless connection of these two entities. In this course students encounter a wide variety of subject matter drawn from a variety of fields. They are asked to create illustrations with a particular emphasis on the development of a personal vision as well as the successful communication of wisely chosen ideas. Style, its strengths and limitations, is examined in the light of its importance in the marketplace.
Major elective; Restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts requirement for Illustration majors.

This course celebrates books of all kinds, for readers of all ages. We start by studying picture books for children and make our way through graphic novels (comics), the young adult novel, poetry, fiction for adults, etc. The last part of the semester is spentcreating a book of your own choosing from one of these genres.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.

This course is designed to help students find their way to a marketplace utilizing the best tool available - the portfolio. Be it the freelance advertising, editorial or children's book markets, an animation or gaming studio, a publishing house, gallery or other venue - this course will introduce the components of the portfolio necessary for success. It includes development of both a traditional and on-line presence, discussions on specific industries, copyright issues, client contracts and pricing guidelines. Each student will create new work to augment their existing portfolio, as well as business cards, a resume, a contact list, invoice and letterhead. The course will also include visiting guest lecturers from a variety of industries. The focus will be to complete a portfolio that serves as a professional tool in the marketplace most suited to each individual's talent and aspirations.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration seniors.

This typography course is specifically designed for Illustration majors. We will study the fundamentals of typography including its history, theory and contemporary practical application. Lectures and exercises will build in complexity beginning with the study of letter forms and the classification of typefaces, with an overview if their derivation, to the effective use of typography in single page design. A significant part of the course will be dedicated to understanding page dynamics including proportion, grid systems and color. The final project will be a poster design for a local non-profit organization.
Students will use Adobe Illustrator and Indesign throughout this course; so some basic computer experience will be helpful but not absolutely necessary. Students unfamiliar with the Adobe interface will be asked to attend an introductory workshop
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor.
This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration.

The remarkable brilliance of color found in watercolor and gouache make these media ideal for the study of color mixing-both optical and mechanical-and the depiction of dazzling effects of light in finished artwork. Working from the figure and other motifs, this class will address the variety of manipulations possible in watercolor and gouache, singly and in combination, while focusing on principles of color structure. Outside assignments will be organized around thematic series.
Major elective Illustration majors only

Students apply basic computer skills (ILLUS 5225, Digital Illustration or equivalent) to problems in designing and illustrating for the World Wide Web. Coursework is primarily in Dreamweaver with an introduction to basic Flash concepts, and stresses the underlying structure of html in digital design. Students develop personal, interactive web pages and complete a finished portfolio site while exploring the expressive possibilities of interactivity.
Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration majors.