illustration concepts?

[Alison B.]

Hi, I'm a student currently majoring in illustration. I just had a crit in my concepts and practices class, and I feel that it went fine, that is until my teacher asked me what I learned about the concepts of illustration.

I have no clue what that meant. ;_; I mean, I understand things like value and composition, but at this sort of thing I draw a blank.

Help?

I know this might come off as silly, but I am often the type of person that needs to see something in written form for me to understand fully. :/

[Elwell]

Your confusion is contagious; I don't really understand the question, but I'd like to.

[Hexokinase]

Perhaps you could ask your instructor to define the "concepts of illustration" so that you can give a response with specific examples of what you learned.

[Max Challie]

I hope this doesn't cause problems. Fundamentals like composition and colour theory are abstract; you have to figure them out yourself. But you said you understood it, right?

[RyerOrdStar]

Maybe she meant things like not using your own icons to signify universal symbols or being careful about using certain colours when you want the image to say something else, then again you don't specify if it's an editorial assignment or a book cover type thing so it's hard to say.

[Elwell]

Fundamentals like composition and colour theory are abstract; you have to figure them out yourself.

They're not, really, they're just usually badly taught.

[J Wilson]

Context? What was he saying before he said that?

The concept of illustration to me, would mean something like using the various elements of the image to get a message or story element across. If you have no idea what an image is supposed to be about, it's just decorative. Sometimes the message or story is extremely simple, but it's still there.

[Alison B.]

Thanks for responding guys! :D I don't feel like I'm going crazy anymore. Like there's some super secret illustrator code that I've totally missed. xD

I think I'll just ask him what he meant when I get back.