Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Sophomore Illustration Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

This course emphasizes the mining and contextualization of one's own work as a nexus for growth through the active, ongoing and evolving consideration of your own studio practice as a topic of study in itself. This work will spring from and shed light on your creative intuition, processes and outcomes in a way that will helps you to communicate your work to others through language. In turn, it is hoped this voicing of essential components of your work will help streamline your practice and expedite your artistic production.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $25.00

Open to Graduate Illustration Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Illustration

This course surveys the history of illustration from prehistory 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. Emphasis is placed on Illustration's role in reflecting and influencing culture, and its variable relationship to its sister arts. The required class includes lectures, critical writing and discussions, weekly readings, a research project involving museum or special collections objects, quizzes and a final exam. Textbook required. Textbooks will be on reserve at the RISD Library and available for purchase at a student discount. Study images are made available on Canvas.

Open to Sophomore Illustration Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Building on the skills and sensibilities developed in ILLUS 2000: Visual Thinking, this course will address a range of strategic considerations important for the articulation of ideas. While emphasis will remain on methods for encouraging conceptual aptitude and innovation, there will be greater focus on specific forms of communication. Practical issues such as the nature of audience and the context for interpretation will be matters of concern, as will vehicles for communication and the handling of media. The basic aim of this course is to enable the student to discover a creative identity and develop an itinerary for upper-class study; its larger goal is to wed communicative purpose to artistic voice.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Sophomore Illustration Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

This course surveys the history of illustration from prehistory 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. Emphasis is placed on Illustration's role in reflecting and influencing culture, and its variable relationship to its sister arts. The required class includes lectures, critical writing and discussions, weekly readings, a research project involving museum or special collections objects, quizzes and a final exam. Textbook required. Textbooks will be on reserve at the RISD Library and available for purchase at a student discount. Study images are made available on Canvas.

Open to Sophomore Illustration Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

This course surveys the history of illustration from prehistory 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. Emphasis is placed on Illustration's role in reflecting and influencing culture, and its variable relationship to its sister arts. The required class includes lectures, critical writing and discussions, weekly readings, a research project involving museum or special collections objects, quizzes and a final exam. Textbook required. Textbooks will be on reserve at the RISD Library and available for purchase at a student discount. Study images are made available on Canvas.

Open to Sophomore Illustration Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration