Taken from the Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning, Winter 2007 Course Catalog

The Illustration Arts communicate a visual message to the world around us. This course will examine the roots of the Illustration Arts in classical times, with special focus on the illustration of the past 150 years and the great master communicator, Norman Rockwell.

Session 1 – What is Illustration? What distinguishes it from “fine art,” and how does an illustrator focus on an assignment?

Session 2 – Illustration Illuminated. Journey through the centuries from classical times, medieval manuscripts, tapestry, stained glass and the great Renaissance painters to the present day.

Session 3 – The Golden Age of Illustration. In the late 1890s, printing technology made off-set color lithography affordable. Winslow Homer, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish and J.C. Leyendecker are considered the best of America’s Gold Age illustrators.

Session 4 – Norman Rockwell and American Modernism. Norman Rockwell is considered by both professional illustrators and the American public to be the greatest visual communicator of the 20th century. What set him apart from his peers and created the divide between illustration and fine art?

Session 5 – Illustration Today. Editorial art, advertising, picture books, journalism, electronic media and stock art: Learn from a practicing illustrator the challenges illustrators face today and how their tasks differ from that of Rockwell and his forebears.