(NOTE: 1 1/2 day workshop. Day 2 is half of Friday.)
Reid 303
Level:intermediate
Prerequisites: Participants should have a solid understanding of digital graphics programs and at least some Wacom tablet experience.

The computer has opened the doors to creative possibilities for illustrators and artists in ways that a few years ago would have been unheard of. ZBrush is a program that can allow the user to digitally sculpt just about anything you can imagine. In this day and a half workshop we’ll explore the tools used to create realistic landscapes and animals that can be posed, repositioned and painted while never leaving your computer. We’ll also learn to export both your images and models to other programs for integrating into your work.

 

Reid 304
Level & prerequisites:None

Fontographer is an easy-to-use tool to create, modify or expand fonts. In this workshop participants will be introduced to the application and learn the basics of creating a font from scratch (composed of letters, symbols or hieroglyphs!) that can be used in any program with a font menu on Windows or Macintosh platforms. Participants are encouraged to bring their favorite fonts (in digital format) to customize and/or their handwritten alphabets (scanned to a digital file: 300 ppi, grayscale) to begin turning into a font.

Note: the demo version used in class includes all the features but saving and generating fonts is not possible

 

Roberts 109
Level: Advanced
Bring: reference material (digital images on CD or flash drive, photos, sketches, or small specimens)

Increase your skills with Adobe Illustrator! Are you already comfortable with the basics of working with paths, layers, and type? Take the next step! This workshop will cover advanced Illustrator techniques such as gradient mesh, opacity masks, clipping masks, blends, 3D and other effects, filters, creating custom brushes and symbols and many more. We will learn to use these techniques to create realistic renderings of both living and non-living subjects.

 

Reid 305
Level: beginner
Prerequisites: none

This workshop will focus on the traditional artist who would like to learn basic Photoshop skills, and use them to function in an increasingly digital world.

Part I will focus on Photoshop tools and processes. We will move slowly through Photoshop to give participants a chance to familiarize themselves with this program and how it works. We will learn by doing, working on images and actually using these tools and processes on sample images.

 

Herrick 308
Participants will discover the potentials and excitement of scratchboard, where contrasts of textures and values produce dramatic luminous effects. We will review tools and materials and how to use them to create a vast array of textures that will portray subjects with fine detail and accuracy. We will use the pen and x-acto blade to juxtapose and overlap lines and dots as well as making corrections. Participants will choose several subjects from nature, create a well-balanced dark and light composition that they will sketch, transfer and render in ink or pencil on white scratchboard, conveying form, shading, textures, and spatial placement of each element of the composition. Each participant will work toward completing one ink composition or one graphite pencil composition.

 

Wilson 1148
This workshop provides a brief history of the use of Silverpoint from the Renaissance to present day. The instructor will demonstrate and guide participants in the preparation of a silverpoint drawing tool and in the preparation of a ground. Drawing techniques will be demonstrated and participants will be guided through brief exercises, Participants will render a natural object in silverpoint.

Herrick 120
Graphite pencil provides a perfect medium for producing highly realistic animal drawings. Learn to draw various types of hair, facial features, and body forms. You will participate in several exercises intended to help deconstruct various textures into manageable components that you can reproduce in different layers. Bring a reference photo of your chosen subject matter (close up perspective) and receive help proceeding to a graphite drawing of your own.

 

Herrick 120
Mixing accurate and convincing greens has always been a challenge forbotanical artists and landscape painters. Marlene will share thesystem she developed at the Field Museum while creating paleobotanical landscape reconstructions, where simple color matching isn't anoption.Participants will paint an "abstract landscape" of swatches spanning the full spectrum of greens for both individual species and ecosystems. Native color, transmitted light color and reflected light color will be covered. The final piece will serve as a long term reference for future botanicals and landscapes. While we will use watercolor or acrylic, the color combinations apply to all media.

Reid 302
Level: Advanced
Prerequisites: Knowledge of Photoshop, familiarity with Wacom tablets

Illustrations created within Photoshop have become a staple of the illustration field. In this full day workshop, Frank Ippolito will be emphasizing rendering techniques that allow the creation of images by using the scanned drawing, Wacom tablet, and the unique drawing tools available within the program. The morning session will introduce a subset of tools found within Photoshop that lend themselves to painting and drawing. The afternoon session will continue through to a complete digital rendering. We will explore unique approaches that Frank has pioneered using advanced layer manipulation, custom brushes, and (gasp!) the Pen Tool. Emphasis is placed on integrating these digital tools into the illustration workflow. Level: Advanced. Limit: 15

 

Roberts 109
Level: Beginner

Prerequisities: noneIllustrator is considered to be the preeminent vector illustration tool on the computer and a valuable, if not essential tool for any digital illustrator. With a series of hands-on exercises we will explore the basic tools and techniques for producing illustrations and information graphics with Adobe Illustrator. The concepts covered will include: setting-up, saving and delivering Illustrator documents; using the pen tool to draw; coloring, and stroking shapes; selecting, organizing, transforming, aligning and modifying shapes; using imported graphics and type. If time permits we will cover: gradient meshes, the pathfinder tools; envelope distortion and creating custom patterns. Level: Beginner

 

Reid 303

 

Reid 303
Level: beginner
Prerequisites: none

Cinema 4D is an inexpensive, user-friendly, and robust 3D package, ideal for people new to 3D. Attendees will experience modeling, animating, and photorealistic rendering using Cinema 4D's various features such as hair, pyrocluster (gaseous effects), cloth, and particles. Whether you are considering a new 3D package or entirely new to 3D, this workshop will jump-start your 3D abilities with Cinema 4D.

 

Reid 305
Level: Beginner
Prerequisites: None

Part II will move from basic knowledge to image editing. We will cover the basics of selecting and moving objects, using layers, color editing, combining and resizing images, and saving files, and more as our time permits, and learn how to add this powerful program to the traditional artist’s toolkit. Again, the pace will be slow to allow participants to get comfortable with Photoshop basics.

 

Herrick Hall 120
White flowers stand out in nature. Not so in traditional botanical watercolors when blank white backgrounds are mandatory. The goal of this workshop is to show an alternative way which does fuller justice to the immense power of white to attract the eye. By means of masking and deep, complexly colored backgrounds a closer approximation to nature is obtained. Also to be demonstrated is the use of paper towels for blotting wet washes to produce those infinitely soft tints that white surfaces pick up via reflection. The use of salt and plastic wrap for texturing the backgrounds will be demonstrated. That watercolor is an unforgiving medium is an erroneous notion that will be put to rest in the beginner's minds."

 

Herrick Hall 308
Prerequisites: Those interested in learning wood engraving may wish to also take Trudy Nicholson's scratchboard workshop, which will provide an excellent foundation for wood engraving techniques.

Wood engraving is a traditional illustration technique used since 1423 by notable artists such as Albrect Durer, Thomas Bewick, and Michael McCurdy. Originally used to illustrate books on printing presses, this classic technique is now little-known and rarely used. In this course, you will learn the basics of choosing wood, engraving a block and making a hand-burnished print on Japanese paper. You will create a sampler block that includes a variety of textures, techniques, and an image to introduce you to the marvelous detail and bold look possible with this classic technique.

 

Campus Classroom- Willson 1116
Join Raptors of the Rockies Director and fellow artist Kate Davis for a half day of birds and art. We will begin the session with a PowerPoint program that has been presented at the Raptor Research Foundation and International Association of Avian Trainers Using Educational Raptors in the Creative Process".
Following this show, she will introduce a live hawk, falcon and two owls which will be instructional in avian form and function. These birds are the basis for a discussion of bird anatomy, morphology, taxonomy, ecology, and adaptation. We will finish up with a sketching session, with the best of models to render in any medium. www.raptorsoftherockies.org 

Herrick Hall 308
Chalk pastels and landscapes pair beautifully. Soft and velvety, passing over and into one another, they leave bits and pieces of themselves behind on a roughened surface. Texture and color combine, but for chalk to achieve its magic, the artist needs to work through the underlying design. Painting a landscape requires the artist to judiciously prune the different elements of a scene into a sound composition. A fast thumbnail sketch captures the black and white values. These steps artistically simplify the landscape. Small color swatches then help the artist match the correct color to black and white values. Pastels are chosen to make the right color mixture. With the palette defined, the color shapes are blocked in, and layering of chalk begins.