University/College

Summary: This Semester’s Classes

Finally I feel like I can take some time for updating my blog!

I decided to focus on illustration and theory for this (3rd) semester and since I’m still rather slow when it comes to effective drawing I had the busiest four months of my life so far! Lucky for me I got used to sleeping less than 6 hours a night during the week (with an occasional all-nighter now and then). But I guess that’s normal for this branch…

But let’s skip to the classes:

  • Illustration Basics: Every week you get a new assignment covering everything from cover illustrations for books and magazines, posters, comic, storyboarding etc. NEW: For the first time the students have to commit to a bigger project during the last 1,5 months of the semester. One has to choose from 24 scientific topics and create so called “scientific illustrations” explaining the subject. I picked “white”, covering colors and light on a physical and physiological basis.
  • Illustration Techniques: This is where the students are introduced to a variety of different painting techniques. This semester’s choice is: Watercolors, acrylics, digital painting, vector graphics. I especially enjoy this seminar 🙂
  • Illustrator’s Survival Kit (optional): Very time-consuming but effective class! Mainly we are working on visual storytelling and character design. At the beginning of class everyone presents his homework to the other students and the prof (sometimes even in front of a recording camera) after which he/she gets a profound constructive criticism. Then follows a theory presentation followed by a practical working phase. Additionally workshops are provided on a regular basis.
  • Research (optional): Here’s where the students (not only illustrators) can learn research techniques including market research, book research and deep space. After an intensive theoretical phase every student has to do a profound research on a chosen design-relevant topic.
  • Extra lectures: Every student needs at least 2 extra (one-time) lectures in order to qualify for a theory class exam (in my case that’s “Research”).

During the Christmas “brake” we have to improve ALL of the homework assignments so far + the new assignments 🙁 At the end of the semester we are going to present all of our work for the last months in all the classes.

in Illustration / Personal  by Savina 0 comments

Typography Projects

The semester brake is officially over and next week my new classes will be starting. I decided to go with illustration for the following half a year, hoping to improve some more 🙂

But first I need to sum up some results from the last semester. After the 1st semester was over we were supposed to manage our time and finish three small projects and a big one until the end of the second one, including the documentation layout. Each project stands in connection to a previously discussed topic during classes:

Of course all projects had to be presented at the end of the second semester. Each student got only 3 minutes 🙁

Well, that’s all for now. I know I haven’t made any updates for a long time… But since I’m running this blog on a non-commercial basis it’s not my first priority right now. I’ve been doing a whole lot of digital art projects and some ink/gouache training, so I wasn’t lazy during the brake, ok 😉

Oh and all the work I’m showing you is for informative means only! Please do NOT copy!

in Typograhy  by Savina 0 comments

The Documentation – The most Important Project in 2nd Semester

The documentation of the 2nd semester is the most important and time consuming project! It’s covering the main work done during the course of the past half-year presented as a typographically demanding printed medium. This means that it counts for the final exam in FC and Typography!

The whole book has about 90 pages, format A5, adhesive binding. The paper for the cover is 300 g/m² and the one for the pages is 130 g/m². I paid about 35 Euros for the printing and paper.

By the way, here is my exam schedule with some further descriptions.

 

in Design Foundation / Typograhy  by Savina 0 comments

Kowloon Slums Drawing Homework

For the past two weeks we worked on Chinese slums in Drawing Class and I decided to share three digital drawings with you 🙂

The second and third images are interior images portraying the inhabitant’s depressing situations. We were told to use limited light sources and keep to a dark ambience.

Event info: This Thursday we’re going to visit the “Zeche Zollverein Essen” (coal mine in the city of Essen) and draw down some impressions 🙂 Here’s the original handout:

Lots of images and bits of text, I know 😀

The second and third images are interior images portraying the inhabitant’s depressing situations. We were told to use limited light sources and keep to a dark ambience. Event info: This Thursday we’re going to visit the “Zeche Zollverein Essen” (coal mine in the city of Essen) and draw down some impressions 🙂 Here’s the original handout:

in Illustration  by Savina 0 comments

Criteria for Final Poject in Design Foundation Course

I know I haven’t posted anything new for a while now, but I’m really trying hard to achieve good results in ALL my classes and that’s taking ALL of my time 🙁

In DFC we’ve started concentrating on our big semester project dealing with the motto “From inside to the outside” (“Von Drinnen nach Draußen”). This week we started constructing mockups of the seminar room and the grass area outside, while some of us still had to present their temporary projects (mine was the doorframe). Here I will give you the criteria for our final project and documentation:

  • final project can be materialized in groups of no more than three students
  • every student must design a typographically top-notch documentation (a book) and present it in a printed form
  • the documentation must include not only the final project but also parts of the homework, sketches/ brain storming and the temporary project
  • additionally a third project, which has not been materialized, has to be included in the documentation, meaning you have to work with mockups, photo manipulation or 3D-models presenting your concept
  • deadline 15th of June

We have about five weeks left and that’s NOT a whole lot! I’m still editing my typography projects from last semester and working overtime on my drawing class homework tasks (right now: concept art of Hong Kong slums). I hope all the work pays off in the end 🙂

 

in Design Foundation  by Savina 0 comments

Playing around with Tables…

In Design Foundation Course we are trying to find new ways to place the ordinary everyday objects in a whole new context. The object we were given to work with for the last week was the table (the type of table in our seminar room). We were allowed to:

  • use as many tables as we want
  • combine them with other objects (mostly things that are in the room anyway)
  • use ourselves (bodies) as models and/or objects 🙂

Going outside was part of the homework, too. So besides doing all kinds of fun stuff inside (building a restroom, treating a table like a therapy patient, turning the perspective and using the tables as a wall and the wall as the floor) we took the white sterile table out on the fresh air, but don’t worry, it didn’t sunburn 😀

This was really a fun homework! The one we got the week before was fairly boring in comparison (that’s why I didn’t share it with you). We were supposed to draw five big images of the seminar room’s corners and other interesting situations with focus on the right perspective…

 

in Design Foundation  by Savina 0 comments

Connecting the Outside Space with our Seminar Room Homework

For the past few days my mini project for DFC was standing behind our faculty building. It’s the result of our last homework:

  • Create a connection between the seminar room and the outside space with minimal (financial) effort.

After presenting 8 concepts the professor and I decided on “The Doorframe”. The idea behind it is to create the illusion that the square piece of lawn outside is part of the building and a room itself. And what do rooms have: doors and in our case naming-cards.

Unfortunately we had to dispose of the frame on Friday. It’s a one week project after all… The materials cost 13 Euros all together and the preparations took us about 6-7 hours (including the waiting time for the gleuing and the painting with white color). And I’m grateful for all the advice the workshop supervisors and tutors gave us along the way!

in Design Foundation  by Savina 0 comments

First Drawing Class Assignments (Prospective Illustrators) 2.Semester

In the Drawing Class for prospective illustrators we already completed the first two homework assignments:

  • Character Design: Draw three of your co-students and create their characters (including your own).
  • Concept Art: Everyone received a small sketch book (40 pages) which had to be filled with sketches from “a forgotten valley in south-east Russia on the border to Mongolia”. We were encouraged to think of unique animals/plants/architecture. In short: Draw whatever we want 🙂

As usual every drawing material and technique was allowed but since I’m a pencil junkie I stuck to clear forms throughout the whole sketching book task. I still haven’t quite finished the first task ^^;

The valley panorama at the beginning.

The grotesque but gentle monster.

The mysterious sign.

The exploding mist-insects.

The bizarre drumming fiend.

The He-Sirens XD

These are just a few excerpts. We were given two weeks for the forty pages. Oh, and did I mention there’s supposed to be some kind of a story 😀 I made a tiny story-board for that purpose (the reserved space for one page is about 2×3 cm + text descriptions on the sides).

Our next task is about painting landscapes…Preferably from Mongolia but the professor told us it’s ok to draw whatever landscapes we choose. He wants to see some images we “drew with all our heart”.

in Illustration  by Savina 0 comments