Class Description
World-building is the creative engine behind your favorite games, comics, animations, and fantasy novels and now it’s your turn to try it. In this class, you’ll design a fictional setting, dream up the creatures or characters that inhabit it, and craft the everyday objects, technology, and/or art that make your world feel real. Along the way, you’ll develop real digital art skills: exploring brushwork, color schemes, shape language, form, texture, and line economy using Procreate or Adobe Fresco on iPads. You’ll walk away with a rich, original world that’s entirely your own, and a portfolio piece you can be proud of.
Learning Objectives: in this class, students will learn about
- Developing an original fictional world through research, sketching, and ideation, using ethical reference practices to inform (not copy) their creative decisions;
- Applying color theory and intentional color schemes to establish mood, meaning, and visual consistency across their world;
- Building foundational digital art skills in Procreate and Adobe Fresco, including brush selection, layering, and file management;
- Using shape language, form, contour, and line economy to design compelling objects, environments, and characters with visual clarity and appeal;
- Developing an eye for texture and detail as storytelling tools, using surface qualities to communicate character, culture, and environment;
- Compiling and present their work in a polished concept sheet portfolio, demonstrating growth from initial ideation to finished illustration;
- The art of the peer critique and give peer critiques on the progress of student work;
- Opportunities and potential resources on career pathways;
- How to distribute, exhibit, and promote artwork for a variety of audiences.
Equipment
- iPad
- iPencil
- Sketchbook
- Studio Art Supplies
Software
- Adobe Fresco
- Procreate
Deliverables: Students and Class Projects
- You’ll create three cohesive pieces that build your world from the ground up:
- A Fictional Setting — a city, natural landscape, or planet that establishes where your world exists
- Artifacts — the objects, furniture, technology, and/or art that reveal how life actually works there
- A Lifeform — an original character, creature, or mythological being that calls your world home
- All three pieces come together in a polished print for your portfolio — yours to take home!
