First Assignment original document!

Just in case anyone is missing this, I thought I would post this first assignment as well.
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Class  #1
Assignment # 1
Due at the beginning of Class next week!

Medium: any black and white liquid medium, pen and ink, brush and ink, ink wash, watercolor wash, acrylic( You can use color, but be careful it can reproduce well in black and white...it’s all about the value and contrast!

Paper: Hot Press watercolor paper, strathmore 300 Bristol,( 400 or 500 if you want to paint with Acrylic)

Sketches: The Client wishes to see 15 thumbnail sketches showing a range of thought. these sketches should be in your sketchbook and be at least 4.25 x 3" and in direct size ratio to the final. Number the sketches and give them and assignment number.

Final Art Reproduction Size: 8.5 wide x 6' tall( finished art should be done at at least 125 to 150% of reproduction size)

Presentation: The art should be signed in the art and on the back with the class and time written clearly on the back. There should be a flap taped to the art covering the piece so no damage will come to it.

Reference: Bring in examples of the reference gathered in pursuit of the assignment. You may need to get photographs of other people for body positioning and clothing. You may need to get reference on France in order to fully realize any background elements.


Client: Seattle Star Magazine: Op- Ed Movie Review Column

Description: The Client is asking for a piece of art to go alongside this review about the film Les Miserables and wishes to have at least one portrait or caricature of one of the main actors in the film included in the piece of art.

The art is a vignette and thus does not need to have a square border, but must still fit the required size ratio so it can fit under the text.

The clients is fine with you bringing in reference to the careers of the actors, the quality of their performance or even reference to the "occupy movement."

Hint: If you don't know the musical I suggest you at least read a synopsis of the story. There is tons of visual reference for the actors online and their costumes and such, but try to be clever about where you get the likenesses. Other films, magazine photos, candid photos from paparazzi mags can provide interesting and different viewpoints on a famous person. You may want to read other reviews to get a sense of the general quality of the film to inform your piece.




The text of the article reads as follows:


Here it is, “Occupy Movement: The Musical,” the French musical “Les Miserables” preaching economic revolution, the downtrodden rising up against the wealthy few and a police force hellbent on defending the status quo.

Well, that and the virtues of mercy and compassion.

Tom “The King’s Speech” Hooper brings this worldwide phenomenon to the screen with its majestic music and emotional weight intact. He takes the film outdoors and gives us a raw, sometimes wrenching remembrance of how unjust, how hungry and how bloody, dirty and smelly France was in the post-Napoleonic decades that one man spends on the run from his nemesis.


Victor Hugo’s epic is about an ex-con, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), hardened by decades of imprisonment, converted by one great act of kindness but pursued, doggedly, by the fanatical police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). Valjean gains purpose and compassion, but Javert is blinded by his pursuit, a man not in search of justice – merely exploiting the letter of the law.

Valjean fails to save the pathetic and persecuted prostitute Fantine (Anne Hathaway), but resolves to provide for her daughter, the curly-locked Cosette (Isabelle Allen, and later Amanda Seyfried). And when the time comes, Valjean will put his life on the line for Cosette’s first love, the young revolutionary Marius (Eddie Redmayne).

The emotions are as big as the set-pieces, from the opening – convicts hauling a huge, battered ship into drydock, singing “Look down, look down, you’ll always be a slave, look down, look down, you’re standing in your grave,” and Javert bellowing  “Do not forget me, [prisoner] 24601” to Javert – to the climax, the stirring call to survive and revolt, “One Day More.”

Hooper had the actors sing live, on set, which gives this sung-through musical a lived-in feel. He shoots much of this grey and grimy world with hand-held cameras, adding to the immediacy.

The actors acquit themselves admirably, with Jackman’s Broadway tenor rubbed rough and Crowe’s gruff baritone showing range. He kind of blows Javert’s big moment – when he realizes the injustice of his ways. But everything else about him – his military bearing, his horsemanship, screams Javert.

An emaciated Hathaway is properly heartbreaking as Fantine, Redmayne (“My Week With Marilyn”) is in fine voice and the comic relief – Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, as the corrupt innkeepers who “take care” of the young Cosette — are as adept with their big “Master of the House” number as they are the comedy.



Before starting, look up these artists to get a sense of other solutions to this problem:

Steve Brodner,Joe Chiardello, Tim Bower, Anita Kunz, Fred Harper, Peter DeSeve, CF Payne, Al Hirschfeld, Ralph Steadman, Sam Weber, James Jean, Linn Olofsdotter, Yuko Shimuzo,  And more....hunt through the Society of Illustrators books and see different solutions.

Check out this interesting article:
http://weburbanist.com/2009/09/07/art-meets-storytelling-15-amazing-illustrators/