Step-by-Step Tutorial

Hello Everyone,

I will be discussing the step by step process of the tutorial idea I have chosen from the last blog entry. I chose my first tutorial idea that consists of drawing a random object or figure with drawing pencils. That means that the final product will be a black and white drawing. Instead of having two seperate videos, the outline and the shading parts will be in one video. The object/figure will not a large or complicated and will most likely be a simple flower. Before I record my tuturial, I will already have my work area set up and my materials out and ready so I will not be fumbling to gather my things. This is the step by step of my tutorial:

Step 1:
Introduce myself. (0:05 mins.)

Step 2
State the topic of my tutorial. (0:05 mins.)

Step 3:
Make a few suggestions for a good work area. (0:10 mins.)

Step 4:
List the materials that will be needed for the drawing. (0:15 mins.)

Step 5:
Discuss the importance of a reference picture. (0:10 mins.)

Step 6
State the object that we will be drawing. (0:05 mins.)

Step 7:
Draw the outline. (3:30 mins.)

Step 8:
Shade the object in. (2:00 mins.)

Step 9:
Give tips on making your drawings better. (0:20 mins.)

Step 10:
End the tutorial. (0:05 mins.)

Prints and Binders

Hello Everyone,

Today in class, Mrs. Dersch brushed up on some important facts about printing projects created in the Adobe Creative Suites and identifying different kinds of binding for booklets, graphic books, etc.

Some Notes:

REMEMBER: Your print will always be darker than it looks on the screen so . . .

• Adjust colors and photos accordingly.
• Print proofs to review how your piece looks printed
• Remember your color mode -> CMYK in Print; RGB in Web

PHOTOSHOP PHOTOS!!!

Projects with bleeds (colors covering the whole entire page) should be printed on larger paper than the document on screen.

A Few Basic Bindings:

Saddle Stitch -> Staple book (book held together by staples going down the middle.)

Comb Bind -> A binding that has teeth that holds the pages together. (Pages can be rearranged, added, and taken out easily.)

Spiral Bind -> A book held together by metal wire in the shape of a spiral. (ex. a notebook)

*Buy a Bone Folder (burnisher)!

First Day in InDesign!

Hello Everyone,

Today, the class began working on our layouts in InDesign. I used the sketches I did before to help me layout the first pages of my booklet. First I had to decide how my booklet will be put together and how I will bind it. Mrs. Dersch said the most simplest way to bind a booklet is to do a stitch binding which involves stapling the pages together, so I was going to have my book in a stitch binding.

The first I did in InDesign was create my cover page. I wanted it to be simple and the text to flow easily  on it. I also wanted my booklet to be uniform so I decided to stick with one text style since Mrs. Dersch said to have a minimum of two type faces in a booklet. So I stuck with Minion Pro, a professional and readable typeface.

Next, I chose the color of booklet. I wanted the cover page to be an exact same color as the rest of the pages so I chose a simple cyan color. It not too bright for it to hurt the readers eyes and not dark to make the text unreadable. I also included an image of my drawing pencils to match the theme of my tutorial. However, I changed the opacity to a lower level to make it transparent to it won't steal all of the attention from the text.

After I was done with the layout of my cover page, I had my teacher review it. Mrs. Dersch said that it looked good, but the reflection of the flash from my camera was obscuring the picture so I made a mental note to fix that later.

Adobe Creative Suites - InDesign 2

Hello Everyone,

Today, We freshened up on some old notes about file types and some new ones and talked about our final project that will be due a the end of the semester. We learned how to save an image file the different types of file to save an image in. At the end of the class period, we learned how to save important files that involve a client's design request.

Some Notes:

Importing from Documents:
.doc, .rtf, .txt

Place an Image File:
.eps, .tif, .jpeg (Lossy File), .png
(For .jpegs, save a COPY!)

File System:
client_lastname of designer_cmyk.indd
companyname_logo/product_2c/vector/HR/LR.png

Project:

Screen Version                    Hard Version
written (typed) tutorial         written tutorial
photo examples                    photos (cmyk, lighter, etc.)
- take photos
- edit in photoshop
diagram (illustrator)             diagram (for communication)
video/sound clip                  InDesign Layout (PRINTED)
(embedded)

Some More shortcut keys:

Shift + Option + Command = Resize proportionally
Command + G = Group
Shift + Command + G = Ungroup
Command + F = Find/Change
Command + B = Text Frame Options

Sketch Presentations

Hello Everyone,

Today in class, we spent the class period answering questions about what needed to be cleared up about any of the Adobe programs that anyone needed to understand. After questions were done, we spent the rest of the class period showing our final Charrette sketches and detailing about what our Charrette will possibly look like.

I believe I was the first one to present, so I stood up in front of the classroom and presented my Charrette sketch to the class. I described what my concept and the symbols in my drawing and what they represent. I also had notes in various places beside my symbols in order to describe what they mean and how they were placed.

My composition consists of a sky perspective of a man asleep in his bed and his dream begins to come to life in his coverlet and his imaginary lover who is a succubus in disguise starts to reach out from his dreams and connects with his subconscious and meld with his mind. The male is sweating because the dream that he wants to succumb to is draining his energy. There are numbers hidden on the creases in his pillow symbolizing his time is counting down. The pillow itself is a symbol of his subconscious mind and its combining with his dream. My project will be called When You Are Asleep . . . because it is depicting what I think happens when a person is asleep and where the dream will project itself when that person dreams of it.

Group Day!

Hello Everyone,

Today was a group day to brainstorm up ideas for our Charrette which was quickly approaching. So we had to get in groups of two and talk about our final ideas for our Charrette. My partner was Omari Wilson. He is one of the most talented studio artists in our class, so I know he is going to have some good ideas about his Charrette and maybe some tips for mine.

Since the theme of the Charrette this semester was Homage, I decided to do an Homage piece based on my favorite art Salvador Dali. Omari wasn't sure what artist he would do his project on yet. At first he wanted to do the homage on the artist who made the Campbell's soup design. What he was sure about was that he didn't want to do his project on paper, but on a different material.

My homage on Salvador Dali was a little bit complex. My concept was since most of his work was based on is dreams, I wanted to do my project on dreams. So at first it would depict a person sleeping their dreams coming out of their subconscious mind into reality. However, I wanted to simplify that concept.

Near the end of the class period, we all stood up one by one, introduced our partners and talk about their ideas for their project. So for homework, we had to do our final sketches of our Charrette projects.

Adobe Creative Suite - InDesign 1

Hello Everyone,

Today in class, we covered some of the basics that makes up Adobe InDesign. InDesign is a program specifically made for layouts. NO OTHER PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO MAKE LAYOUTS!!! Such layouts can be for magazines, booklets, brochures, menus, business cards, etc. When it comes to printing in Adobe programs, the required printing colors are CMYK and/or spot colors that are best for printing. RGB is associated with web images from the Internet.

Not only did we learned about the required settings, we learned about Master pages and what they are used for, spaces in letters, words, pages, and the definitions of a layout and how it is set up.

Some Definitions are:

• A-Master - Template for all or specific pages in the layout.
• Liguratures - Makes two letters into one object.
• Soft Return - Shift + Enter
• Hard Return - Enter
• Rivers - Spaces that travel down the text.
• Kerning - Spaces between words.
• Leading - Spaces between letters.
• Gutter - Space between pages.
• Spread - Two pages side by side.