The Internet as It Affects the Illustrative Acumen of Art Students in Universities South-South of Nigeria

This study of the internet as it affects the illustrative acumen of art students was done in the universities south-south of Nigeria. This is an empirical study that shows how plagiarism of illustrations affects students which, therefore, weakens their illustrative abilities. Federal and state owned universities that had Fine and Applied Arts, only majoring in graphics were selected. Graphic students see illustrations from the internet as a resource for completing their illustrative assignments, with no attempt to avoid plagiarism, but rather aim for higher scores in their zeal to make their layouts easier and faster, rather they avoid sourcing for their original illustration, either by drawing or self-made photographs. From this empirical research, it was found out that it affected their learning process especially fueled by the lack of direction from their teachers on how to source for illustration. In the light of this study, only one objective and research question were formulated. The objective was to find out how ready-made illustration affected the illustrative acumen of undergraduate graphic artists in south-south of Nigeria. The research design was a quantitative survey. The population was made up of all the specializing graphic art students of years three and four. The instruments were interviews for lecturers and students and questionnaires for students. The results indicated great temptation to sourcing illustrations from the internet, and students felt impatient towards their manuals which bred bad finish. It was therefore recommended that lecturers provide direction for sourcing illustrations and continuous practice on their manuals to improve their artistic abilities.