Daniel Adel visit, Monday Nov. 3rd!

One of the premier editorial illustrators in the world will be here at SCAD-Atlanta on the 3rd of November. But Dan Adel is much more than an editorial illustrator; he's a portrait artist of the highest caliber, an amazing watercolorist, a fine art oil painter with a robust gallery career, and he's even an accomplished photographer. But my favorite aspect of Daniel Adel is his wry sense of humor; read his caption for this hilarious piece as it appeared in the Society of Illustrators Annual a couple of years ago...

"A disrespectful homage to perhaps my all-time favorite Velasquez: Los Borrachos. We rented a villa in Tuscany with a Roman-era pool and invited some friends over for the photo shoot to prepare for this job. Okay, I guess I wouldn't consider Newt a "friend" per se ... Hat tip to Paulina Poriskova for posing as the nymph in the foreground. To everyone's surprise, she and Rush totally hit it off playing beer pong."

Don't miss this chance to meet and learn from one of the greats of both worlds of art and illustration as he presents his work AND does a demonstration of his gorgeous painting technique.

Monday, November 3rd
6pm, Event Space 4C
------------------------------------

Dan's lecture and demo were awesome, as expected. He showed his Illustration work as well as his spectacular oil paintings of drapery, crumpled paper and water, and his beautiful watercolors of his village of Lacoste in Provence, France.


He was as witty and dry as I was led to believe, and he is as warm as he is talented.


He was joined by his lovely wife Veronique (middle) who embarrassed him with a candle and a big kiss at the podium in celebration of his birthday.


The subject of his portrait demo was our own Rich Gere, chair of the Printmaking Department. He accomplished a great deal in the hour or so he had to actually paint. And the likeness is spot-on as usual, except Dan was a tad generous with the hair.

Thanks, Dan! We'll be sure to stop by your place next time we're in Lacoste!

Generate '08

This year's 24-Hour Art Marathon was called Generate, a very fitting name because of all the amazing stuff being generated in one very long but exciting day. The Official Generate Blog has posts from the two Illustration Challenges as well as every challenge category, and it's definitely worth checking them all out. There were lots of freebies to be had, but the early birds got the bulk of the goods; everything on the free tables was gone in about 30 seconds once the starting bell was rung. Word to the wise; be here before 10am next year.
We can't thank our sponsors enough for their generous support this year. The prizes were awesome; Strathmore donated tons of sketchbooks, wet and dry media pads, Bristol pads and the best illustration board in the business, bar none. Adobe went over-the-top by donating 6 copies of the yet-to-be-released, super fantastic Creative Suite 4, better known as Adobe CS4. Two of our Illustration challengers got a copy... more about that on the Generate Blog. And Wacom came through in a huge way as well; they donated two specialty styluses, the 6D Art Pen and the Airbrush Pen. These went to our 12-hour winner. They also kicked in a 6X8 Intuos3 tablet which went to the Sequential Challenge winner. But the mac-daddy prize went to the Illustration Grand Prize Winner; a Cintiq 12WX!!! Sweet, indeed.

Check out the Generate Blog to see the winners, and to see all of the Illustration Challenge entries, click here.

See you next year!

Student Spotlight: Kat Cimino

We are very proud to present this month's Student Spotlight recipient, senior Kat Cimino. Kat has been doing remarkable work and the faculty wanted to show her off a bit by displaying her talents to the SCAD community and the world at large.

Kat portrait by Alan Hawley



1. Where are you from? I am from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.



2. Where have you been to school (and if grad student what kind of degree did you receive)?
I attended Atlanta College of Art as a Drawing/Painting major for two years before the merger.



3. What attracted you to Illustration?
I felt lost as a Drawing/Painting major. At the time I knew very little about myself as an artist- and otherwise. I remember being very impressed when I took Illustration I with Rick Lovell at ACA because I felt like I was finally getting a little more direction. So, when I came to SCAD I changed my major to Illustration. It felt like a chance to start over.



4. Who are your biggest influences?
My teachers and my classmates. I am so inspired by them! Their feedback on my work is important to me too.



5. If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?
I can’t say I would have found Illustration the same way, but I know I would be still be making art. A couple other art schools had accepted me, so I would be at one of those, I suppose.



6. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I’m not really sure when spare time is. Outside of school I spend a lot of time reading, doing homework, going to the gym, cuddling my dog, taking pictures, going to farmer’s markets, and dreaming about future paintings. I really love cooking too.



7. What is something that most people don’t know about you?
I’m vegan, so I make art that is too; I try to only use materials that are animal-free!



8. What would your dream job/client be and why?
Someone who wants me to paint pretty things, because that’s what makes me happy.



9. What’s your typical process for creating your artwork (technique, media, etc)?
I have not settled on a particular process or medium. I usually pick up whatever medium we last employed in class, not only because of it’s availability but because I will still have a feel for it. I took a watercolor class last quarter so that is what I have been using lately, which is ironic because I remember telling everyone how much I hated the medium. I rarely use computers. Really, the only constants are that I always work from photographs, and I always make a really big mess.



10. Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
I didn’t really get into my work unless I accidentally ate paint or trekked it all over the house.

SCBWI Portfolio Reviews at Little Shop of Stories

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Southern Breeze division, chaired by our good friend Elizabeth Dulemba, hosted a very informative and beneficial portfolio review and workshop today at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur. Check out Elizabeth's post on this event.

Lorraine Joyner (above), the art director at Peachtree Publishers, spoke about the promotional material she receives in the mail each month from illustrators; what grabs her attention and what doesn't, and why.

She went over the various forms of promos she receives; simple post cards, booklets, boxed sets of cards, even a cute wooden choo-choo train with the artist's images and web address painted on it. All that stuff is cute, and may save it from the round file, but in the end, either the work is something she can use or it isn't. Some of the most elaborate packaging, she says, contains some of the weakest work; in other words, don't try to hide bad art inside fancy packages... she'll sniff it out in no time. Also, she made it clear that there simply isn't any way to acknowledge receipt of your mailings, no matter how much she likes the work. You will hear from her when she can use you for a job, but not before. It sounds cold, but it's just business; if she replied to everyone who sent her promo materials, she'd never sleep, much less get any work done.

The portfolios were all lined up ready for her discerning review, and everyone was encouraged to look at each other's work before and after the review session. Happily (and rather proudly), most of the books were by our own extraordinary students at SCAD-Atlanta. Kudos to all of you who attended, as you presented yourselves VERY well and made us all look good.

Here are some of our stars; l to r: Matt Kelley, Katrin Wiehle, Ethan Mongin and April Brantner, taking it all in as Lorraine checks out another portfolio. Other Scaddites in attendance were Noodie Aysiri, Krystal Sanchez, Julia Berman, Goñi Montes, Heather Elder and Ferni Valazquez (forgive me if I left anyone out!). The reviews were open, meaning that everyone received the benefit of Lorraine's assessment as she looked at each portfolio.

A few heavy-hitters were in attendance admiring all the wonderful work. Lee and Bill Mayer and Mark Braught are looking at Katrin Wielhe's work, and they were very impressed by what they saw today from all of the SCAD participants. I came away with a sense of pride and a reaffirmation that we have some of the best students anywhere.

Here's a shot of the Pros in attendance: From the left are: Mark Braught, Bill Mayer, Yours Truly, Loraine Joyner, Elizabeth Dulemba, and Laura Knorr.

The SCBWI Portfolio Workshop will be an annual event, and the SCBWI and SCAD-Atlanta will be working together to make this even more accessible and more meaningful in the future. In the meantime, on behalf of the students and faculty at SCAD-Atlanta, I would like to thank Elizabeth Dulemba for inviting us to participate, and to Lorraine Joyner at Peachtree Publishers for providing such valuable feedback to our students. I'm really looking forward to next year!