Surreal Character Design
A High School Level Digital Art Lesson
Student Example - See more below
Project Objective:
Students will learn about the movement of Surrealism and how it is used in fine art and popular art to this day. They will create new and original characters that has physical and personality traits that are important to the artist, as well as one “surreal” physical (visible) trait (eg. mutation, superpower, etc.) that can help the character or challenge them. Artworks can be humanoid, animal or other (alien, anthropomorphic object, etc) and must use one of the techniques of collage, composite or drawing with texture composite.
Techniques:
Must use the technique of collage, composite or drawing with composite texture, as well as at least 2 of the following digital editing skills: Selection tools (copy/paste), layer masking/layers, layer effects (eg. drop shadow), layer styles (eg. multiply), layer adjustments (eg. posterize), clone tool/patch tool, brush tool, smudge, dodge/burn.
Media:
Adobe Photoshop or similar image editing/drawing software
Character Description Worksheet or character generator websites
Drawing Materials / Sketch
Internet/research resource, Copyright free imagery
Concept or Theme:
Students will explore character development through writing or curation of random descriptions by combining realistic traits with surrealistic ones, which have an effect on the characters relationship with the world. Students will explore their own identities and visual creativity through the combination of invention and visualization. They will do this through discussion of art and artists that utilize surreal characters, brainstorm of ideas and descriptions using a worksheet that will guide them through multiple ideas and images they could use, and practice of Photoshop and digital rendering techniques using practice imagery. Students will also reflect on their character and any changes made through the creative process and describe why, as well as generate a short back story for their character.
Source Material:
Artists to look at:
Max Ernst
Rene Magritte
Remedios Varo
Valentina Brostean
Q-TA
Nate Kitch
Brooke Shaden
Igor Morski
Jamie Baldridge
Stan Lee
Hayao Miyazaki
Stephen Hillenburg
Pendleton Ward
Student Examples:
