ECU > 1st Semester 2009 > Design > Vector illustration > Editorial illustration

“If the image repeats the words why run the story?”—Jerelle Kraus, New York Times Art Director.

ILLUSTRATION UNIT :: EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION
03. Illustrate one of the articles*. Present your illustration
as an A4 portrait PDF document AND a second A4 docu-
ment which includes your source images and rationale (see
overleaf ) emailed to your tutor by the end of Week 10, Fri 8th
May.

In addition to the usual considerations regarding composi-

tion, point of view, colour, texture and line, your editorial
illustration needs to use one of the following methods:

A) The realism continuum. How realistic will your subject(s)

look? Would it make more sense for them to be photographi-
cally precise or stick-figure simple, or somewhere in be-
tween?

or

B) Relative to a norm. What is the perceived norm for your

subject? Would it communicate the way you want it to if it
were more exaggerated beyond the norm (caricature) or
pulled back towards a norm (anti-caricature)?

See the reverse for further instructions …

*Conscience of a Conservative
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/magazine/09rosen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Kids On ADHD Drugs - Dangerous Path To Addiction

http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_672.shtml

The world weeps for Luciano Pavarotti

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=8517

Elderly get to grips with gadgets

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/06/news
 Image-search using Google and/or any of the online stock image
If using method A) libraries. Download (or screen capture) a realistic version of your
subject. Place this image into your second document as a reference.
(Include the URL in small print at the bottom of the page)

Draw a distilled version of this thing/person. For e.g. if it’s a person,

the distilled version may simply be a stick figure or a ‘man’ or ‘woman’
pictogram as seen at an airport.

Place the images at either end of a line. Roughly estimate where your
editorial illustration sits between these two points. For e.g.

Provide a brief rationale as to why you chose that level of realism, and
whether thinking about how realistic your image should be was helpful
for the meaning of your illustration and why.

Image-search using Google and/or any of the online stock image

If using method B) libraries. Download (or screen capture) a realistic version of your sub-
ject. Place this image into your second document as a reference.
(Include the URL in small print at the bottom of the page)

Draw a ‘norm’ for that person or thing, even if such a norm does not
actually exist. Explain briefly why you think this is the norm for this
person or thing. For example:

Provide a brief rationale as to why you chose caricature or anticarica-

ture, and whether thinking about exaggerating your image away from
a norm (imagined or real) or reduction towards a norm was helpful
for the meaning of your illustration and why.