Peachtree Publishers Field Trip

Many thanks to Loraine Joyner (art director), Margaret Quinlin (owner and president), Paula Herr (director of Creative Marketing) and the rest of the folks at Peachtree Publishing for taking time out of their crazy schedules to speak with several Illustration Grad students in their Atlanta offices yesterday.


Loraine works with illustrators daily, and shared some of her vast knowledge about the art of illustration and the business of children's book publishing.


Loraine walked us through several books, explaining the process of working with the authors, editors and illustrators to bring a book from an idea to a finished, published work.


We got to meet many of the other folks at Peachtree and learned a little about what they do in the publishing process.


In Loraine's office, she showed us a few of the MANY, MANY promos she receives on a daily basis, and gave us a few hints about what she keeps and what ends up in the round file. And finally, she walked us through a wonderful set of working drawings for a book in progress, explaining the importance of flow, continuity, pacing and point of view. It was a wonderful tutorial on how to think when laying out a picture book.


D'oh! Look who beat us there!

Thanks to Loraine Joyner and everyone at Peachtree Publishers! We really appreciate your hospitality.

Drive by Press this Week!

Check out the Printmaking rooms this week for a visit from the wacky folks at Drive by Press!

The Illustration Asylum

The people have spoken, and the new name for the Illustration student club is The Illustration Asylum! (As artists, we admit, we are all a little crazy...) We're working on getting our own blog up and running with posts of our art challenges and events, but until then our Facebook group page will be our home...and maybe this blog a little bit too.

Our first challenge to the group is to create a logo for the Illustration Asylum. The logo will be featured on T-shirts, so it is up to you to make us look good. Bring your finished designs, 300 dpi JPGs for viewing, to the meeting on Friday, October 30th. Judging will be held then.

Also, take note that meeting times have changed! We now meet on Fridays at *11am* til' 2pm-ish, Rm. 379.

Some upcoming events to keep on the calendar:

Wednesday, October 28th (8pm)
International Animation Day
High Museum of Art, Rich Auditorium
8pm, FREE (secure your free ticket at the link below)
http://www.asifa-atlanta.com/

Friday, October 30th (11am-2pm)
Sketch trip to Oakland Cemetery - (11am -- meeting at school first, then driving over)
Color Workshop with Laura Martin (Gaijin Studios) (held by our friends at the Temple of Cartoon Mojo, Rm. 347) (1pm)
Challenge: Blog Banner Design

Good luck with the logos this week, and see you at the Asylum! :-)

Picture Book: Children's Illustration Contest

I just entered this contest online through Picture Book, and thought others might like to as well. It's FREE to enter, you just have create an online account with them, and once you do that you can upload them a single image for the contest.

Prizes are:
Two (2) winners get a free page in the 2011 Picture Book's Children's Illustration Directory
Four (4) runners up to get a free online portfolio subscription

Check out their website for more info. Could be a great way for those in the Children's Illustration market to advertise for free!

ILLU Students did Sketch workshop at Neiman Marcus

Illustration grad students Fernando Vazquez, Ethan Mongin and Solongo Mellecker did fashion sketch workshop this Thursday night for Neiman Marcus at Bloomingdale's in Lenox Mall, Atlanta. Neiman Marcus was looking for people who can do quick portrait sketches that have a fashion vibe to them for their huge Annual event throughout Bloomingdale's Department store. The event went very well, students did some great sketches using ink pen, color markers and watercolors.

Please check out more photos from the event.

SEQA Arts Forum 2009

ILLU Folks! Our buddies in Sequential are having their annual Arts Forum on the weekend of October 23rd. It's always a great event, and there is lots to be learned from these amazing artists. So let's all support our SEQA brethren and pack the house!

Threadless Tees Design Challenge

Threadless has teamed up with the Tate Modern Museum in the UK to create a t-shirt design to coincide with their Pop Life exhibition. The prizes are great and the recognition would be amazing. So everyone is strongly encouraged to participate and show the world your stuff. The closing date is October 29, so don't hesitate!

Generate Winners

Thanks to everyone who stuck it out for 24 hours last weekend to participate in our Illustration Challenges! It was great fun and you guys did some remarkable work in a very short time.

The Illustration department offered three different challenges:
1. INtown Paper: "Best of the Holiday '09" cover artwork.
2. Strathmore: "Going Green", which required an image using dry media on Strathmore paper that best represents your idea of what "green" means.
3. VOICE Today: Character Design challenge.

Adobe was again more than generous in donating copies of their industry leading graphics software suite, CS4, as prizes for our challenge winners. These packages retail for $1800 per copy, so this is not an insignificant thing here folks. In fact, it's huge. So we send our deepest appreciation to Terry Hemphill and the folks at Adobe for making this event a very special one.

Please know that every entry was carefully considered, and that many were deserving of prizes. The criteria for judging were both subjective and objective; the work had to be solid artistically and well executed, but the deciding factor for each was the application for which it was intended.
Some images were absolutely gorgeous, but might not have been a perfect fit for the intended usage, so we made a conscious effort to look at the work through the client's eyes, which is often a difficult aspect of judging illustration; is it about the art or is it about the marketplace? Truth is, it's almost always about both.

And, with that being said, the winners are... (drumrolllllllllll)

For INtown Paper Holiday cover; Renee Rivas!


For Strathmore "Going Green": Julia Berman!


For VOICE Today Character Design: Shanique Crenshaw!


Again, many thanks to all who participated, and congratulations to the winners!
(All of the entries will be posted soon.)

The Royal Pencil Society is born!

The inaugural meeting of the SCAD-Atlanta Illustration club was held today, and we are up and running!
Thanks to everyone who came out on a dreary Friday morning to get the ball rolling on this new venture into illustration stupendousness.
A few things were decided today:
1. The name: about 20 possible names were suggested by various students and faculty, and 5 seemed to be contenders for the top spot.
They were: The High Society of Lowbrow Art, The League of Extraordinary Illustrators, The Royal Pencil Society, Pencil Posse, and The Illustration Asylum. A vote was taken and the winner is "The Royal Pencil Society", which was submitted by Renee Rivas. So what, you might ask. Here's what...
2. The name and associated logo will be the new blog's name, will appear on t-shirts, will be on any banners or signage that represent the club, etc. So, the first official "challenge" for everyone is to create a logo for "The Royal Pencil Society".
We will discuss design considerations at the next meeting which is this Friday, the 16th at 10am.
3. We "annointed" two graduate students who will serve as our first student leaders: Sandee Chamberlain and Renee Rivas. They will be coordinating workshops, field trips, challenges and generally serving as the organizational leadership for the RPS. They will be asking for help from others from time to time, so please pitch in and do what you can to make this work for everyone.

So, that's pretty much it for now. Remember that every current SCAD student is welcome to join us, so if you know folks in other departments who have an interest in Illustration, spread the word!

Student Spotlight: Ethan Mongin

Time to shine the Illustration Spotlight on MFA candidate Ethan Mongin, our resident master of black and white ( but can also rock the colors when inspired to do so). So, without further ado, Heeeeeeere's Ethan...



Where are you from?
I’m from the South. I claim two hometowns, Savannah, GA and Lyman, SC.



Where have you been to school?
I graduated with a B.F.A. from Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC.



What attracted you to Illustration?
Comic books and illustrated versions of literary classics (especially those illustrated by N.C. Wyeth and Trina Schart Hyman) attracted my attention at an early age. As a child with no attention span and no patience for his environment, illustration proved to be an invaluable focusing tool.



Who are your biggest influences?
My influences are constantly mutating. When I was younger, illuminated manuscripts, 1920’s comic strips, and “Where’s Waldo” were rattling around in my subconscious. As a graduate student, I’ve found inspiration in the monochromatic work from the Golden Age of Illustration, Doug TenNapel’s graphic novels, and the mad skills of comic artist Sergio Toppi.



If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?
If I weren’t at SCAD, I’d probably have found a random hovel to call my home, and spent my entire waking moment scrawling contour drawings on the walls…



What do you like to do in your spare time?
My spare time is spent stalking strangers and drawing them in my sketchbooks…



What is something that most people don’t know about you?
Most people don’t realize I’m a natural-born southerner.



What would your dream job/client be and why?
Working with Chronicle Books or Top Shelf comics would be fantastic! Chronicle produces some of the most amazing published artwork I’ve ever seen, and Top Shelf is awesome because they publish off-the-wall sequential work.



What’s your typical process for creating your artwork (technique, media, etc)?
I usually begin by stressing myself out. Once I’ve encouraged the required amount of stomach ulcers and chewed finger nubs, I brainstorm a spider graph. After the spider graph I write out random literary terms and try to apply them to the concept of the artwork at hand. Then I thumbnail like an OCD fiend. Thumbnails are followed by really messy pencils, seriously anal-retentive inking, and sometimes digital coloring and texturizing.



Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
I’ve purposed to enjoy every aspect of life. And to make art. Lots of it. That looks really cool.

GENERATE 2009

The 2009 edition of Generate is underway! Check out the official Blog posts from our Illustration 24-Hour Troopers, as well as the work from all the other departments who are participating.