Lesson idea: Cartoon self-portraits

These pieces are from the intermediate/advanced graphic design class where the focus is learning how to use illustrator. The students in this class learned the basic-intermediate functions of photoshop and this was their first major and self-directed projects for this semester. They each completed a tutorial (I adapted from multiple illustrator tutorials found on the web) that walked them through the process of doing cartoon character design and then I gave them a list of general guidelines to steer them towards creating themselves as cartoon folks.

The work they turned out is pretty exceptional if you ask me considering how much time they've been working within illustrator (only about a month and a half maybe?) on class time alone. This is the second year I've taught the illustrator class because (before I joined the faculty team) there wasn't really anybody with the right kind of experience to be able to teach it. I have kind of been able to design the curriculum of the class and plan the projects from the ground up and be able to create a good transition for all of the students who come from graphic design (that of which I also teach) and get right into digital design. FYI: (for those who are interested) we are using Illustrator CS2 and I am a self-taught illustrator user.

Anyway, here is the student work... Enjoy!

As the semester progresses, one of their major projects will be to take the characters they have created of themselves and expand the overall illustration to include background elements to create a complete picture of 10-15 year visual prediction of where/what they will do in their lives.