Amanda Clarke is an accomplished artist and designer with more than 15 years of industry experience working for such clients as Harmonix, Sega, Proletariat, Barbie, WGBH, Hasbro and Cartoon Network. Her engaging illustration style has been featured in mobile and console games, apps, webisodes and museum exhibits. Since earning her BFA in Illustration from RISD, Clarke has made New England her home, and she currently works in video game development. When she’s not drawing, she loves to read, travel and spend time with her partner and mischievous pup.
In this course we will explore the process of designing characters as well as the objects they possess and the environments they inhabit. Through a series of projects that emphasize conceptual thinking and functional design, students will learn the problem solving skills used in design as a means of supporting a narrative. Full color works in variety of media will be critiqued on their clarity of vision and strength of presentation. This course is a continuation of the ideas presented in Character Design, and will serve both students who have taken that class and students new to this subject matter.
One commonality amongst all illustrators is the ability to draw. This course builds on principles of traditional drawing, color theory, composition, and with a focus on observational drawing using digital tablet devices. Students will expand on techniques learned at the introductory level to broaden their use of digital mark making tools. Weekly classroom exercise in the first two-thirds of the semester range from careful studies of objects and figures in space, to capturing landscape settings; with the last third engaged in exploring painting from imagination. More involved homework assignments will challenge students to adapt previously acquired drawing skills translated into the digital medium. The main computer application to be used in the course is Photoshop, with an introduction to Painter toward the end of the semester. The goal of the class is to give students a strong foundation in digital painting that can be adapted to their future professional Illustration practice.
This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration majors.
