Fundamentals of Digital Painting with Daniel Stultz

Email: dstultz@lcad.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  The Fundamentals of Digital Painting meshes traditional painting methodology with digital tools.  We will study the science of color and light, using composition to tell a story, and production cheats in photoshop. The Course Blog will serve as the class bulletin board. This is where you’ll post your class exercises and Works-In-Progress. Demo material will be posted there as well

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Photoshop is the Commercial Art Industry’s primary painting tool. My aim is to get you comfortable with Photoshop’s basic functionality by exploring the other side of the course title: painting, and all that implies. Shape language, composition and color theory will all be covered with an eye towards how Photoshop makes those subjects easier to tackle. Successfully completing this class will: · encourage thinking in terms of form, shape language and compositional patterns. · provide a practical understanding of the relationships between value, chroma (color), saturation, temperature, and light. · help develop an eye for storytelling, understanding how to set a mood and establish a believable sense of place for concept paintings.

Suggested Texts:            

Everything I Know About Painting by Richard Schmidt

Understanding Color and Light by James Gurney.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS · Punctual equals professional! Come ready to work, on time, with your laptop fully charged. If you can’t make a class, EMAIL ME BEFOREHAND, otherwise it will count as an Unexcused Absence. Each Unexcused Absence knocks your grade down a tick (from A to B, say). Three Unexcused Absences and you’re out of the class. · Participate in class discussions and critiques. If you don’t understand something, ask!  The more you ask questions the more you’ll learn. · Post your classwork and homework to the Blog by the following class.  Put your name in the Labels section of your Blog post.  Any in-class or homework assignment missed for any reason must be made up. You lose points for lateness! Missing more than three assignments is an automatic F. · I expect you to make changes following a critique session. This mimics the real world, where Leads and Art Directors will expect you to follow their directions.  In short, be professional.

GRADING CRITERIA

A+ = Absolutely Badass You went above and beyond the call. All your assignments came in on time and you corrected any errors promptly. You came prepared for each class. You met or exceeded the criteria for an A grade AND, on top of all that, you did additional work on your own time. An A+ equals a score of 96 or more out of 100 points.  A = Awesome You did all that was asked of you and made it shine. Your assignments were delivered by the deadline, your diligence is clearly reflected in your work, you corrected all your mistakes, kept up with your reading and came to class prepared for discussion and critique. Getting an A equals 90 to 95 out of 100 points. B =  You Got It You were a work horse: all your assignments came in on time and you corrected most of your errors. You were punctual, participated in class discussions, kept up with your reading and showed through your work that you were fighting to understand the subject matter.  Maybe you missed a class or an assignment, but the point is you fought to make headway. A grade of B equals 80 to 85 points out of 100. C = That’ll Do Your work is defined by the word “mostly”. You finished most of your assignments, corrected most of your mistakes, made most of your classes, read most of the assigned reading. You didn’t throw your back into it. Average is a challenge to be overcome. It equals 60-79 points out of 100. Show some fight and you won’t get this grade. C- and Lower = Faceplant You failed to complete multiple assignments, were consistently late to class or spotty in attendance, didn’t follow direction, chatted during class. The people who get this grade earned it. Remember that. A C- is effectively an F. The working world is going to be at least as harsh so don’t fall down here.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week 1- Course Breakdown.  The role of a concept artist or illustrator.

Week 2- The basics of light and painting in greyscale.  Core shadows, cast shadows, bounce light, and specular vs matte surfaces.

Week 3- Local value and ways to study form and material.  None destructive editing in photoshop.

Week 4- Abstracting texture, Using photoshop’s brush engine.

Week 5- Studying different methods of lighting. Interior vs exterior.  Layer modes in photoshop.

Week 6- 2 sessions on composition and mood.

Week 7- Week 6 continued.

Week 8- The introduction of color theory. 

Week 9- Temperature, vibrancy, pallettes.

Week 10- A study of artists and styles of rendering (realistic vs stylized).

Week11- Photoshop tricks.  LENS FLARES, film grain, chromatic aberrations, etc.

Week 12- Weird lighting situations and how to simplify them. (caustics, atmospheric effects.)

Week 13- Beginning final assignment

Week 14- Refining final assignment and critique             

Week 15- Final critique

Throughout the course we will discuss different live action and animated films and the artists who worked on them.  We will harness the ability to study something efficiently in order to learn more on our own.  We will hone our eyes to break down an image into its parts and effectively critique it.  I will Demo almost every class period, and critique every assignment in photoshop.