Visual Voice: Editorial Commentary in Contemporary Illustration Praxis

In this studio you will explore the specific genre of editorial illustration. Commentary is an important part of editorial illustration. The process of responding to social topics invites your opinion when developing both conceptual thinking and the construction of visual images. Crafting imagery is thinking through image-making for design. Throughout the semester you will have opportunities to play with materials when participating in drawing excursions and workshops. Processes for making imagery will be made both individually and collaboratively.

During the semester you will develop a distinctly personal iconography when examining metaphor, allegory, symbolism, semiotics, surrealism, imagination, realism, mapping and sequential imagery. Critical inquiry will support a range of image-making techniques and media, however there will be an emphasis on markmaking as a process for discovering visual meaning. You will research histories of art and image-making. Researching ways that movements have influenced expression will contribute to the development of your own work. Understanding an audience will be encouraged as it is vital for the success of communicating visual messages.

Practice-led research methods will be the foundation for learning in this course. Crafting imagery is thinking through image-making.

Workshops and drawing excursions.

SKO: Studio Knowledge Object as a PSD.

Visual investigations relating to a selected theme will be integral to the SKO. This will become a visual archive of your process that is reflective and analytical. This practice addresses a given area of study with an appropriate level of complexity. The design of the Studio Knowledge Object outcome is important and will be supported by a PSD mockup.

Journal: A publication, designed and uploaded to an online publishing platform, such as Issuu, or as a PSD mockup. The document will establish an experimental, visual practice with a focus on authorial image-making.

Collaborative short project: Working in pairs or small groups.

There are three assessment tasks for this studio, the briefs are made up of a range of milestone deliverables that are interconnected and build upon each other.

Brief 01: SKO
Brief 02: Collaborative project due week 4
Brief 03: Journal

Male, Alan, and Arnold, Dana. A Companion to Illustration. Blackwell Companions to Art History. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2019.

Designing through Image

The Drawing Center, a museum in Manhattan's SoHo district, explores the medium of drawing as primary, dynamic, and relevant to contemporary culture, the future of art, and creative thought. The House of Illustration gallery, London, is a home for the art of illustration in all its forms.