Week_3_Color

Understanding color

There are many ways to experiment with and apply color to your artwork in Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. As you work with color, it’s important to keep in mind the medium in which the artwork will be published, such as a print piece or a website. The colors you create need to be described in the correct way for the medium. This usually requires that you use the correct color mode and color definitions for your colors. The first part, color modes, will be described next.

Exploring color modes

Before starting a new illustration, you should decide which color mode the artwork should use, CMYK orRGB.

• CMYK—Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are the colors used in four-color process printing. These four colors are combined and overlapped in a screen pattern to create a multitude of other colors. Select this mode for printing (in the New Document dialog box or the File > Document Color Mode menu).

• RGB—Red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to create an array of colors. Select this mode if you are using images for onscreen presentations or the Internet.

When creating a new document, you select a color mode by choosing File > New and picking the appropriate profile, such as Print, which uses CMYK for the color mode. You can change the color mode by clicking the arrow to the left of Advanced and making a selection in the Color Mode menu.

 

Check out

PETER PIPER'S PALETTE PICKER 

which provides an explanation of the hexidecimal system that Adobe uses when numbering colors in an RGB environment. 

All Color has 3 main properties

1. Value-how light or dark a color is
2. Intensity or chroma-how prismatic or pure a color is
3. Hue-what color is it?   Red, Blue, Green, etc.

Key Color Terms

Achromatic – Having no color.

Achromatic grays – Grays mixed from black and white only. Achromatic grays appear to have no coloration.

Additive color – Color as seen in light. Red, green and blue-violet are the additive color primaries. When mixed they produce white light.

Analogous colors – Closely related hues adjacent to each other on the color wheel.

Chromatic - Having color.

Chromatic grays – Grays mixed from colors rather than black and white.

Complementary colors – Colors that share no common hue and lie directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

High key – refers to colors that are light in value.

Hue – The name given to a color based on its position in the spectrum and its wavelength. The common name of a color.

Low key – Colors that are predominantly dark.

Monochromatic – One color or a color scheme based on one color.

Muted color – Colors that have lost saturation in mixing, but whose parent colors are still easily identifiable (blue-green or red-orange).

Primary triad – In subtractive color red, yellow, and blue from which (theoretically) all colors can be mixed.

Prismatic color – Pure hues that represent the spectrum colors at highest saturation.

Saturation – Intensity or chroma. Saturation refers to purity of hue.

Secondary triad – In subtractive color orange, green, and violet. The three colors equidistant from each other on the color wheel made by mixing pairs of primaries.

Shade – Mixing black with a color.

Simultaneous contrast – The tendency for complementary colors to intensify each other when juxtaposed.

Spectrum – Pure colored light as seen with a prism or in the form of a rainbow.

Subtractive color – Color seen in pigment as a result of reflected light.

Temperature – The relative warmth or coolness of a color as determined by its hue (blue is cool, orange is warm).

Tertiary colors – Intermediate colors created by combining a primary with a secondary color.

Tint – White mixed into a color.

Triad – Color scheme involving any three hues equidistant on the color wheel.

Value – The relative lightness or darkness of a color.

If you need more information about color theory, here is a very comprehensive color introduction that I give to Color Foundations Classes. 

Color intro from Thomas Everett Green

Assignment:

In Class:

Take the color challenge

http://www.xrite.com/online-color-test-challenge

Take a screenshot of your results!!!

BOYS VS. GIRLS

Then: 

Complete Exercises 1, 2, 3, and 4 from the digital foundations wiki page:

http://wiki.digital-foundations.net/index.php?title=Chapter_5_CS6

Review the following Color Schemes (Harmonies)

Monochromatic Color Scheme-only one color (and shades and tints of that color are used).  This color scheme is very low contrast (within color) and can convey a very emotional effect. 

Analogous Color Scheme-is also a lower contrast color scheme, and can also convey emotions, moods, and temperature. 

Complementary Color Scheme-very impacting and exciting, high contrast scheme. 

Split Complementary Color Scheme-very high impact, exciting, less obvious. 

Tetrad Color Scheme-can still be as impacting, but more complex relationships can develop.   It's not obvious to the viewer the color scheme being used. 

Triadic-equidistant medium Contrast color scheme.  Still provides some excitement, but not as engaging as complementary or tetrad schemes. 

Square Color Scheme equidistant medium Contrast color scheme.  Complex color scheme. 

Contrast can be achieved in many different ways. 

Project 3:  

1. Take 5-10 digital photos of the architecture on MCA campus.  Look for areas that are visually interesting and have lots of angles, shadows and shapes.   You may use any of the tools that you have used so far in Illustrator. Use one of the harmonies we have suggested above, 

Or by creating your own palette based on one of Itten's color contrasts.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VARIATIONS OF COLOR CONTRAST

2. Select an image and create a new 11x17" document with 1/8 (.125") bleed.  

3. Place and lock that file in illustrator, then recreate that image

The most important thing you will need to consider for your works to be successful is the use of value. If your values are not correct, the work will not have the believe-ability of works that have taken value into consideration. 

Previous student work. 

Complementary Contrast (blue-green and red-orange) 

Warm Cool color Contrast

Mono Chromatic 

Homework for tonight:  Watch the following tools and tricks that we will be using in our next assignment. 

also, please watch!!! : 

DEFINE A PATTERN IN ILLUSTRATOR 

Week_2_Drawing tools and Brushes

Link for pen tool practice

https://drive.google.com/a/mca.edu/folderview?id=0Bz9HA3XEwixdaXM5QUZDNlNTT1U&usp=sharing

Turning in homework and introduction to the server. 


You should have a folder on your desktop that includes your .ai (illustrator) files for the Bauhaus/Deco Project.   If not, create a folder that is labeled "lastname_firstname_wk_1" and place your reference images and your adobe illustrator files in the folder.  Then we will place these on the server.  

To connect to the server, Open "Finder" then click on "Go"... "Connect to server"..."Dali"

Type in your login and password.    From here you will go to classes and find our course folder  FD170.  

First, In the class folder, you will see a folder marked "Week_1"  Place your wk 1 folder in this appropriate folder for grading.  

Second, place your file from the "in class" Egon Shiele Assignment in the folder marked wk1_shiele. 

Artist video (Introduction) 

Shepard Fairey

Introduction to Creative Commons and Fair Use

Click Here to see an introduction to Creative Commons and Fair Use

Licensing your work

Licensing work with a Creative Commons (CC) license is easy.

Upon setting a Creative Commons license, the creator of the work decides if both commercial and noncommercial uses are allowed (some are noncommercial only), if others are allowed to modify the work once it is licensed (called, "derivative work"), and if derivative works are allowed, whether or not the newly modified work also has to be licensed with CC (called, "share alike").

The six types of licenses and a very brief description of each follows. More information can be found on CreativeCommons.org. All CC licenses state that the original author will be given credited for her work, in addition to the following details:

Fair use

Reproduceablity is a principal trait of digital media. Unlike paintings, records, books, videotapes or even photographs, an exact replica of digital media can be made from the original file. This is true for digital photographs, Compact Discs (and MP3s), DVDs, and websites. From sampling to mashups, collage to subvertisements, contemporary artists and content creators use digital files as source material for the derivation of new works. These works are considered new and original, but they are sometimes built with bits and parts of copyrighted works. In the digital age, new works are often created when more than one existing work is recombined in a new way, providing new visual relationships and new ideas.

Copyright content can be used in a new work as long as permission is obtained from the copyright holder, or if the media use falls into the category of fair use. Under the fair use clause of copyright law, limited copyrighted material can be used for a "transformative" purpose, such as commenting upon, criticizing or parodying the initial material. The 4 key factors are

• the purpose of the derivative work
• the nature of the original work: was the original mostly factual or creative
• the amount of original work used
• the effect that the new work has on the potential or actual market value of the original

Kenneth Tinkin-Hung, 

This net art parody is protected by the fair use clause of the United States copyright laws

Appropriation

Appropriation is a word that is used by media artists to describe the visual or rhetorical action of taking over the meaning of something that is already known, by way of visual reference. For example, Andy Warhol appropriated the Campbell's soup can visual identity to make large, iconic silkscreen prints of the face of Campbell's soup cans. Warhol's soup cans are a modified version of "the real thing." The visual reference to the original soup can is important, as the viewer needs this information in order to understand the idea that the reference conveys (your personal translation of this could be something as simple as a popular American icon to a feeling associated with comfort food). By transforming not only the size and limited graphic palette for portraying the soup cans, but also the place where the viewer will encounter them (an art gallery as opposed to the grocery market), Warhol appropriates the original Campbell's soup cans to create American art that relates to popular culture in its iconic form. Appropriation falls into the category of fair use.

In recent news,  Richard Prince "stole" images" from the internet and sells them for up to 100k dollars.  Wow

Another source for imagery are stock photography websites such as GettyImages.com or iStockPhoto.com. These websites are full of photographs and vector graphics to be used in advertising, corporate media, brochures, campaigns, and other design applications. The advantage of these sites is they seem to have endless search detail.The disadvantage is that the photographs are generic, and have the impersonal feel of an advertisement. No one ever looks as happy as a model in an advertisement; most people are as physically attractive there is an overall "generality" to the photographs. 

Demo for new tools in Illustrator

The Pathfinder tool-Does pretty much the same thing as the Shape Builder tool.

BRUSH TOOLS

(from adobe classroom in a book) 
The variety of brush types in Adobe Illustrator CC lets you create a myriad of effects simply by painting or drawing using the Paintbrush tool or the drawing tools. You can work with the Blob Brush tool, choose from the Art, Calligraphic, Pattern, Bristle, or Scatter brushes, or create new brushes based on your artwork.

Working with brushes

Using brushes you can decorate paths with patterns, figures, brush strokes, textures, or angled strokes. You can modify the brushes provided with Illustrator and create your own brushes.

There are five types of brushes that appear in the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes): Calligraphic, Art, Bristle, Pattern, and Scatter. 

A. Calligraphic brush
B. Art brush
C. Bristle brush
D. Pattern brush
E. Scatter brush

You can apply brush strokes to existing paths, or you can use the Paintbrush tool to draw a path and apply a brush stroke simultaneously. You can change the color, size, and other features of a brush, and you can edit paths after brushes are applied (including adding a fill).

A. Brushes

B. Brush Libraries Menu
C. Libraries Panel
D. Remove Brush Stroke
E. Options Of Selected Object
F. New Brush
G. Delete Brush

Calligraphic brushes resemble strokes drawn with the angled point of a calligraphic pen. Calligraphic brushes are defined by an elliptical shape whose center follows the path. You can use these brushes to create the appearance of hand-drawn strokes made with a flat, angled pen tip.

Art brushes stretch artwork or an embedded raster image evenly along the length of a path. As with other brushes, you can edit the brush options to affect how the brush is applied to artwork.

Bristle brushes allow you to create strokes with the appearance of a natural brush with bristles. Painting with a Bristle brush, using the Paintbrush tool, creates vector paths with the Bristle brush applied, as you’ll see in this section. 

Pattern brushes paint a pattern made up of separate sections, or tiles. When you apply a Pattern brush to artwork, different tiles of the pattern are applied to different sections of the path, depending on where the section falls on the path—the end, middle, or corner. There are hundreds of interesting Pattern brushes that you can choose from when creating your own projects, from grass to cityscapes.

Scatter brushes can be made from vector artwork that you would like to distribute to various areas on your artboard/designs.  Here is a great video for you to refer back to on creating and altering custom brushes for your own symbols, artworks, and vector graphic motifs.

Project 02

In Class Exercise: 
Practice using the pen tool to trace lines and curves.  An Illustrator file with the exercise material is available for you on the server.   Drop it to your desktop.  Once you have completed the exercise, then you will skip to step one for project 2 (below). Also, as you roam around during lunch, please take 5 to 10 images of the architecture at MCA.  Cell phone images are fine. Consider composition and the way things are arranged in the "picture plane" as you take photographs. Try taking the photos from interesting angles (looking up, looking down, sideways, at an angle, etc).  Ask yourself if the photo is interesting as you take the photo.  does it have interesting angles, shadows, highlights, etc. 



Project 02
1. Write down two manmade objects and two natural/organic objects onto a small piece of paper.   Tear and fold the objects and give them to me.   We will go from here. 


In Class Exercise: Work on using the pen tool to create the following make a list of 2 manmade and 2 natural/organic objects.   write these down on a small sheet of paper and tear them up and fold them.  

Create a vector image (either using a photograph or drawing you have made from a visual reference) of the objects you have selected. 

Homework: 
Combine the 2 objects (1 man made, 1 nature made) to create a new image.

Things to be thinking about:
*layout/design/composition (is it floating in the middle of the page?) 
*negative space/positive space relationship
*symmetry/asymmetry
*color

*concepts/creativity (Are you just placing a hammer head on a rabbit body? Or are you thinking beyond the obvious?

 Additional Homework for next week:  PLEASE WATCH THE FOLLOWING

Here are links to three tutorials on Brushes that go in depth a bit more than we did today in class.

1. APPLY AND DRAW WITH BRUSHES

2. DRAWING WITH BRISTLE BRUSHES

AND FINALLY,   MORE INFORMATION ON....

3.  HOW TO CREATE ART BRUSHES

Day 2__Project_001 The Bauhaus and Art Deco

Bauhaus and Art Deco are two movements that happened in the earlier part of the twentieth century. A lot was going on in this time period.  The Industrial Revolution had swept across the country causing the uprise of city centers, manufacturing, factories, steel productions, and railroads (which shipped everything everywhere creating nationwide commerce).   Art had shifted too.   Have a look


Art Deco or Deco, is an influential visual arts design style that first appeared in France just before World War I and began flourishing internationally in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s before its popularity waned after World War II.

Deco is a very dramatic style that emphasizes geometric forms: spheres, polygons, rectangles, trapezoids, zigzags, chevrons, and sunburst motifs. Elements are often arranged in symmetrical patterns. Modern materials, such as aluminum, stainless steel, Bakelite, chrome, and plastics, are frequently used. Stained glass, inlays, and lacquer are also common. Colors tend to be vivid and high contrast





BAUHAUS
The second of these two movements centered around an actual school called the Bauhaus.  The Bauhaus, similar in aesthetic to the Art Deco movement is also characterized by a simplistic, modern, and slightly industrial feel.    It's impact on architecture, typography, graphic design, and furniture design are still highly relevant, even today... almost 100 years later.  It could be said that the mid-century modern building that we are sitting in was in many ways influence by bauhaus as well.


Homework:1. Finish the Egon Shiele Assignment. 
2. Watch one (or both) of the overview tutorials of Illustrator

Search the internet (Google Images)  for "Bauhaus" and "Art Deco"  Find four symmetrical images for each art movement, find two symmetrical/asymmetrical images for each movement, for a total of EIGHT images. You will recreate the four images of our liking using shapes in Illustrator.  As you finish these, you will need to save an Adobe illustrator,  .Ai version and a jpg version to be handed in. I will show you how to save these in the next

Remember to keep it simple.  Here are some examples of designs.  You might want to select one of these, which is fine.  But, please research and find images of your own in addition.

digital_foundations_P_01_Deco from Thomas Everett Green

 



DAY 2

Create a folder on your desktop.  Name it "lastname_firstname_week1" then place your illustrator files in the folder, along with your document for the research assignment on "fair use."   

Label: 
“last_first_bauhaus_symetrical” 
“last_first_bauhaus_asymetrical”
“last_first_deco_symetrical” 
“last_first_deco_asymetrical” 
"last_first_shiele"
"last_first_fair_use" 

Once you have your files in your folder,  then you will connect to the server. 

Click on "Finder" then click on "Go"... "Connect to server"..."Dali"

Type in your login and password.    From here you will go to classes and find our course folder  FD170-D.  In the folder, you will see a folder marked "Week_1"  Place your folder in the appropriate folder. 

Research and define the following:

1.fair use 
2.appropriation
3.creative commons license and the 6 different kinds.   

Please type this into a 12 point Word.doc as you will be required to turn this in along with your four deco/Bauhaus designs and your recreation of Egon Shiel's painting "The Poet." This should be a total of 1 to 2 pages.  

I'm embedding a short video about using the "Shape Builder" tool and the Gradient tool below. Please do not feel obligated to use the gradient or the shape builder unless it is absolutely necessary.   I'm also posting some images of previous student work.

Examples of Student work:  To be uploaded soon. 

Day 1_In_Class_Introduction to Mac and Adobe Illustrator

Mac Shortcuts

What is Adobe Illustrator? 

Adobe Illustrator is a program used by both artists and graphic designers to create vector images. These images will then be used for company logos, promotional uses or even personal work, both in print and digital form. So what is Adobe Illustrator used for? It is typically used to create illustrations, charts, graphs, logos, diagrams, cartoons of real photographs, and more. While the program may be difficult to understand initially, the final product will be well worth the learning curve.  Files can be exported from Illustrator to Photoshop and Indesign for layout and publication and even transferred into motion platforms like AfterEffects for animation or Premiere for use in video graphics and film production. 

All this week we will be working in Illustrator, which is a VECTOR based program. 

The word "Pixel" is a term that was created out of the two words, "picture" and "element."  You will hear

Raster / Bitmap Images

Raster images' dimensions are measured in pixels. Because raster images cannot be enlarged without losing quality, different suppliers have specific size requirements for their processes; they require a specific pixel resolution: a specific amount of pixels within each inch. The amount of pixels within each inch in the image represents the image pixel resolution or ppi (pixels per inch).

How large a raster image can be printed - and maintain quality - depends on 2 things:

1. the pixel dimension of the image (e.g. 6824 pixels wide by 2345 pixels high)
2. the pixel resolution: pixels-per-inch (ppi) required by the particular printer

Some offset printers (paper printing) require a minimum of 300 ppi
Some screen printers (cloth printing) require a minimum of 240 ppi
Large format printers (banners, billboards) vary a lot because it also depends on the distance from which the sign is going to be viewed - could be as low as 20 or more than 200

For all intensive purposes, most artists and photographers will save images in a couple different qualities for usage. 

300 dpi is a good quality print image
72   dpi is a good quality image to be used for the web. 

How to determine what size your raster image must be, for good quality printing:

Multiply the resolution required by the area to be printed. Examples:

If a printer requires a minimum of 300 ppi and you want to print an image in an area that is 5 inches wide, multiply 300 pixels x 5 inches (300 x 5 = 1500). Your image must be at least 1500 pixels wide.

If a printer requires a minimum of 240 ppi and you want to print an image in an area that is 12 inches wide, multiply 240 pixels x 12 inches (240 x 12 = 2880). Your image must be at least 2880 pixels wide.

Can you enlarge the pixel dimension and resolution of a raster image?

Raster images have a certain amount of pixels within each inch. A 72 ppi image has 72 pixels in every inch. A 300 ppi image has 300 pixels per inch. Usually the higher the ppi, the higher the quality. When you are required to provide a high resolution image file, the file must have been created or scanned at both the dimension and the resolution required. E.G. if you need to print an image at 2 inches wide and 300 ppi is required, your image must be created/scanned at a minimum of 600 pixels (2in x 300dpi).

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics are made of mathematical calculations that form objects or lines - they do not use pixels therefore they are resolution-independent.

Vector graphics can be enlarged and printed at ANY SIZE!

Instead of pixels, vector graphics use objects and lines (shapes) to represent images. Vector graphics can be scaled to any size without losing quality.

Some Vector programs have two different views; preview/normal view which displays the image as we normally would see it and an outline/wireframe view which displays the outline of every object in the file. This vector outline/wireframe is important to some companies like engraving & vinyl-cut signs because it guides the equipment they use to create their products.

Now that we have gone over that.   Let's dig into illustrator and check things out.  Here is a list of shortcuts that will help you with Adobe Illustrator.

We will begin by taking a brief tour through shapes in 

illustrator.

Here is a brief tutorial for you to review you should you need while you are working on your designs.

WEEK 1:  ASSIGNMENT

IN CLASS:

Create a new folder on your desktop
1. To create a new folder on your computer, navigate to the place where you want your new folder to reside (for instance, the Desktop), and from the menu, choose File > New Folder. Most computer users typically store folders in the Documents folder or on the Desktop. As soon as you create a new folder, the operating system temporarily names it untitled folder. As long as you do not click outside of the folder name, the name area remains highlighted in blue, and is ready for you to type a new name. Name the folder "lastname_firstname_FD170" and press the Return key.  (If you have clicked outside of the box and seem to be stuck with an "unnamed folder," click on the folder to highlight, then click again and you will be able to name the folder.) 

Create a new file in Adobe Illustrator

Launch the Application

1. In Mac OS, move the mouse to the bottom of the screen so that it appears over the dock. The dock displays icons that are buttons which launch various applications in one click. Click on the Illustrator icon once and the application will open. If the icon is not in the dock, you can find the application in Finder/ Applications / Adobe Illustrator or Finder > Menu > Go >Applications >Adobe Illustrator. In Windows OS it is in Start > Programs > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator CC.

Define a new file

2. Open Adobe Illustrator. To create a new document click File > New....

Notice the settings.   Illustrator has default settings for many different formats that you might be creating work for specifically.   For this assignment, choose print, and then "letter" to open an 8.5 x 11 document

The blank page and your tools
Look around your new document and notice the interface elements. In the center is an Artboard. Analog layouts were created inside the area defined by cropmarks drawn on a board, which was referred to as the Artboard. Illustrator reproduces the analog experience through metaphor. On the left side of the document area is the Tools panel. Like an artist’s or designer’s toolbox, the Tools panel holds pens, pencils, brushes, shape tools, and so on.

On the right are more panels. Take notice of the Color panel. Painters mix together individual paint colors on a palette. In Illustrator, as in the other Adobe Creative Suite applications, you create colors by virtually mixing colors in a panel (read more about this in Chapter 5). The tools and panel can be moved around the screen, and they can be hidden or shown based on the amount of workspace on the monitor.

3. Show the Layers panel by clicking Window > Layers, then hide the Layers panel by pressing the layers icon on the right side toolbar. Alternately, any panel can be shown or hidden by selecting its name from the Window menu.

After quitting and then re-opening a program, panels will assume the same locations as when the application was last closed. This can be a time-saver on a personal computer, but it can be an annoyance in a classroom or lab when the previous user's custom panel configuration appears confusing. Most applications have basic or default workspaces. Reset the workspace layout in Illustrator by clicking Window > Workspace > [Essential] or by using the pull-down menu on the Application bar. Before starting each of the exercises, set the workspace to the essential or basic settings so that your set-up is consistent with the settings we used while writing this book.

Create a dynamic composition from an image: for this first project we will be using Egon Shiele.  You will be using the rectangle tool to create the entire composition. 

A SAMPLE FROM PREVIOUS STUDENT WORK: yours will be better than this! :)

HERE IS A VIDEO SHOWING YOU HOW TO RE-CREATE THE EGON SHIELE PIECE.

Once you are satisfied and finished with the Egon Shiele piece (which should take you about 30 minutes).

Please watch one of the following videos