An apple, a chess piece, and a pair of glasses make perfect objects for a still life.

The first project Computer Graphics students work on in the course is in Adobe Illustrator and called a still life. A still life is an artistic piece that focuses on a group of objects with many different shapes, textures, and positions and often uses these objects as a way to develop a theme. This first still life is done very early in the course before many of the essential Adobe Illustrator skills are learned so it is usually lower quality. 

The Computer Graphics course teaches students how to use computer based art programs mostly focusing on Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. It combines this with some more standard art topics such as color schemes and elements of art in an effort to improve your artistry in all forms as a whole by the end of the course.

Now that they have spent time learning the skills of Adobe Illustrator the class will now begin their final project, another still life. Though the two still lives do not have to be the same, doing the same basic idea at both the beginning and end of the learning of the Adobe Illustrator program is a great way to show progress.

Students in the course have learned a variety of new Adobe Illustrator skills since their initial still life, including shading objects, creating shadows, creating custom brushes and colors, and using the 3D effect.

“Most recently in Computer Graphics we learned how to use the 3D effect to create realistic looking 3D objects in our Adobe Illustrator artwork,” said Jack McCoy.

As they head into their final project, even recent less significant projects such as the one below show how greatly they’ve improved and will continue to improve.

More Computer Graphics pieces can be found on teacher Tracy Bozzonetti’s website for the course under the gallery tab.