Description

Looking to make your mark in the digital arts? The Digital Arts Online Training Program will give you the education you need.

You'll learn essential photography skills for different subjects and situations, and you’ll master the intricacies of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. You'll build your understanding of color and composition and explore the representation of form through vector illustration and drawing.

Hands-on projects focus on core skills and provide you with experience in traditional and digital media.

Class assignments include digital image retouching and compositing; portrait, landscape, and environment photography; vector and traditional illustration; color and composition; art criticism and analysis; editorial and logo illustration; and advanced Photoshop imaging.

Upon successful completion of this program, you’ll be able to:

• Prepare bitmap images for print or digital media using basic Photoshop retouching and correction techniques, collage, and compositing
• Develop a basic proficiency in techniques for different kinds of photography, including still life, portraits, products, architecture, and action
• Create vector art illustrations using shape drawing and freehand drawing tools, type tools, and transformation and distortion effects
• Develop effective color schemes for different projects using the principles of color harmony
• Create two-dimensional layouts that embody the principles of effective composition
• Represent form by drawing contours, using positive and negative space, and creating three-dimensional shapes
• Create vector-based illustrations from basic shapes, symbols, gradients, fill colors, and symbols
• Identify and discuss important movements in the history of art and their impact on art styles, themes, and techniques
• Utilize advanced Photoshop tools, such as transparency, brushes, and the Pen Tool, to create illustrations, collages, and photorealistic art

Outline

1. Photoshop Basic
2. Digital Photography I
3. Illustrator Basics
4. Color Theory
5. Design and Composition
6. Introduction to Drawing
7. Digital Illustration Basics
8. History of Art
9. Advanced Photoshop

This program consists of nine required modules. An optional introductory theory module is available for beginner students. Module descriptions are as follows:

Photoshop Basics
Acquire a thorough grounding in Adobe Photoshop, the premiere digital imaging program for graphic designers. Hands-on projects show you how to select, enhance, distort, color, scale, and manipulate scanned images and artworks or create them from scratch.

Digital Photography I:
Explore the interaction of photography techniques and environmental factors to create powerful digital images. You'll learn the fundamentals of lighting, perspective, and set-up while exploring techniques for classic assignments: portraits, products, indoor and outdoor location shoots, and fast-action sports.

Illustrator Basics
Build a working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, the graphic designer's vector program of choice. You'll explore selection tools, drawing tools, layers, the pen tool, transformations and distortions, type tools, and modifying paths and shapes. Tapping into the power of vector software allows you to produce detailed and scalable art for almost any application.

Color Theory
Focus on developing appropriate color systems for graphic design projects. You'll discover the principles, terminology, and applications of color theory, with an emphasis on manipulating color.

Design and Composition
Discover the principles of effective composition in print design and advertising. Composition, literally the assembly of elements, is the artful arrangement that guides the eye and unifies a design work. Case studies and hands-on projects address closed and open space, negative space, movement, and more.

Introduction to Drawing
Learn basic drawing techniques and how to see and think about form and space. You'll get a better understanding of visual forms and representing those forms on paper. Class projects involve sketches of contours, negative space, and simple and complex forms.

Digital Illustration Basics
Learn how an illustrator approaches challenges like proportion, perspective, lighting, storytelling, and expression. Discover how basic shapes, symbols, gradients, fill colors, symbols, Bezier curves, and text can be combined to create artwork in Illustrator.

History of Art
Build a foundation in art history and gain a deep understanding of art and the artists who create it. Through engaging lectures and projects, you'll learn how to identify the mediums, materials, and techniques artists use and discuss the styles of important artists, art movements, and historical periods from antiquity through the mid-20th century.

Advanced Photoshop
Take your Photoshop skills to the next level by mastering Photoshop's advanced features. You'll explore professional approaches to compositing, retouching, image correction, and masking to produce high-impact images for print or Web media.

Demo

Additional Info

Languages

English

Course Length

225.00 hours

Duration of Access

All of our programs are self-paced and open enrollment, so you can start them when you want and finish them at your own pace. Most programs allow you 180 days after you register to complete them. If you need more time, extensions are available.

Instructor

You'll receive critique and feedback from a faculty of art and design professionals. Instructors for this program include:

Dr. Taz Tally
Dr. Taz Tally is the president of Taz Tally Seminars, a computer publishing consulting and training company. Taz is the author of numerous graphics and print production books, including Photoshop Before and After Makeovers, Acrobat and PDF Solutions, Avoiding the Output Blues, and Avoiding the Scanning Blues, and he is a contributing author to The Photoshop World Dream Team Book. Taz has produced numerous instructional videos, CDs, and DVDs on scanning, prepress, Photoshop, color correction, and font management. Taz is a frequent presenter at seminars and trade shows throughout the U.S., and he's a member of the Photoshop Dream Team at the biannual Photoshop World convention. Taz is a frequent contributor to Photoshop User magazine, for which he writes a regular prepress column.

Donald Gambino
Donald Gambino is a computer artist, consultant, educator, and trainer. Since 1983, he's taught students of all levels and abilities. Formerly the chairperson of the computer art department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he has taught innovative computer art courses for over 12 years, and he created the B.F.A. program in computer art.

Ken Milburn
Ken Milburn is a professional photographer and leading expert in digital photography. Ken's photographic career has ranged from starlet publicity photos for Universal Pictures to album covers, advertising, and editorial work for TV Guide and Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine. His work has been featured in Design Graphics Magazine and Computer Graphics World. Ken is the principal author of 20 computer and photography books, including Digital Photography: Expert Techniques from O'Reilly Associates, The Digital Photography Bible from Wiley and Sons, and several books on Photoshop techniques. Ken has written more than 300 articles on digital media, featured in Publish, DV Magazine, MacWorld, Computer Graphics World, PC World, and InfoWorld.

Michael Hamm
Michael Hamm is a freelance designer and Web developer with more than eight years of experience in the field of interactive design. Based in Houston, Texas, Michael previously worked for JPMorgan Chase as an interactive designer. Michael's work has been published in various Web design books and magazines. In addition, he has served as technical editor on several design books published by Friends of Ed. Michael is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Adobe Illustrator, and he's the founder, designer, programmer, and writer of Ergodraw.com, a Web site that grew from his passion for the illustration software and all things vector.

Piper Nilsson
Piper Nilsson is a graphic designer and information architect. In her four-year career for a leading Web design agency, she blueprinted sites for such global clients as MetLife, Pepsi, ETS, and Citibank. Her current projects include building an e-learning prototype for children with learning disabilities and teaching technology in New York City public schools. She received a degree in graphic design from Pratt Institute.

Andrew Shalat
Andrew Shalat is an author, designer, illustrator, educator, and Mac expert. Since 1985 he's been designing and writing for Macintosh, Mac software, and publishing technologies. His work has appeared in Macworld, maccentral.com, and macweek.com (for which he was a columnist writing "Shalat's Web"). He currently has two books: Do It Yourself Mac Projects, published by McGraw-Hill, and MacDesign Out of the Box, published by Inside Mac Press. Andrew's design work covers a large range of media, including book, CD, and DVD covers; brochures; catalogs; outdoor signage; print ads; artwork; logos; Flash and Web design; and grocery lists. Over the past two decades, he's taught literature, writing, Web design, and print design.

Jordon Schranz
Jordon Schranz is a seven-year inhabitant of Brooklyn, New York, is represented by the Black and White Gallery in New York, New York. He has had one-man shows in both New York and Chicago, and he has participated in several group shows in the USA and internationally. His work is in several private collections as well as the collection of the Museum of Air and Space in Moscow, Russia. He focuses on the idea of social and political interaction and how the media influences it. In addition, Jordon regularly stages, performs, and promotes avante garde, free jazz, and experimental music performances and is a recording artist on the Black Saint record label with his group, The Eastern Seaboard. Jordon is currently leading the development of a fine arts program at Sessions. Jordon earned his B.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Carolina Caycedo
Carolina Caycedo is an emerging contemporary artist whose most recent exhibitions were at Blow de la Barra in London, UK, and Galeria Comercial in Puerto Rico. Her fine art and photography collections have been written about in The New York Times, Artfacts.net, Artecontexto, The Nation, and Art Dispatches. Photography from Carolina's bartering project, entitled "Daytoday," was featured at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City. Carolina has given talks about art at The Whitney Museum in New York; The Art, Memory, and City Seminar in Bogota; and the National University in Bogota. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Contemporary Artists Center in Massachusetts and at Foraneza in Puerto Rico. Carolina was born in London and educated in Colombia. She earned her B.A. in fine arts from Los Andes University.

Matt Kloskowski
Matt Kloskowski is a writer, instructor, illustrator, and graphic designer based in Tampa, Florida. Author of Illustrator Most Wanted and Extreme Photoshop, Matt is an Adobe Certified Expert in Macromedia Flash, and he's certified as a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD). An expert in dynamic- and database-driven Web development, Matt writes weekly columns for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and Mac Design magazine's Web site and features for Create magazine's Studio column. Matt's tutorials have been used in over 15 schools throughout the United States and translated into seven languages. Matt graduated from University of South Florida with majors in computer information systems and marketing.

Prerequisites/Audience

To enroll in this course, you’ll need a computer with an Internet connection (a 56.6 Kbps modem or faster is recommended). You should have basic computer skills, but no prior design knowledge is required.

To enroll, you must be at least 18 years old, and you must be able to provide documentation of attaining a high school diploma or equivalent or a higher level of education (such as a college degree).

Requirements/Materials Included

This program is compatible with the Windows Vista operating system.

The following software is required, but it’s not included with the program:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 or CS4
• Adobe Illustrator CS3 or CS4

When purchasing any software, especially bundled software such as the Adobe Master Collection, please check that your computer meets the manufacturer's listed system requirements.

You’ll also need access to a digital camera rated three megapixels or higher.