Traditional and computing-based illustrations make a great part of our everyday experience. This part of the book examines how traditional illustration types have found their continuation in computing-based media, even when the products mimic the old appearance. The next part includes several projects addressed to the reader and illustrated by student solutions, which refer to various fields of interests or areas of activities and apply selected illustration techniques.
TopIntroduction
Both traditional and computing-based illustrations make a great part of our everyday experience including communication, learning, productive work, and artistic activities. It seems difficult to classify illustrations into particular types or groups because each categorization would depend on our interest: whether we would inspect techniques, products, or recipients. Some subcategorize illustration into the techniques such as: drawing, painting, printing and pasting ready images. These frames of reference would mingle, bind, and interlace with the objects of illustration, especially when accomplished in a digital, interactive, and shared environment. Great many of traditional illustration types have found their continuation in computing based media, even when the products mimic old appearance while obtained with different media. Interaction techniques for digital transfer from the old resources to a currently demanded destination start from the old cut, copy, and paste operations, often without any concern about the copyright issues.
Without doubt, the art of illustration is closely related to printing techniques, even when printing is a final step of the process. A timeline of printing techniques has been listed on Wikipedia (History of Printing, 2013) as follows: Woodblock printing (ancient but documented after 200), Movable type (1040), Printing press (1454), Etching (ca. 1500), Mezzotint (1642), Aquatint (1768), Lithography (1796), Chromolithography (1837), Rotary press (1843), Offset printing (1875), Hectograph (19th century), Hot metal typesetting (1886), Mimeograph (1890), Screen printing (1907), Spirit duplicator (1923), Dye-sublimation (1957), Phototypesetting (1960s), Dot matrix printer (1964), Laser printing (1969), Thermal printing (ca. 1972), Inkjet printing (1976), 3D printing (1986), and Digital press (1993).
The further text contains several illustration projects that are inspired by biology and other sciences, refer to various fields of our interests and areas of our activities, and apply selected illustration techniques.