Tips for a better grade with creative assignments:

The grade assigned to creative pictures is dependent upon quality of execution, concept, and appropriateness of the picture for the assignment.

First, here's a list of things that will probably reduce your grade. They represent my pet peeves:

• Pictures that are fuzzy everywhere - nothing is sharp.
• Crude cartoon drawings used for still pictures or for animations. If you can't draw well, do us both a favor and don't try to in this class.
• Simple flat color and simple gradient illustrations that belong in a basic class for using Adobe Illustrator.
• Sloppy edge selections made in haste with the lasso tool. Take more time to do careful selections.
• Pictures that don't meet the minimum size requirements.
• Upsized pictures or parts of pictures. Upsized pictures with upsized jaggies and JPG artifacts are UGLY!
• Pictures made exclusively from clip art, or copyright free artwork, especially the bad stuff found for free on the web. Remember you are creating work for your portfolio, and you want to showcase what YOU can do when applying for a job.
• Pictures that look like clip art, even if they aren't.
• Excessive or unthoughtful use of filters - especially when applied over the whole picture creating "push-button" art. Any high-school kid can do that.
• Unthinking use of color (clashing colors, inappropriate colors for the concept, etc.)
• Concepts that relate only vaguely to the assignment. If someone can't 'get it' without being told what it is, change your concept.
• Avoid centered and symmetrical pictures unless there's a really good reason for it. Centered stuff is visually dull.
• Untoned pictures or mixed toning in different parts of pictures.
• Not paying attention to the details of the assignment (wrong color space, files too small, animation frame rate too low, etc.)
• The use of text as a crutch in pictures. If the picture needs words to explain your concept, your concept probably needs help. There are exceptions of course, but think twice about why you need text.
• Not doing research on the topic assigned. If you're illustrating a horse riding event, is it a race? What kind of horses are used? Is it Western gear or something else? Call someone to find out.
• Really DULL animations. I've seen only a few good ones over the years.
• "Animations" that are actually slide shows and not true animations (see "not paying attention to details" section above).
• "Refrigerator art" - family snapshots that have personal meaning, but don't offer any artistic merit. Often seen in final projects.

Read the list above, and don't do those things.

Second, you can get good ideas for your illustrations in a vacuum, but it's a lot easier if you have plenty of good examples to "borrow" from. Take a look at the student examples on my web site. Take a look at publications and sites that showcase good professional illustration (Society of Illustrators, etc.) They used to have an annual book published that highlighted the best-of-the-best and perhaps some copies are available in the library.

There are plenty of bad examples everywhere too, so choose only good examples. That requires critical judgment, but that's a good thing to have anyway.

Bill Schneider, June 5, 2007
Really grumpy after seeing some mediocre class work