SCAD-ATLANTA Illustration

Thomas Burns in PLANSPONSOR

2012-01-19T19:25:00.000-05:00

Thomas gets a Twofer this month... first as the Student Spotlight lightee, and now as the student whose work was published in Plansponsor Magazine.

As some of you recall, last year's ILLU Arts Forum featured John Hendrix, Chris Buzelli and SooJin Buzelli. SooJin is the Creative Director at Asset International, which publishes PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISOR, and PLANSPONSOR EUROPE. Before SooJin took the creative helm at AI, the magazines were as dry as week old toast, driven by clipart and stock photography like all other financial publications. But SooJin had a vision of a publication with imagery driven by creative thinking and beautiful illustration, and has transformed the magazines into showcases of the best in contemporary illustration. It's something of a coup to have one's work featured in the magazines now. While SooJin was here on her visit to SCAD, she hinted that she is always looking for bright new talent, and that we were welcome to submit work for consideration in future issues.

Last summer, Prof. Rick Lovell's Illustration for Publication and Getting Published classes created illustrations to fit three different areas of the magazines that introduce articles each month with a consistent, running theme. These three areas address the ideas of "Tools of the Trade", "Bells and Whistles" and "Hot off the Presses". So the class created works that are loose interpretations of these three ideas.

Illustration MFA candidate Thomas Burns' piece for "Bells and Whistles" is appearing in the January 2012 issue. Looks awesome... congrats, Thomas!

Student Spotlight: Thomas Burns

2012-01-11T18:41:00.007-05:00

A recurring blog entry highlighting outstanding current students and their work.

1. Where are you from (hometown, country, etc.)

Lawrenceville, GA

2. Where have you been to school (and if grad student what kind of degree did you receive)?

Undergraduate: University of Florida BFA - Graphic Design 1992

Graduate: Michigan State University MBA - Supply Chain Management 1997

Graduate: Michigan State University MA - Advertising 1998

Graduate: Savannah College of Art and Design pursuing MFA – Illustration

3. What attracted you to Illustration?

The steady pay, low overtime and great medical benefits. Oh, and the 401k plan.

4. Who are your biggest influences?

Some of my earlier influences in the 1980s and 90s were Jon J Muth , Kent Williams, François Schuiten, Bernie Wrightson. When I found my way back to design and illustration I started to notice people like Ragnar, Jon Lund, Paul Rogers, Adam Gustavson, Josh Agle. A lot of these more recent influences have big design backgrounds and tend to be more graphic and digital in nature.

5. If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?

Working for the phone company filling out purchase orders for fiber optic cable and data switches. More than likely my cubicle would be located near the janitors closet with no access to windows. Or sunlight. True story.

6. What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like to spend a lot of time with my wife and five year old daughter.
I also enjoy cage fighting.

7. What is something that most people don’t know about you?

I don’t have any cavities. Really.

8. What would your dream job/client be and why?

My dream job is to have my own studio and work on posters and a continuing series of children’s books.

9. What’s your typical process for creating your artwork (technique, media, etc)?

I typically do a lot of traditional thumbnails and comps with pencil or ink or Prismas, then complete an illustration digitally with Illustrator or Photoshop. I’m trying to get a lot more textures and organic elements into the digital work so it doesn’t look so.. digital.

10. Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
The value of simplicity – of driving the important details of your life and not letting the unimportant ones drive you. Or eat desert first. I can’t really decide.

Thanks, Thomas!

2011 "Illustration West 50"winners

2012-01-07T15:38:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to all the winners of the Society of Illustrators Illustration Competition:

Asa Ayers, Kari Brooks, Thomas Burns, DoSung Hwang, Yina Hyder, Solongo Monkhooroi, Caleb Morris, Bekir Orhan and Denise Plauche

Savannah Stopover Poster Competition

2011-12-13T20:59:00.000-05:00

SAVANNAH STOPOVER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012

CALL FOR FESTIVAL POSTERS

Be a part of Savannah’s best new festival!

The Savannah Stopover Music Festival, founded in 2011, focuses on the best

up-and-coming indie bands in the world, most of whom are traveling en route

to the prestigious SXSW Music Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.

The festival poster should appeal to bands, festival attendees, and the general public and should

incorporate the guidelines listed above. The winning poster(s) will officially represent the

Savannah Stopover Music Festival and will be showcased in the weeks leading up the event as well as at the opening night Art Party and concert on March 7th, 2012.

The winning designer(s) will be awarded two VIP passes to the Festival, valued at over $250.00.

SPECS:

Size Requirements: Posters must be 12 x 18 inches

Medium: Artist’s choice

Format: Artists must submit both a jpeg file and a physical poster mounted on foam core.

Deliver to Savannah Stopover Offices: 35 Barnard Street, Suite 200, Savannah, GA 31401

Deadline: Thursday, January 12th, 2012

To request more information, and to receive application instructions, contact: posters@savannahstopover.com

http://savannahstopover.com/2012-savannah-stopover-music-festival-poster-competition

Design Requirements:

1) You must leave a minimum of 1.25 inch square space for a QR code and a minimum of 1.25 inch square for the Savannah Stopover Logo. These will be provided only to poster winners after judging.

2) You must include the Festival Dates which are March 7-10th, 2012, and the festival website URL which is

savannahstopover.com

3) The full festival name MUST have prominent treatment: Savannah Stopover Music Festival

** Failure to comply with these requirements will disqualify your poster. All winning posters become the property of Savannah Stopover Music Festival. Winning artists will receive 50% of profits from any sales of their poster.

**The festival lineup of bands will not be announced until mid-January and is not a consideration for the general Festival Posters.

Cory Thomas in the AJC

2011-10-24T22:37:00.000-04:00

Congrats to Cory Thomas, whose piece about teachers who cheat appeared in the Editorial section of today's AJC.

Kari Brooks AJC illustration

2011-10-21T21:11:00.002-04:00

One of the assignments in this summer's ILLU410: Getting Published and ILLU764: Illustration for Publications class was to do three illustrations for the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Editorial pages. We visited the AJC headquarters in Dunwoody where Will Alford and the rest of the editorial staff spoke with the students about what the paper looks for in editorial illustration in terms of tone, style, etc. They gave the students a list of topics that are often addressed in the editorial section, and were careful to make the point that, while generic, or "stock" images often fit broad, national concerns, they really are looking for imagery that helps to address local issues, such as the Atlanta Public Schools testing scandal, Marta, bad cops, the water wars with Florida and Alabama, etc. So, the students took that to heart and created images that dealt directly with issues that concern Atlanta and Georgia specifically.

The first of the published pieces to come out of that class is by Kari Brooks, who depicted a typical school teacher in front of a line-up board drawn on a classroom chalkboard. It appeared in the AJC on Monday, Oct. 17th. Congratulations, Kari! Awesome job!

Be on the lookout for a piece by Cory Thomas next Monday, the 24th!

2011-10-13T12:34:00.000-04:00

One of my classes just finished up a project where they had to pitch and design a set of nesting dolls for the client of their choice. We had tons of great ones come out (I'll be putting them in the display cases this week!), but here are some of the ones I liked a lot (and was able to get decent photos of!):

Far Summers

2011-09-19T22:29:00.001-04:00

Sean Twiddy Exhibition: "Far Summers: Journey In the Greater World"

Sep. 23 – Oct. 07, 2011

Dewberry Gallery of SCAD | 1545 Peachtree St., Suite 225, Atlanta, Ga.

Sean's thesis explores the plausibility of the monoculture as portrayed in fiction literature, movies and games: "The monoculture is a concept prevalent throughout the science fiction and fantasy genres.
In various media incarnations, the monoculture is a common tool to introduce audiences to aliens,
soldiers, and strange species. In a monoculture, all members of a given group, be it species, race,
nation, religion, and so on are universally characterized in a narrowly defined manner. All share
the same culture, regardless of any external factors.
Nearly all characters within such groups act, look, and think the same, with little if any
deviation. Creators depict individuals within the group as nearly identical, regardless of the size
of the population of the group, or the area it occupies. Members of monocultures all enjoy the
same things, wear the same clothes, speak the same way, and in most cases are effectively
interchangeable to the audience. Individuals represent examples of their group, and inform the
audience about all others of their group. Characters that do not follow this pattern are rare
anomalies, their inclusion in fiction used as a conflict or object lesson."

Mr. Twiddy

The idea of a monoculture was revealed through the eyes of an explorer on the planet Saichen, and we, the viewers, are invited to peruse his journal and meet the various tribes and traditions of the inhabitants:
"This manuscript represents the journal and illustrations of the explorer Osong-Prekana
Pieonten, a kriglani of the Parsephan culture of the planet Siachen. It has been painstakingly
translated from the Parsephan language. All text in his illustrations has also been translated, with
efforts made to maintain the tone of Osong-Prekana’s original manuscript.
Osong-Prekana published his tome under the title “Far Summers: Journey in the Greater
World”. It represented the work of more than 5 years exploration, in which he traveled around
the planet, visiting nearly every major culture. His journals detail contact with the Kingdom of
Ka, the Bosp Leagues, the tribes of the Ingoh, Kolam, and Vouss, Tairo city-states, the Epailo
Kingdom, Fuso’olon, Halasha’fono, and several other nations. In additional, he was a naturalist of
advanced thinking for his culture, illustrating numerous animals, plants, and fungus (or at least
Siachen’s effective equivalents) in the lands he visited."

Map of Siachen

A page from the journal of Osong-Prekana Pieonten, depicting a Ka fortress and it's sentinels

Mysterious green-haired girl, Asa Ayers, Duncan Smith, Dave Song, the reclusive Denise Plauche, and Bekr Orhan

Book covers designed by Carey Beck

Alan, Bekr, Sean, Duncan and Asa. The show was so good, Alan almost smiled.

Nazanin Kani AJC Editorial

2011-09-18T22:12:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Nazanin Kani, whose illustration about Atlanta traffic and the need for increased mass transit, appeared in this Sunday's Atlanta Journal Constitution.

ILLUSTRATOR'S DAY // sign up now!!

2011-08-25T21:49:00.002-04:00

Bekir Orhan's Thesis Opening

2011-08-13T22:27:00.006-04:00

'The SCAD exhibitions department presents "Memories in Mother Tongue," a thesis exhibition by M.F.A. illustration student Abubekir Orhan. "Memories in Mother Tongue" is a visual translation of significant experiences the artist has had in relation to his Kurdish identity. The content of this show includes autobiographical elements, the psychological aspect of the artist's experiences, and his personal approach to contemporary Kurdish politics.'

That is the description of the exhibition on SCAD's website. It is accurate, but not adequate to describe the emotional impact of these images.

As I understand it (and I am no expert on the Turkish/Kurd relationship), Kurds and Turks have been in various forms of conflict for centuries, but in modern times (since the Ottoman Empire, around WWI), the "Turkification" of the Kurdish population intensified, and most Kurds found themselves being forced to resettle in small pockets scattered across the country, mostly to the East and Southeast. This forced ethnic cleansing split up families, not only physically, but culturally as well. The Kurdish children were forced to abandon their native language and culture in favor of the Turkish language and alphabet, meaning that the adults and their children slowly began to lose the ability to communicate with each other, resulting in a wrenching disconnect between generations.

This collection of visual memories of that time and place speak to the loss of one's culture and language, the isolation of having no place that can be called home, and the political tension that permeates every aspect of life as an oppressed minority.

Many thanks to Vice President P.J. Johnson for once again showing his support for all the students at SCAD.

There was a large contingent of fellow SCAD students on hand, as well as friends and family.

Bekir charming Yina Hyder

...and Yina telling him where to go, apparently.

Heather Lund and her boyfriend admiring the work...

and chatting with Asa Ayers

Sean Twiddy, April Dukes and her son and boyfriend.

Aaron Jackson admiring Bekir's work.

And, fellow SCAD MFA grads and candidates who came to support Bekir...
LtoR: Solongo Monkhooroi, Sean Twiddy, Sandee Chamberlain, Bekir, Yina Hyder, Aaron Jackson, Asa Ayers, Duncan Smith, April Dukes.

Congratulations on a wonderful show, Bekir!

Hong Kong-Atlanta Dragonboat Festival T-Shirts

2011-08-08T20:46:00.000-04:00

We were contacted by Gene Hanratty of the Hong Kong Information Center Atlanta to design the back of the official Hong Kong-Atlanta Dragonboat Festival 2011 T-Shirts.

The legend of the festival is quite interesting. The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is undoubtedly one of Hong Kong’s most popular events, drawing thousands of spectators and racing teams from across the globe. The popularity of this event is growing at a surprising rate throughout the world but especially in the USA, Canada and Europe.
Since 1976, when Hong Kong introduced the world’s first international races, dragon boat racing has grown in popularity, with clubs and associations forming in countries throughout Asia, Europe and North America and competitions taking place in cities around the world. The colorful Asian tradition turned exciting international sporting event has attracted quite a following in the United States as well. Moving into its eighth year, the Atlanta event is part of a series of races taking place in major metropolitan areas along the east coast including Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York.
The sport itself dates back some 2,000 years and has as its origins an ancient Chinese legend. As the story goes, there was a well-loved statesman and poet by the name of Qu Yuan who lived in the Kingdom of Chu during the 4th century B.C. Although this popular figure was a favorite of the people, he found himself banished from the court at the advice of corrupt officials.
Unhappy and in deep despair, Qu Yuan roamed the countryside writing poetry about his love of the country and its people. Unable to bear his sorrow any longer, or perhaps as a final protest against corruption and a plea to the Emperor, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Mi Lo River.
Local fishermen raced out in their boats in an attempt to save him but arrived too late. In order to lure fish away from the body, they beat the water with their paddles and tossed rice dumplings into the river.
The Chinese people have never forgotten Qu Yuan’s desperate, heroic feat. Thus was born a tradition that continues to this day, dragon boat races are a re-enactment of the failed attempt to save Qu Yuan. The Dragon Boat Festival has deep cultural ties, evidenced by the ceremony and ritual surrounding the races. Four days before a traditional festival, the dragon boats are taken from repose to have their heads and tails attached. Typically, a community leader is invited to “dot the eye” of the dragon in a ceremony designed to rouse its sleeping spirit. While in some cultures the dragon is considered to be evil, in Chinese culture dragons are viewed as strong, powerful and frequently a symbol for the spring rains and growth. Dragons are also viewed as protective and benevolent, which is why dragon boat racing is often thought of as a means of spreading good luck. In return for staging the dragon boat races, it is believed that the community will be blessed with happiness and prosperity.
The dragon boat itself is a spectacle to behold. The slim, 39-foot teakwood racer (and fiberglass models) is crafted today in only a handful of boat-yards in Hong Kong. Distinguished by a fierce-looking dragon’s head at the prow and a tail at the stern, traditional dragon boats require thirty days, three craftsmen, and years of practice to produce.
_____________
The front of the shirts carry the official logo on the breast pocket (shown at the top of this post), so we were charged with creating a design for the back of the shirts. Initially, the shirt could be designed for any of several dozen standard shirt colors, but in the end, we were asked to work with a pale yellow shirt color. Also, since these are screen-printed, we were restricted to three to four colors only.

Rick Lovell's ILLU316: Electronic Illustration II, ILLU730: Computer Illustration, ILLU410: Getting Published, and ILLU764: Illustration for Publications worked on this project.

Asa Ayers' design was chosen as the winner... Congrats Asa!

Here are a few more select entries from this year's competition...

Congratulations to all the students who worked on this project. It was a huge success and was VERY well received by the folks at the Dragonboat Festival. The consensus was that the designs were so strong across the board that judging was quite an ordeal and took much longer than anticipated. They were so impressed that they have asked if we would be interested in making this an ongoing association, and the answer of course, is a resounding YES!

Cirque du Clue; Aaron Jackson's Thesis Show

2011-08-06T17:59:00.000-04:00

Aaron Jackson held his MFA in Illustration Thesis Exhibition at CherryLion Studios; the opening was July 29th. The invitation foretold the theme of the show: "A freaky take on the classic board game reminding you to THINK BEFORE YOU JUDGE".

The thrust of Aaron's thesis was to present the idea of tolerance in a familiar, accessible and fun way, so he rethought the classic board game Clue, and changed the setting to a circus side show, populated with all manner of fringe characters. The game board became the circus grounds and the cards represent all the characters, weapons and props that might be associated with the circus.

All of the artwork was executed in acrylics, then refined in Photoshop. Each original painting was hung in the show, as were the finished, printed game components.

Several old friends and alumni as well as current student were on hand.

Alan Hawley and Andrea Sipl were there along with one of Andrea's co-workers at Carter's, and Katrin Wiehle came in all the way from Germany just to see Aaron's show! (Not really, but it was great to see her!)

Nazanin Kani and Semin Chun catching up (apparently Obekr and Sandee had some catching up to do as well)

Congratulations, Aaron. It was a great show!

working on getting my presence known

2011-07-16T21:46:00.005-04:00

send me comments, critiques, questions, or job opportunities!

www.elizabethtopper.com

An Opportunity?

2011-06-04T09:14:00.000-04:00

This is a great post from Tim O'Brien via Drawger. All young and aspiring illustrators and designers should read and heed.

Semin Chun's MFA Thesis Show

2011-06-01T22:41:00.000-04:00

After about eight wonderful years of knowing and working with Semin Chun, she has completed her MFA work, mounted her Thesis show, and is ready to take on the world.

I have had the profound privilege of teaching Ms. Chun all along the way, from her freshman year in Foundation Drawing at Atlanta College of Art, all the way through her BFA in Illustration at ACA, and her MA in Illustration Design at SCAD-Atlanta, and finally to her MFA in Illustration at SCAD-Atlanta. She had a few bumps in the road along the way, from visa issues to her mom fighting and finally beating breast cancer, and worrying about which degree would be best for her, but in the end, she reached her goal and did it with style, grace, and humor. We are all so proud of you, Semin, and wish you only the very best!

Semin's thesis takes the form of a book entitled "The Great Animal Race; The Legend of the Eastern Zodiac", and is a retelling of how the animals came to represent the 12 Zodiac birth years.
This is the first page of the story.

The images were created using scans of various colors and textures of mulberry paper and "cutting" the paper in Photoshop as a digital collage.

Semin has done many pieces using traditional cut-paper collage, but this digital version allows for more flexibility in color and design, and in the end, very closely replicates the traditional paper look and feel.

The show was at StudioPlex, but not in the usual space. Instead, Semin had her show in the Sales Office, which worked out perfectly for her one-person show. The space has seating which was great for casually thumbing through her beautiful book.

SCAD Vice President P.J. Johnson is such a tremendous supporter of our students and comes to almost all the shows. That's Semin's mom on the right, all the way from South Korea!

Prof. M. J. Kim taking a look at Semin's book.

Prof. Mike Lowery trying out some new material. That's MFA candidate Obekr Orhan, Prof. Goñi Montes, and recent MFA grad Solongo Monkhooroi politely chuckling for Mike.

Congratulations, Semin! We are so proud of you and will truly miss you.

MFA Thesispalooza, Part III

2011-05-15T11:20:00.000-04:00

Solongo Monkhooroi's MFA Thesis Show is up at Dewberry Gallery. The opening was Friday evening.

"Monsterous Imaginarious" explores monsters from different cultures around the globe. Many of the "monsters" are women, and some are depicted as beautiful and alluring rather than hideous and disfigured. This makes them even more sinister as they draw their victims in before they have their way with them. There are twelve paintings that depict these dark and strange beings, and one large mandala entitled "COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS".

This piece is the largest at 36X36", and the rest are 24X24". All are acrylics on wood panels, and the edges are finished in silver leaf. Solongo makes her own gold paints with powdered gold and acrylic medium or glue.
Solongo carefully researched these mythical monsters and depicted them in their native environments and in appropriate periods in time.

"Medusa"

"Vampire"

"Banshee"

"Werewolf"

MFA candidates who came to support Solongo:
Obekr Orhan, Julia Berman, Sean Twiddy, Aaron Jackson, Solongo, Nazanin Kani and Semin Chun.

SCAD Vice President P.J. Johnson and Prof. Brett Osborn, Dean of Fine Arts, were very impressed.

There's even a Medusa Munny! All of the work is for sale, and you can inquire through her website.

Julie and I and the rest of the faculty are very proud of you, Solongo! Best wishes as you head out into the art world. I know we'll be seeing you in the best art and illustration publications soon and for years to come.

MFA Thesispalooza, Part II

2011-05-15T10:25:00.000-04:00

Juxtapose- Ethan Mongin and Alan Hawley

Ethan Mongin and Alan Hawley held a joint show at StudioPlex on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta.

It was an interesting show because the work is so different in content and execution.
Ethan's work is line-driven and deals with his own visual reinterpretations of classic literature. It is about pattern and line and works just as well in black and white.

One of Ethan's pieces from the "Treasure Island" series. The lines are inked by hand and color is added digitally.

An image from Ethan's "Alice in Wonderland"series. All of Ethan's Thesis work can be seen here.

Alan's work, on the other hand, is hard-edged but not dependent on line, and deals with mythological gods, heroes, and apocalyptic scenarios of death and destruction. Alan is more interested in color and light, and built his thesis work around a series of specific two-color relationships; each piece in his 12-image thesis relies on two dominant colors to give each image the perfect palette for the narrative, and to make each piece visually unique from the rest.

"Plague of Rats". All of Alan's pieces are acrylics on illustration board.

"Death Dragon"

Ethan and his wife chatting with Julia Berman.

Alan and his mentor, Bryan Stelfreeze, always teaching. And Asa Ayers and Jay Montgomery

Great job, guys!

MFA Thesispalooza!

2011-05-14T22:51:00.000-04:00

SCAD-Atlanta's Illustration Department has, for the past several years, enjoyed some amazing MFA candidates streaming through our doors, and this year is one of the biggest and best groups yet. In the past three weeks, four of our star students have mounted their Thesis Exhibitions, and have made us all very proud.The first of the shows this spring is...

Sandee Chamberlain's show, "Colorful Curiosities", was held at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur. It was the perfect venue for her show that contained all of the artwork that was created for her picture book entitled "Hugh", the story of a little bird who taught his friends all about colors. Sandee is also an animator, and created an animated version of her delightful story.

Sandee and her proud (and relieved) dad!

Each page from the book as well as all of the character art was printed and framed for the show, and the animation was on a loop running on a laptop for everyone to see.

Sandee and Prof. Julie Mueller-Brown

Sandee's posse; Sean, Duncan, Aaron, Asa and Alan "The Enforcer"

Obekr Orhan; International Man of Mystery

Yohei!

Prof. Mike Lowery
____________________________________________________

Congratulations, Sandee! Well done! And best wishes on your new job on the faculty at Art Institute's Decatur campus!

SCAD-Atlanta Artist's Book Competition Winners

2011-04-13T10:52:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to the 4th Annual Student Artist’s Book Competition Award winners!
Prof. Julie Mueller Brown's Book I class fared extremely well in this competition; six books were entered and all six made it into the exhibition, with two winning top awards!

1st Place: Connor Kirk, Printmaking, “2/2/11 - 2/28/11”
2nd Place: Grant Hanna, Illustration, “Metamorphosis”
3rd Place: Kit Race, Illustration, “Jacob’s Ladder” (Illustration Program Coordinator Rick Lovell accepted the award for Kit)
Honorable Mention: Ashley Schick, Printmaking, “Dispersed Proportions”
Librarians’ Choice Award: Michelle Cornelison, Printmaking, “Ruth’s Story”

The other Illustration students who have work in the exhibition are:
Nazanin Kani, AeRi Yoon, Sojung Yu and Obekr Orhan.

The winning entries are on display in the library until April 28th.

SCAD Atlanta Alum // Katrin Wiehle for Blü magazine

2011-04-12T08:45:00.000-04:00

SCAD ATL alum Katrin Wiehle was recently interviewed in Blü magazine, a magazine about the arts. Read the interview here.

NEW WORK // NEW SITE FROM PROF. GOÑI MONTES

2011-04-03T22:54:00.003-04:00

Professor Goñi Montes recently updated his site with a new look and some great new art. If you haven't seen his recent work, you can check it out here.

2011 Adobe Design Achievement Awards // call for entries

2011-03-09T19:17:00.000-05:00

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards recognize innovative students and faculty members who AMAZE the world. Finalists will receive Adobe software and a trip to Taipei, Taiwan, where they will be honored in an awards ceremony during the 2011 IDA Congress set for October, 24-26, 2011. Category winners also will receive a cash award of US$3,000.

Competition is FREE to enter and open to all students, faculty and staff of higher education institutions around the world. Participants may submit up to 2 times in 15 different categories and 3 faculty categories. All student categories except for Web Analytics and Mobile Analytics* will be judged throughout the competition year. Students are able to submit in three judging sessions and semifinalists will be selected during each judging session. Students are advised to submit their projects for every academic term from May 2010 through June 2011.

ENTER ONLINE AT: www.adobeawards.com

Getting Published Class

2011-03-06T12:01:00.008-05:00

Getting published for the first time is a daunting task for some illustration students. Most clients want to work with artists that have already been published so how do you get published in the first place? It usually happens when someone really believes in your work and they take a chance having your art representing their product or service. One way to help this process is the Getting Published class offered at SCAD for undergrad Illustration Seniors. This past Fall I contacted the Marketing Director, Linnea Frye, of Dad’s Garage here in Atlanta, GA. “It’s a thriving mid-size theatre producing innovative, scripted and improvised works that are recognized locally, nationally and internationally for being undeniably awesome.” They had a funny play, “PopTart”, coming up in February 2011 they needed art for. Linnea was kind enough to come to class for an initial meeting to discuss the project with the students. Then the students got busy creating the best poster they could using the illustration process based on the requirements. Then it was then Linnea’s job to pick the best poster. All the students did a great job coming up with a funny and provocative illustration to represent the humorous tone of PopTart. It was not until after the class ended that the decision was finally made the Taylor Battle’s piece was the best fit, but I was not quite there yet. Linnea had about 4 more sets of revisions for Taylor. Here’s the original submission by Taylor and the final poster after all the revisions. Because of all the revision’s Linnea was kind enough to pay Taylor the normal rate they would pay an illustrator to create the poster. In the end, it was a great experience to realize that every commission is a compromise and the importance of pleasing the one that’s paying you.

Dad’s Garage was generous to give the class free tickets to the show! This past Friday, March 4th, Taylor and another student from the class, Kelsey Thor and I experienced a very funny play about pop culture, celebrity worship and the internet.

It was really exciting for Taylor and I to see her hard work in an over sized poster for all to see. I highly recommend you checking it out before it before the last show on March 19^th. We hope to continue to work with Dad’s Garage and other theater company’s in town to create many other win-win scenarios.

Rolling Stone Magazine Reviews Project

2011-03-02T21:48:00.004-05:00

Steven Charny, Senior Art Director for Rolling Stone Magazine visited SCAD's Savannah and Atlanta campuses this fall quarter. He gave a very interesting presentation and lecture about his early career, and especially his time at Rolling Stone. He and Professor Julie Lieberman, from the Savannah campus, put together a project with SCAD Illustration students from Savannah and Atlanta to create illustrations for the illustration-driven Reviews section of the magazine.

Initially, the project was to be in support of an article about Avril Lavigne's new release "Goodbye Lullaby". But just as the project got underway, the news broke that megaband Radiohead was to release their new album, "The King of Limbs" this year. So, the project quickly shifted gears and became a Radiohead illustration; Thom Yorke and the four other band members and some sort of reference, blatant or subliminal, to an ancient tree in the UK that the album pays homage to. The album takes its name from a 1,000-year-old tree in Wiltshire, England's Savernake Forest. That forest is found near Tottenham House, which is where the British band recorded part of "In Rainbows".
So, students from both campuses submitted thumbnails to Steven, and he replied to each student who submitted, offering direction on every sketch. The students then polished their concepts on the strongest sketches and submitted them for approval. It was as real-world as it gets, complete with revisions, outright re-dos, and very tight deadlines, all the while having to produce flawless likenesses and smart, conceptually compelling images with professional quality execution.

Here are the results:

Solongo Mellecker's acrylics on wood painting was one of two that were given the highest student ratings. Steven said: "This one was definitely in the running. Just coincidentally it really fit well with the headline. The likeness is perfect and the color and technique are quite beautiful. I love the idea of actually painting it on wood grain. It really came down to this one and the Buzelli, but the art director picked the Buzelli. This is someone I could see using for something down the road. Nice job!".

Kari Brooks' piece was also a very close contender. Here's what Steven said about Kari's beautiful digital painting: "This was one of the two really outstanding illustrations that could have easily been published by us. Really nicely done—good technique, perfect likenesses, nice composition, simple but on target."

Here are the other student submissions in no particular order:

While the student work was very strong, they decided to go with a pro who was also working on the article. Here is the Chris Buzelli piece that will be published.

Congratulations to all who participated! All-in-all it was a very strong effort by everyone, and we are very proud of each of you. And thanks to Steven Charny of Rolling Stone and Prof. Julie Lieberman for facilitating this terrific project. It was a great experience for all, and I hope this can be an ongoing collaborative effort between the students of SCAD's Illustration Department and Rolling Stone Magazine for many years to come.

Merry Down transfer demo

2011-02-28T21:53:00.001-05:00

I posted a fairly detailed step-by-step on this acrylic transfer technique to my blog. Enjoy!

2011 Illustration Forum (Continued)

2011-02-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

The SCAD-Atlanta Illustration Arts Forum was more than we had hoped for!

Chris Buzelli, John Hendrix and SooJin Buzelli are not only supremely talented artists and teachers, they are really nice people to hang out with. All of us had a wonderful time with them, and they consistently amazed us with their insight, creativity, and honesty.

The lecture on Thursday night at 6pm was at the SCAD-Atlanta Digital Media Center Theater.

John spoke with passion about his work, his influences and the importance of his sketchbook as a way to grow and find your voice as an illustrator. He also talked about the "S" word...style. It's not about a technique or a medium, it's about a point of view.
SooJin walked us through her transformation from being an illustration student to a big-time art director. It was an evolutionary process that took some time, but she has taken a group of bland, generic trade magazines and transformed them into showcases of smart, beautiful and conceptually compelling illustration and design.
Chris showed his growth from college student to one of the top illustrators out there. It, too, was an evolutionary process that took years to develop. He was stuck in a bit of a creative rut until a severely injured knee laid him up long enough to rethink his approach to art and illustration. He created a few promo pieces that were more interesting and much more personal than anything he had done previously, and the rest is illustration history. He ended his talk with a touching tribute to his grandpa who was his biggest supporter and fan. What did his grandpa give him that made a difference?... his time.

Friday was DEMO DAY!

John was first up with a process demo. He quickly recreated an ink and acrylic piece based on the John Brown: His Fight for Freedom book he wrote and illustrated.

After developing a fairly detailed and rich drawing of his image, he goes to the light table to redraw it on a piece of vellum surface Bristol paper.

He walked us through his thought process as he composes pages and spreads for his book projects. Considerations of point of view, perspective, white space, composition, type placement and flow all have to be perfect before committing to paint.

Once the drawing is transferred to Bristol, the painting begins. John uses Chinese inks for his black brushwork, and a combination of dip pens, Rapidographs and Microns for the line work. For color he uses Golden fluid acrylics instead of watercolors because they allow for layers of washes that retain their integrity and crisp edges, whereas watercolor re-floats with every new layer of wash, which can result in muddy colors and blurred edges. Looks like SooJin enjoyed it as much as the students did.

Chris and Soojin give their stamp of approval.

Finally, John gave a quick but very valuable tutorial on hand drawn type; how to establish the x-height, how to deal with oval forms, what to look for to maintain consistency in type families, and how to add dimensionality to the letterforms. All-in-all, an amazing two hours that seemed to go by in just a few minutes.

Next up was Chris Buzelli. He starts with a graphite drawing on GessoBord from Ampersand. The drawing is pretty highly developed with a broad tonal range including shadows and highlights which are brought out with kneaded and plastic erasers.

Here he is touching up the base drawing of a sea serpent.

The drawing is then swabbed down with a tea bag that has been dipped in hot water. This does two important things; it acts as a fixative to keep the graphite from adulterating the oil glazes, and it creates a warm base tone on which to paint. To enhance and enrich the warm tones of the tea, he dips his wet brush into a jar of instant coffee and dabs the dark mixture around the still-wet board. The results are unpredictable, but a rich, aged-looking base of ambers and browns establish the color note of the finished painting. He uses a cloth to wipe up the tea and coffee in areas that he wants to keep bright white; otherwise, it would be impossible to achieve a true white where the stain has dried and set in.

Next comes the oils; very thin glazes of subtle color are applied quickly with a large brush. Each layer of thin glazes is wiped down with a cloth. More layers of glazes go on and are wiped down, very quickly with little regard for detail or nuance- just an overall color wash that homogenizes the color scheme. Eventually, more vivid and intense colors go down to begin to establish various areas of local color. These too are wiped down and kept rather soft and non-specific.

Finally, darks establish the shadows, and highlights are both lifted out with the cloth and painted in with more opaque applications of paint. Chris mentioned how he loved the idea of leaving the history of the painting visible in his work; his thin, transparent glazes allow the drawing underneath to be visible in the finished artwork.

SooJin approves and is thinking of stories that she can use this piece for in the magazine.

Chris's color studies are absolutely stunning little gems, also done in oils, and help him establish the perfect color notes for his finished paintings. These are about the size of a playing card.

Here is a finished painting of his on a cradled panel. Gorgeous.

And here is the demo piece after about an hour. Pretty amazing.

I think John just said "Psssh, I could do that".

Next up was SooJin. She showed how she lays out the magazine with a large grid on the wall that shows, in thumbnail fashion, where all the articles and artwork will go. She uses Post-It notes with her intended artist's names applied to the appropriate article and page. She uses the web to find new artists, and relies on sites like Illoz.com, Drawger, and other similar sites to find the best and brightest talent.

She still looks at annuals and competition books for talent, but doesn't use typical source books very much. The annuals and competition books have already filtered out the bad or ordinary work, so what is published is the extraordinary, award-winning work. That's why it's so valuable to enter your work in these high-profile competitions; if it gets in, it's seen as top-notch and will result in the best form of advertising and professional exposure.

This diagram explains the cumulative nature of self-promotion; as you continue to advertise and promote over time, the effect builds, eventually to the point where the art buyer will remember your name and think of you as a known artist. It takes time, but be persistent and eventually the vessel will fill up.

SooJin went through two stacks of promos- the rejects and the keepers. Taxali's promo was a keeper.
Mike's thinking "Psssh, I could do that."

After the demos, we had a fabulous dinner at the Iberian Pig in Decatur, and walked down the block afterwards to Bill and Lee Mayer's house/museum. I hate to sound like a teenage girl, but, OMG! You've heard the phrase "living an artful life". This is the phrase become real. On steroids.

Bill and Lee chatting with Chris in the Dining Room.
The Mayer's bought the house in the 80's as a handyman-special with "lots of potential". Thanks to Bill and Lee, the house's potential has been fully realized. It hasn't been easy, but it's been a labor of love that reflects their love of family, friends and art.

Hanging out in the family room with a few of the dozens of deceased fauna that keep a watchful eye on the proceedings.

Aannnnd, we finished up each day with yet another wonderful dinner, this time at JCT Kitchen. I think we all gained a few pounds over the course of the event, and we all gained a few new friends as well. It was a great weekend, and I hope the students got as much out of it as I did. Chris, SooJin and John, you are all welcome back any time!

ILLUSTRATION FORUM (part one)

2011-02-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

This past weekend here at SCAD/Atlanta we had our annual Illustration Forum. This year we were lucky to have Chris Buzelli (illustrator), SooJin Buzelli
(creative director for Asset International) for and John Hendrix (illustrator)come to talk and give demos. Here are few images (we will be posting more soon!):

2011 Illustration Forum is Here!

2011-02-02T22:49:00.001-05:00

The Illustration Arts Forum for 2011 is set for February 10-12, and it will be a fabulous weekend.

Our guests cover many bases from Children's Books to Historical Books to Editorial Illustration to Art Direction.

John Hendrix comes to us from St. Louis where he has a thriving freelance illustration career and teaches Illustration and Communication Design at Washington University in St. Louis. He is known for his wit, his wonderful draftsmanship and his hand-drawn type, which he will share in his workshop and demo on Friday.

Chris Buzelli grew up in Chicago, went to RISD (where he now teaches) and lives in New York. His work lives somewhere between Pop Surrealism and Editorial Illustration; smart, quirky, weird. But oh, so beautiful.

SooJin Buzelli, (wife to Chris, thus the same last name) has been art directing and designing magazines for more than 14 years. She took several tired old rags and transformed them into showcases of intelligent design and stunning illustration.

The Lecture will be at 6pm on Thursday, February 10th in the Digital Media Center. All SCAD-Atlanta students are welcome, but due to the small venue, it is not open to the general public.

Friday, February the 11th is Demo Day- each guest will be doing a process demonstration or workshop:
10:00am: John Hendrix will be in room 379 doing a process demo and a hand-drawn type demo.
1:30pm: Chris Buzelli will go from an idea to a sketch to a finished oil painting in two hours, or so he says...
4:00pm: SooJin Buzelli will talk about her work at Asset International, and why she's such a huge fan of illustration and illustrators. Tell your Graphic Design friends to come hear this inspired designer represent.

Saturday is set aside for Portfolio Review day. It's for ILLU Juniors, Seniors and Grads. Sign-up sheets are on my office door, room 381-B.

SI-LA Winners!

2011-01-28T20:17:00.000-05:00

SCAD dominated the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles Illustration West 49th Annual Competition this year! Savannah students won the Gold and Bronze awards, and a huge number of students got in the show.
In Atlanta, the department's students got more than 50% of the pieces submitted into the show... an amazing success rate which speaks to the quality of our students and our program. Here are the Certificate of Merit winners from SCAD-Atlanta:

Julia Berman

Sandee Chamberlain

Grant Hanna

Yohei Horishita

Nazanin Kani

Frank Marsella

Solongo Mellecker

Ethan Mongin

David Morris

Fernando Vazquez

Sojung Yu

Congratulations to all the SCAD-Atlanta Illustration students who were among the chosen ones in this year's SI-LA Illustration West 49 Student Competition!

Did you know?

2010-12-30T14:12:00.002-05:00

That you can look at old issues of Illustration Magazine for free on their website? Happy Holidays!

http://www.illustration-magazine.com/archive.html

Student Spotlight: GRANT HANNA

2010-11-12T18:21:00.045-05:00

We are proud to shine the SCAD-Atlanta Illustration Student Spotlight on Grant Hanna,
MFA candidate and all-around great guy. As usual, we asked him the obligatory 10
questions so everyone could get to know him a bit better. Enjoy his answers and his
wonderful artwork...

1. Where are you from?
I grew up in Chiang Mai, Thailand and lived there until I was 18 years old, then moved to the North Shore of Massachusetts for undergrad. I guess I consider Beverly, Massachusetts my adopted hometown.

2. Where have you been to school (and if grad student what kind of degree did you receive)?
I went to Gordon College in Wenham, MA for undergrad, and majored in Sculpture and Graphic Design. Then I took three years off before applying to the SCAD Illustration MFA program.

3. What attracted you to Illustration?
I’ve always liked drawing pictures that have stories associated with them, especially when I can work collaboratively with other artists like musicians or writers to bring a visual element to what they’re doing – expressing both their and my points of view simultaneously.
My favorite pieces that I’ve done strike that place between communication and ambiguity, where the viewer can sense underlying and overlapping layers of meaning through an expression, a decorative element or a color choice.

4. Who are your biggest influences?
Hokusai, Mucha and Murakami for a long time now. Then James Jean and Sam Weber showed me how to bring those things into a contemporary setting.

5. If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?
Probably I’d still be working a day job and painting at night, and going down to the beach at night to look at the lights across the bay.

6. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love catching up on new music and talking with friends about what projects we’re working on and where they’re going. I spend a lot of time hanging out with my cat, Frog, as well.

7. What is something that most people don’t know about you?
I cook myself a meal from scratch almost every night of the week.

8. What would your dream job/client be and why?
I would love to do a wide-scope collaborative project with a publisher or author where I can
be involved from conception to execution, putting together a complete, intricately conceived design.

9. What’s your typical process for creating your artwork (technique, media, etc)?
I always start with a pencil drawing in mechanical pencil. From there I might go directly into the computer and start doing digital color, or more likely do some painting in watercolor or acrylic, or both, and then scan it and make color adjustments.

I love working with layers, textures and subtleties, especially when they come together to evoke a dreamy or melancholy air to a piece.

10. Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
"By being natural and sincere, one can often create revolutions without having sought them." -Christian Dior

GENERATE! artwork is getting noticed...

2010-11-12T17:36:00.000-05:00

The Battle and Brew challenge that our students did at this year's Generate event has been getting a bit of buzz online by several gaming blogs. Take a look at what they are saying!

Examiner.com
The Military Gamer
Game Informer

The opening of the gallery show will be posted as soon as a solid date has been nailed down.
Great job, everyone!

The Thumbnail

2010-11-04T20:49:00.000-04:00

There is a great new blog called Muddy Colors, that is a collective of the best concept artists working today. One of our guests for this winter's Forum, Jon Foster, recently posted about his thumbnail process, which is something that we all should read and follow. Our friend Bill Mayer does upwards of 50 thumbs for each project, and his success speaks to the benefit of such intensive exploration. So, the big idea is to not fall in love with the first idea that pops into your head; dig deep, then deeper and deeper still until you've approached the problem from every conceivable angle. Let your subconscious lead you to new places, and allow things to just happen. But most of all, have fun!

Fall Quarter Bliss

2010-10-20T20:04:00.000-04:00

Whew! What a whirlwind quarter so far. Here are a few highlights...

Thomas Blackshear

Thomas Blackshear was in town and stopped in to pay us a visit. What a phenomenal talent, and genuinely nice guy. I had met Thomas years ago and had the good fortune of crossing paths again at ICON6 in Pasadena. I have always admired his work and was tickled when he stopped by on September 22nd. He gave an inspiring presentation of his work, from movie posters to ceramic figurines, and spoke about his career, apprenticing for Mark English, working at Hallmark, and moving on to the world of fine art and collectibles.

Thomas was in town to unveil this beautiful lithograph entitled "Intimacy".

Methane Studios

The next day, on September 23rd, the guys from Methane Studios were here for the opening of their show in Gallery See called "Fuel to the Fire: The Poster Design of Methane Studios".

The show was amazing, and featured dozens of their gig posters and other beautiful screen print pieces.

Robert Lee and Mark McDevitt came by the classrooms to spend some time with the students, which was really a bonus. They spoke of their humble beginnings, what they found valuable about their time in art school, and the importance of drawing.

Their lecture that night was also inspiring; they showed lots of their work from Dave Matthews gig posters to advertising and logos, to packaging for clients like Blue-Q. The panel was moderated by Michael Ouweleen, Senior V.P. at Cartoon Network, another very talented and very nice guy. It was an amazing night of great artwork and smart, insightful, funny banter.

Steven Charney

On Thursday, Oct. 14th, Steven Charney, Art Director for Rolling Stone Magazine dropped in for a visit. His lecture was about his tenure at the magazine, his earlier career at other magazines and ad agencies, and the amazing illustrators he's worked with for the Review section of Rolling Stone.
He also took some time to do portfolio reviews for several illustration students, and by all accounts was very impressed, indeed.

Wayne White

"You're supposed to act all impressed" was the theme of his visit, and we were. VERY.

He charmed us with his genuine Southern Gentleman demeanor and the rich tapestry of stories that flow so effortlessly from a man who has done everything from working on his junior-high newspaper to designer and puppeteer for Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Here's a small snippet from Wikipedia:
Wayne White is an American artist, art director, cartoonist and illustrator.
After graduating from Hixson High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and studying at Middle Tennessee State University, White went to New York City and worked as a cartoonist and illustrator for a number of publications including The East Village Eye, Raw, The New York Times, and The Village Voice.
In 1986 he worked on Pee Wee's Playhouse where his work for his set and puppet designs won three Emmy awards; he also supplied a number of voices on the show. Other television credits include production and set design for Riders in the Sky, The Weird Al Show and Beakman's World.^[1]
He art directed two seminal music videos, Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" in 1986, for which he won a Billboard award for best Art Direction in a music video, and in 1996 he designed all the Georges Méliès inspired sets for the award-winning video for the Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight, Tonight".

And, he's a very nice man, to boot. If you missed his talk, you missed a lot. Thanks, Wayne. You are welcome back any time!

It's been an awesome quarter so far, and we have even more inspiring and humbling stuff planned, so stay tuned!

GENERATE Winners!

2010-10-05T19:26:00.000-04:00

It was a long 24 hours, but for those who stuck it out, it was worth it! What a great day, and night, and next day. Many thanks to our terrific sponsors; Wacom, Adobe and Strathmore. They really came through for us again with great prizes and art materials. Also, thanks to Chick fil a, Papa John's and Publix for keeping us well fed.

There were 17 Illustration entries, and we chose the top 6 for prizes and recognition.

First Prize, and winner of a Wacom Large Intuos4 tablet...

Ae Ri Yoon: Half Life2 (digital)

Second Prize, and winner of Adobe CS5 Suite...

Sean Twiddy: Galaga Dogfight (digital)

Third Prize, and winner of a Wacom Intuos4 medium tablet...

Solongo Mellecker: Shadow of the Colossus (Acrylics and powdered gold pigment)

Fourth Prize, and winner of a Wacom Intuos4 Grip Pen...

Annik Huber: King Bowser (digital)

Honorable Mentions, and winners of a SCAD-Atlanta Illustration T-shirt and signed print by Sam Weber or Anita Kunz ...

Julia Berman: Mario (digital)
and...

Andrea Sipl: God Mario (digital)

Congratulations to the winners, and our thanks and appreciation to everyone who participated!

GENERATE!

2010-09-29T21:19:00.002-04:00

v. 2010 is here!

Get ready for 24 hours of creative mayhem, courtesy of Battle & Brew!

The Illustration Department's Generate challenge this year is to create a piece of artwork that will grace the walls of Battle & Brew, a gaming bar in Marietta, GA. They are looking for artists and illustrators to create artwork which depicts your creative reinterpretation of your favorite video games and their characters.

The challenge begins at 10am on Friday, Oct. 1, and ends at 10am on Saturday, but everyone should be on campus, ready to create, no later than 9:30am. The main gathering area for the Generate kickoff is the homework computer lab area on the 3rd floor of the main building (B) near the elevators. All the challenge specifics will be handed out at the beginning of the challenge.

There will be door prizes and materials given away all day and night, and the Challenge winners will receive terrific prizes donated by our Platinum Sponsors, Adobe and Wacom.

DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO SLEEP.

Sean Twiddy in the AJC

2010-09-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

MFA candidate Sean Twiddy's editorial piece entitled "Education in Peril" appeared in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution. It's the second piece of Sean's to grace the pages of the AJC's editorial pages. Congratulations, Sean!

Methane Studios Exhibition Opening

2010-09-07T16:10:00.000-04:00

Do You Cartoon?

2010-08-29T10:47:00.000-04:00

John Martz from Drawn.ca posted a link to this scholarship a few days ago. If you're a student who does comics or cartoon work in any way, be sure to check it out.

AJC Editorial Artwork

2010-08-19T21:10:00.002-04:00

The students in the ILLU764: Illustration for Publication class have been working with Will Alford and Ken Foskett at the Atlanta Journal Constitution on several articles this summer.

The first was a July 13th article written by Wyclef Jean, musician and Haiti native, about the need for further aid after the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. The children have suffered the most, so Obekr Orhan used the raised hand of a young boy emerging from the rubble as his image of the despair in Haiti.

For the August 3rd article by Terry Garlock about the failures in the communication system between the soldiers and their commanders in Afghanistan, Nazanin Kani chose to depict a soldier's weapon with a trigger lock that has a phone dial as the combination to unlock it.

And for the August 17th article by Reese Halter on the ominous decline of the honeybee population, Semin Chun showed the Earth as a globe made of puzzle pieces, with plants that depend on bees for their survival depicted on each piece. The issue is brought home with the removal of the puzzle piece with the all-important bee on it.

This is the way it appeared in the paper, with the bee in the upper left and upright.
The intended composition showed the bee upside-down, as if dead, in the lower-right corner. Either way, the image just works.
Congrats to all the students whose work was chosen to appear in the paper, and to all the students in the class who worked on these projects. And a very heartfelt thank you to Will Alford and Ken Foskett at the AJC for embracing the idea of having our students work on these projects, and then actually using them. It was a wonderful collaboration that I hope will continue in the future.

The Illustrator as Animator Debate

2010-08-18T23:20:00.000-04:00

Print Magazine's new web presence called Imprint has posted an article that looks at the debate that was first broached at ICON6 in Pasadena in July:

ICON Reax, Part 1: Is Animation the Future of Illustration?

It's an issue that won't go away and is worth discussing, so read on...

©Scott Gandell

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators 2010

2010-08-09T19:16:00.002-04:00

The Society of Children's Book Wtiters and Illustrators 2010 (SCBWI) workshops are coming up in early September, and everyone who is interested in pursuing a career in Children's Books, or are even toying with the idea of writing and/or illustrating books for kids, are strongly encouraged to attend. It will be on Friday, September 3rd at the Decatur Library.

Bill Mayer and I will be talking, and there will be lots of cool and informative events all day long, including a hands-on workshop with Mark Braught!

DeKalb County Public Library, lower floor
215 Sycamore Street
Decatur, GA 30030-3413
(404) 370-8450

Click here to get the poop and sign up! There's a discount for SCAD students if 6 or more sign up, so do it! See you in September!

Rick Lovell

ICON6

2010-08-01T12:14:00.011-04:00

Welcome to Beautiful Downtown Burbank! The flight into Burbank Airport was interesting... the runway was designed for small private planes but they allow MD80's to land there for some bizarre reason. It's essentially a crash landing then a full-on reverse thruster and brake effectiveness test until you hopefully, finally stop just short of a chain-link fence and the freeway at the end. Everyone was suddenly wide awake after the long flight. Then you disembark from the rear of the plane down a metal ladder onto the tarmac and walk under the running engines to the terminal which looks like it's a set from a 1950's movie. It's called Bob Hope Airport, and it hasn't been updated since he retired his Vaudeville act.

This, however, is why I came...

The Illustration Conference is a semi-annual event that brings together top illustrators, educators, art directors, representatives and art buyers to explore The Future of Illustration. This year's event, ICON6, was held in Pasadena, CA at the beautiful and gracious Langham Huntington Hotel.

My room was a cottage set apart from the main hotel by a covered bridge, called the Picture Bridge, that overlooks the pool on one side and a Japanese Garden on the other. This is a view of the pool from the bridge.

That's my cottage in the distance as seen from the Picture Bridge.

This is the Japanese Garden in front of my room. Not a bad place to be for a few days. It was unusually hot there in mid July, but the humidity is low so it isn't uncomfortable to be outside in the shade.

The first night, Wednesday, there were several things to do. There was a Chinatown Sketch Crawl hosted by Jeffrey Smith and Paul Rogers. There were lectures, a visit to the Clayton Brothers studio, a free-for-all soccer game, a rooftop cocktail party at Art Center, and a gallery visit to La Luz de Jesus. Guess which one I did...

Art Center College of Design is just a mile or two from the conference venue and the faculty there were instrumental in helping to organize this conference. Many students worked as interns as well. We didn't get to see much of the school because access was limited, but the rooftop party was very nice. We wanted to make it to La Luz de Jesus as well, but it got too late.

The gang from Savannah: l to r; Allan Drummond, Chair of Illustration, Kurt Vargo, faculty, Mohamed Danawi, faculty (vigorously agreeing to everything John Lowe is saying...smart man), John Lowe, Dean of Communication Arts, and Michelle Anderson, recruiter for the online degree programs.
I also met Hanoch Piven at the party... what a great guy, and I love his work.

Thursday

Thursday was dedicated to workshops. There were lots of offerings and it was difficult to choose which ones to go to, but I'm happy I got to see and meet Jeff Soto at his "Inspiration from the Fringe Artist Workshop".

Everyone was marveling at the ballroom's ornately gilded vaulted ceiling and massive chandeliers which turned slightly whenever the air conditioners came on.

The first part of Jeff's presentation was a slide show. He spoke of his upbringing in semi-rural Southern California, his early influences, his love of graffiti, etc. He showed lots of examples of his childhood drawings, his high-school and early college work, and his early professional work as well as his more recent pieces, which are typically large-scale paintings and installations.
One very cool thing he showed was his portfolio that he carried when he was first starting out as an illustrator. It's a story I keep hearing from successful pros about how important it is to package your work in a distinctly personal and appropriate way for the market you want to enter. His is a handmade box that is decidedly Sotoesque...

And here's the inside...

Jeff also did a painting demo.

He uses acrylics on panels. His palette is a one of many lunch trays that he has a habit of stealing for just such usage.
Edel Rodriguez posted this photo of the completed demo painting:

In the afternoon I went to a workshop sponsored by Adobe, demonstrating the new features in CS5. Some pretty cool stuff there.

Thursday night was the Opening Ceremonies and a Howdy from Martha Rich, President and Mark Heflin, Director

The Opening Keynote Address was entitled "The Future of Publishing- The Great Transformation"

Here is the blurb on the ICON website...

Scott Dadich, Creative Director, WIRED; Kelly Doe, Art Director, The New York Times, Jim Heimann, Executive Editor, Taschen America, and Jeremy Clark, Senior Experience Design Manager, Adobe and moderated by Roger Black, Principal, Roger Black Studios

Brace yourself. In case you hadn’t noticed, technological tools such as the Kindle and iPad are changing the way we receive and read books, magazines and newspapers. Who will win and who will lose? Wait and see, but one thing is for certain: Publishing as we knew it has forever changed. Join these publishing pioneers as they discuss how the new chapter in media will change the way individuals and corporations deploy creative content — and pay for our creative work.

The discussion spurred a bit of an outcry from the audience when it was suggested by one of the speakers that in order to be relevant in this new digital delivery marketplace, we all need to know how to make our images move. Apparently, most illustrators don't want to become animators, too. I know I don't. Many in the audience felt that illustrators do just fine getting their point across with single frame, static images, thank you very much. However, it was suggested that it might be a good idea to work in such a way that would make it easy and economically feasible for an animator to add motion to illustrator's work. That means digitally, and in layers I assume. In any case, this debate will continue for some time, no doubt.

The two Emmcee's were Paul Rogers and Brian Rea, and each morning they kicked things off with some helpful information, such as how to get oriented to the distances between cities in the Los Angeles area, hence this helpful graphic...

It's more accurate than you think. The shuttle ride from the Burbank Airport to Pasadena felt like going from Bismark, ND to Buffalo, NY, just hotter.

The other interesting graphic they offered was also right on the money. It's a conversation translator for ICON attendees...

The statement in the left column appeared first, then the translation appeared in the right column. Very funny.

Thursday night was"The ICON6 Roadshow Artists Portfolio Salon", wherein illustrators pay for tables and lay out their promo materials while Art Directors and other buyers come in to see all the goodies and maybe hire you for some illustration work.

Friday

Friday Morning - continental breakfast and lots of coffee, then...

BDM, the smallish agency that did the groundbreaking animations and print work for United Airlines talked about that campaign and showed some inspiring animation and illustration.

Kim Witczak and Stuart D'Rozario of Barrie D'Rozario Murphy.

One of the print ads for United. They just gave the artists keywords like "flat" to describe the sleep seats available on transoceanic flights, and let them run with the idea.
This is one of their award-winning illustrated animations:

Different not Better: Increase the Value of your Illustrations Through Differentiation

Dave Peterson spoke of ways differentiate yourself from the market.

Au Currant: Two with Passion for Fashion

Bil Donovan (l) and John Jay Cabuay spoke of their careers in fashion illustration.

Bil Donovan

John Jay Cabuay

Cracking the Code: Making Sense of Contracts
Kathryn Adams had some very helpful translations of the legalese that is often confusing if not downright indecipherable in contracts. She sent me the text of her presentation and you can get it here.

Because You're Worth It: Price Negotiation
Maria Piscopo was next with ways to get more for your work. Her 7 tips are available here.

Before I go any further, you have to see Jason Holley's hilarious videos about the state of freelance illustration today. They played between sessions and kept everyone in stitches. They are available on Vimeo, and are worth a look.
Here's one for starters...

Interview from jason holley on Vimeo.

Then there were roundtable lunches that were offered, and I took advantage of them. The food was not so great (boxed ham sandwiches and such), but for the most part they were informative and useful. There were two roundtables per lunch session; about 1/2 hour at one group, then you'd go to another table for another group.
I went to one about how illustrators can become a cult brand in the fine art market. Meh...really didn't learn much.
Then I went to one hosted by Michael Fleischman about how important drawing skills are for illustrators. I believe it wholeheartedly, but I got the feeling he was really just pitching his new book.
The next day I shared a table with Tatiana EL-Khouri, who spoke about the importance of using social media in your marketing scheme. Good info, but nothing really new.
Then over to John Hendrix's table where the discussion was called "Navigating Two Worlds; Working in Both Editorial and Children's Publishing" (which he does very successfully). This one was great. John is very smart and very funny, and he had great tips on marketing yourself to these two very different types of clients. His handout is available here. A couple of important items; for working in the Children's market, you need an agent. They have all the inside contacts, know the market, and only take 10%. You don't need an agent to work successfully in the Editorial market, and besides, they can take 30 to 35% of your fee. Also, he said to be sure to send your promo materials to JUNIOR designers as well as the senior folks; they are more likely to be flattered and impressed that they were included in your mailing, and more likely to call you for a job.

That's John, going for some more Mrs. Vickers chips. (actually, he's signing a copy of one of his books)

Friday afternoon: these sessions were sponsored by SCAD, by the way!

Euro Smash; Illustration Across the Pond was presented by Rod Hunt, "one of England's most prolific illustrators working in publishing, advertising and editorial, talks about the illustration field in Europe- and more specifically London-, where to find work, how to promote, and how it compares to the market in the U.S."

Jeff Sedlik spoke about the Orphan Works issue and other legal updates.

Basking in the Glow? How Much is "Exposure" Really Worth?

You might have read about this a while back. Remember when Google Chrome came out and they featured artists and illustrators work in their banner at the top of their browser? Well, they asked Melinda Beck to do one, and then they told her what they would pay her. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Said it would be "Great Exposure". Read the New York Times article to get the complete picture.

Gary Taxali had similar stories and a similar warning: don't work for free for any commercial, for-profit client just because it might be "good exposure". Non-profits, charitable organizations and causes that you believe in are one thing, but to work for free for a multi-billion dollar company like Google is insane, and ultimately bad for all illustrators as it sends a signal that we are all willing to work for nothing but "exposure".

Wayne White

That's the name of the speaker and the name of the presentation, and if you were there, you'd know that there is nothing else that needs to be said. Here's what the ICON6 website says:
Wayne White’s painting and sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the world. He is a three-time Emmy winner for his set and puppet designs on “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” as well as an art director for music videos such as Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and the Smashing Pumpkin’s “Tonight, Tonight.” Recently he created an art installation of a 23-foot-long puppet head of the country music legend George Jones titled Big Lectric Fan To Keep Me Cool While I Sleep at Houston’s Rice University. A monograph of his 30-year-career Maybe Now I’ll Get The Respect I So Richly Deserve edited by Todd Oldham has just been published by Ammo Books.
He's a good 'ol boy from Chattanooga with lots of stories to tell, and I want to bring him here to SCAD sometime just to spread the joy.

A Life in Publishing from Hugo Cabret to Harry Potter

David Saylor spoke of his years with Scholastic Press, and showed an array of award winning books he has published.

Made You Look: The Evocative Books of Todd Oldham

Todd Oldham is a true renaissance man, and a very engaging speaker, to boot. His accomplishments are too numerous to mention here, but if you poke around his website for a while, you'll begin to get the picture, so to speak. His big ode to Illustration is his Charlie Harper an Illustrated Life book, which was a major endeavor and a huge, luscious book.

Friday Night: Gallery Nucleus

We took the hotel shuttle to Nucleus Gallery in Alhambra, not far from the Langham in Pasadena. The show had pieces from several heavy hitter illustrators such as...

Red Nose Studio

Chris Buzelli

Tim O'Brien's Dellas Graphics burning frog, and others. One very cool surprise was seeing the work of SCAD-Atlanta's own Michael Brown...

Saturday

More coffee and pastries, then...

Transdisciplinary Cross Dressing: Illustration + Graphic Design

Arem Duplessis (l) and Christoph Niemann spoke about the confluence of Graphic Design and Illustration, and shared their philosophies about each discipline and how they are more similar than you think. One comment Christoph made was that he thinks of illustrative styles like a designer thinks of type faces; you use whatever is appropriate to solving the visual problem. Thus, his illustration portfolio has many styles, each tailored to solving a specific problem.

Three Two-Trick Ponies: The Trials of the Illustrator-Writer
Peter Arkle, Mike Cho and Matt Kindt (who was at SCAD-Atlanta last year for the SEQA Forum) spoke about the complications and pleasures of being responsible for both word and image, and how they merge to form a powerful narrative.

Clone Them: CDs Who Dig Illustration
Soojin Buzelli of Asset International (Plan Sponsor and Plan Advisor Magazines), Irene Gallo of Tor Books and Tor.com, and Sally Morrow of Sandstrom Partners are great lovers of illustration and have been responsible for some of the most beautiful and compelling images in publishing for the past several years. If there were more Creative Directors like them, Illustration would be experiencing a renaissance.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Three Unique Stories from Today's Picture Book World

John Hendrix (as John Brown, above) was a hoot in his oh-so-believable beard and period outfit. He spoke of the trials of publishing his first picture book called John Brown: His Fight for Freedom. It was inspiring, and a lesson in persistence and passion.

Istvan Bantai, author and illustrator of the book ZOOM, spoke of his disdain for being art-directed to death... he clearly has no use for changes to his work.
And Adam McCauley spoke about his experiences publishing his books, such as Mom and Dad are Palindromes and Oh No, Not Ghosts.

Out of the Box: Original, Non-Traditional Creative

©Thomas Blackshear
Thomas Blackshear is one of my favorite illustrators. I had the good fortune of meeting him early in my career, and I've followed his work ever since. He spoke of his career and his transition from strictly print illustration to the world of collectibles. He has become a major brand in the collectibles market, creating everything from plates for Franklin Mint, to figurines to jewelry. I mean, just look at that Kong painting. How could you not love this guy?

©Kadir Nelson
Kadir Nelson is a rising Superstar in Illustration. He named Blackshear as his mentor, and he has become a force in the world of Books, Children's Books, and Postage Stamps. He fearlessly showed some of his childhood drawings and spoke of his early influences. I got a chance to meet him after his talk and was very impressed with his kindness and humility, not to mention his awesome talent.

Tim Biskup

Tim Biskup was an unannounced speaker, and I didn't know what to expect when he took the stage, but I found his talk to be funny and inspiring. He shared stories of his upbringing and his influences, and encouraged everyone to "trust yourself...take that leap of faith and just create... paint what scares you!"

Kathy Altieri: Closing Keynote
Kathy Altieri is the Senior Production Designer at Dreamworks. She is responsible for a slew of hit animations, and she spoke about her role in those films, what inspires her, and the importance of being joyful in your work and in your life.

Then it was off to dinner and an early bedtime to catch the 4:15AM shuttle back to the airport. Yes, 4:15AM. Why? Don't ask me ... the concierge said that's when I needed to leave to be at the airport in time for a 7:30am flight. We arrived at the airport at 4:50am. The security check-in stations didn't open til 5am. Then we waited for 2 hours before boarding. Sheesh. Aaaanyway, it was an awesome trip and a terrific conference. I didn't see every speaker, and my camera died so I didn't get as many photos as I wanted, but other folks posted about their experiences there, and here are a few very good posts to expand upon this one and to fill in the gaping holes...

Aileen Holmes did a great job on her blog:
Day One
Day Two
Day Three

Here are some Facebook posts about the conference.

And Rod Hunt posted a great set of photos, here.

The biggie is by Thomas James of Escape from Illustration Island.
He shot video of most of the presentations and did interviews with many of the attendees. Poke around the site to get lots of info about ICON6 and just about everything else having to do with illustration. Great job, Thomas!

Sojung Yu: Beyond the Truth

2010-07-23T19:40:00.000-04:00

Sojung Yu's thesis show entitled "Beyond the Truth" opened on Wednesday at the Dewberry Gallery. The show displays the work from her MFA Thesis project that is a retelling of the Korean myth of Dangun. The finished project is in the form of a book entitled "The Bear", and the show has all of the artwork that appears in the book, as well as two large oil paintings of Barrett, the bear that is the pivotal character in the story.

This is the book that Sojung wrote and produced. She had it printed and bound through Blurb, and the results are quite good; the color is true and the cover and binding are first quality. I highly recommend them for portfolio books and for sample picture books such as this.

Sojung, Stephanie Green from Exhibitions, and Vice President P.J. Johnson. We are so grateful for the support from Exhibitions for helping our students get their work presented to the world in such a professional fashion and in such beautiful venues. And forever thankful for the ongoing support from P.J. Johnson, who always finds time to drop by to meet our students and to see the amazing work that you guys produce. Thanks, P.J., your support is very much appreciated!

Nazanin Kani dropped by to see Sojung's show.

The Motley Crew, l to r: Obekr Orhan, Grant Hanna, Sojung Yu, Sean Twiddy, Solongo Mellecker, Semin Chun.

The show is up until August 6th, so if you haven't seen it, please stop by to see the work, read the book, and be inspired.

"MONSTERS" show at Kai Lin gallery

2010-07-19T23:02:00.001-04:00

Check out some great pictures from the opening night of the "MONSTERS" show at Kai Lin Art gallery.

SCAD's own, an Illustration graduate student Solongo Mellecker was one of the 10 local artists (Bill Mayer, Otto Lange, Katie Grosskopf, Chris Hamer, Dante DeStefano, Geoff Thomas, Jason Hawkins, Jon Arge, Ivy Rose McLeod) in this SMASHING art show. Over 500 guests attended the show, and it was a fantastic event in midtown Atlanta.

If you missed the opening event, DON'T WORRY, show will continue until Sep 3rd.

Kai Lin Art Gallery
800 Peachtree Street, Suite A | Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Wednesday-Saturday from 11-5pm and by appointment.

Photo by 944 magazine

Guests looking at Solongo's painting "No Pets Allowed", acrylic on canvas

Illustrator Bill Mayer and Solongo Mellecker

One of Bill Mayer's painting. Photo by Atlanta Metromix

Professor Jay Montgomery with his students

Artists in the show Dante DeStefano, Jason Hawkins and Solongo

Solongo's painting, "The Fishing Hole", acrylic on canvas

If you would like, check out more pictures of the event from the following links.

Lauren Rolwing featured in NashvilleArts Magazine

2010-07-06T18:16:00.000-04:00

Check out the article in NashvilleArts Magazine about Lauren Rolwing!

Monster Show at Kai Lin Gallery

2010-07-03T18:16:00.011-04:00

Our own Solongo Mellecker has several pieces in the Monster Show at Kai Lin Gallery, opening on the 16th of July. Come by and represent! And party!

Hanoch Piven Interview

2010-06-14T21:52:00.000-04:00

Check out this revealing interview with Hanoch Piven, one of the most inventive illustrators working today. Thanks to Yuko Shimizu and Illustration Friday for sharing.

Commencement 2010

2010-05-31T19:27:00.001-04:00

Commencement 2010, originally uploaded by SCAD - The University for Creative Careers.

Congrats to Lee Soo Kim and all the SCAD-Atlanta Illustration Grads!

Congrats to the 2010 Illustration Grad Class! Well done!

2010-05-30T15:51:00.000-04:00

Out to Launch 2010

2010-05-24T11:02:00.000-04:00

A few photos from this year's Out to Launch event at SCAD-Atlanta.

The participants, attempting to all smile at the same time.

Fernie Vazquez

Grant Hanna

Julia Berman

Alan Hawley

Duncan Smith

Sojung Yu

Solongo Mellecker; her board won Best in Show in the Illustration category!

Some of Solongo's stuff.

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)

2010-05-17T22:59:00.001-04:00

An amazing video of social networking!!!

Hope you enjoy!

Solongo

Lauren Rolwing's Freedom of Speech poster

2010-05-16T10:39:00.000-04:00

SCAD-Atlanta alum Lauren Rolwing's poster was selected for POSTER4TOMORROW'S Freedom of Speech exhibition!!!! The worldwide exhibition, opening December 10, is showing in Paris at Les Arts décoratifs in the Palais du Louvre, in Quebec at L’Université du Québec, in Milan at La Triennale di Milano Design Museum, in Los Angeles at Seyhoun Gallery, and in 20+ other international cities. For more information and an online gallery, please go to www.poster4tomorrow.org/

Illustration Panel Discussion at SCAD-Savannah

2010-05-05T16:08:00.003-04:00

collaboration and Expansion part 1 panel discussion SCAD from Illustration Next on Vimeo.

Collaboration and Expansion Savannah College of Art and Design from Illustration Next on Vimeo.

The Business of One - Freelance, Redefined

2010-04-26T18:27:00.000-04:00

Student Spotlight: Solongo Mellecker

2010-04-19T18:22:00.017-04:00

We are proud to shine the SCAD-Atlanta Illustration Student Spotlight on Solongo Mellecker, MFA candidate, amazing artist, and a delightful young lady. As usual, we asked her the obligatory 10 questions so everyone could get to know her a bit better. Enjoy her answers and her fabulous artwork...

1. Where are you from (hometown, country, etc.)
I'm from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

2. Where have you been to school?
I went to The Institute of Fine Art in Mongolia. I attended for four years and received my BFA in Traditional Mongolian painting.

3. What attracted you to Illustration?
I always loved to read folktales and myth books with illustrations as a child. I didn't know there was an illustration major in art schools until I came to the States.

4. Who are your biggest influences?
My biggest influence is my early teacher Batbayar Dovdon , who is a great calligrapher and artist in Mongolia. He taught me all the basics of illustration, brush strokes, layouts, scale etc. I was also inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, Hokusai and Tibetan thangka painters.

5. If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?
I would probably be trying to get freelance work, or painting murals. I would still be painting for sure somewhere.

6. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to surf illustrators' blogs and websites and check out who is up to what. It gives me inspiration. If I have any more spare time left I like to do crafts. Scrapbooking is my favorite, it's a really fun thing if you get serious with it. I scrapbook all night sometimes, it's really addicting.

7. What is something that most people don’t know about you?
I guess I don't talk a lot about myself. When I was younger I trained to be a pianist, I also smoked rabbit poop thinking it would help my allergies :-) Do not try it, it didn't help at all!

8. What would your dream job/client be and why?
It would be great to work for Chronicle Books or Candlewick Press. They are my favorite publishers right now.

9. What’s your typical process for creating your artwork (technique, media, etc)?
I think about the project everywhere I go, even when I'm talking to someone, the idea just wraps me and it never stops until I complete the project. Even colors, details come into my mind. I usually start with thumbnails. Then I pick one and start drawing. Scanning or using the Artograph is next, then transferring the drawing onto the final surface using transfer paper. Then its onto rendering in whatever medium is best.

10. Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
See things through to the end.

Crossings Reception

2010-04-16T16:15:00.016-04:00

Fernie Vazquez, Renee Rivas and Rod Ben (aka Killamari) had their thesis show opening last night at Studioplex. It was a great night, and much fun was had by all.

Lee and Bill Mayer chatted it up with Renee. The Mayers are always so supportive of our students and we are truly grateful for that. Good folks, they are.

Renee's family came up from Tampa for the show. She's VERY happy.

Laura Coyle came in as well; she hosted Renee's field internship a few quarters ago. Mike had Laura spellbound, and a little confused with his barrage of obscure references and non sequiturs.

Pat Bollin and Allen Spetnagel were representing the Sequential folks, and Pat was clearly amazed at the artwork on the walls. Allen, not so much.

Fernie is explaining his series of paintings to Anna Whitson. Not sure she's buying it, though.

Rod is waxing poetic with Julia Berman.

Julia, Mike, Sojung and Solongo.

Fernie, Goñi, Heather Elder and Rod, striking a pose of some sort.

More posing; Merritt, Brent, Rod and Solongo.

Fill in your own captions here.... Download the photo, add text in Photoshop, and email it to Rick Lovell. I'll post the best ones to the blog. Have fun!

NATAS MENTOR STUDENTCONNECT DAY

2010-04-09T18:16:00.003-04:00

NATAS -National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presents an amazing student mentoring event.

FREE FOR SCAD FACULTY & STUDENTS

Featuring the following panels:

Motion media design- Designers for Artifact, Lucky Fish & X-Men
Original Program Production- TBS’ Dinner & A movie Producer, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Animation Director
Marketing & Branding- Marketing and branding for Adult Swim, TCM, NBA.com
Music composition/ audio design- Audio designers who work with Adult Swim, Bruce Springsteen & Disney
News management/production/reporting- CBS, Fox 5, NBC
Sports broadcasting/production/design- Fox SportsSouth, Turner Sports

SCAD Atlanta
1600 Peachtree Street
Event Space 4C

SATURDAY APRIL 17
9:00am -3:00pm
----------------------------------
NATAS MENTOR STUDENTCONNECT DAY Schedule
Saturday April 17, 9:00am- 3:00pm
SCAD Atlanta 4C- 1600 Peachtree Street NE, 30309

9:00 – 9:40 Intake / Registration
Students- 4 C
Mentors- Room 438C

9:40- 9:50 Welcome:
Student orientation 4C Event Space

10:00- 10:45 Session 1- Panels (45 min)
Panel-A Panel -F
Panel-B Panel –D
Panel-E

10:55- 11:40 Session 2- Panels (45 min)
Panel-A Panel -C
Panel-B Panel –D
Panel-E

12:00 – 12:50 Lunch (50 min)
Mentoring Lunch- 3 x 20 min. rotations

1:00- 1:45 Session 3- Panels (45 min)
Panel-A Panel -C
Panel-B Panel –D
Panel-F

1:55 – 2:40 Session 4 –Panels (45 min)
Panel-A Panel -C
Panel-B Panel –D
Panel-F

2:50- 3:00 Closing & evaluation forms

Room 450 Panel A - Motion media design
Room 449 Panel B - Original Program Production
Room 448 Panel C - Marketing & Branding**
Room 446 Panel D - Music composition/ audio design
Room 447 Panel E - News management/production/reporting*
Room 450 Panel F - Sports management/ Sports production/ Sports design

* Morning session only ** Afternoon session only

New books by Mike Lowery!

2010-04-08T21:43:00.004-04:00

Mike's new set of bilingual board books are now on the shelves. Check out what the publisher said...

New title in the Two Little Libros collection: Your Body / Tu cuerpo

We're thrilled to announce the publication of the latest title in the Two Little Libros collection. This beautifully illustrated box of two 16 page board books by Mike Lowery is the second title in this collection. This time the box contains books which focus on two aspects of the human body: Body Parts and Move Your Body. As you may know from the previous set of Two Little Libros (Sea Animals and Jungle Animals), this fabulous collection is designed to teach young children basic vocabulary in Spanish and English, as well as reasoning skills.

You can find all the details here.

As always, this new title is available in our on-line shop and in bookshops throughout Spain.

We hope you love it as much as we do!

Description:
Title: Body Parts and Move Your Body
Author: Mike Lowery
ISBN: 978-84-937273-7-6
Pages: Slipcase with two 16 page board books
Collection: Two Little Libros
Size: 20 x 20 cm
Specifications: Cloth binding
Price w/VAT: 14.95 €

For more information about Bilingual Readers, please visit us at bilingualreaders.com. If you like what you see, please tell a friend! You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter!

Congrats, Mike! Looks awesome.

Crossings

2010-04-03T19:15:00.004-04:00

Three of our Superstar Grads will be presenting their thesis show at Studioplex :
Rod Ben, Renee Rivas, and Ferni Vazquez present CROSSINGS.
Reception is Thursday, April 15 from 6PM to 9PM, and the show will be up from April 12-17.
Please come by and support our amazing graduate students at SCAD-Atlanta!

Vote for Illustration graduate Solongo!

2010-04-02T13:49:00.005-04:00

SCAD-Atlanta's Illustration graduate Solongo Mellecker is entering Chroma paint's annual art competition. Please support fellow student Solongo and vote for her entries. She has 3 pieces in the competition, "Alice in Wonderland-1", "Alice in Wonderland-2" and "Black Cat".

You have to log in to vote, but please take a few moments to support her.

To see her full portfolio, go to www.msolongo.com

Amber Gardner's Illustration for local production of "Narnia"

2010-03-01T09:52:00.002-05:00

SCAD ATL was recently asked to participate in an illustration competition to design/illustrate a "logo" for a local production of "Narnia". The rules were simple: no type, and it had to be "narnia" themed. We had several students participate, and Amber Gardner's winning illustration is shown here on the actual playbill cover.

Amber was invited to the opening performance where she was given a prize check in front of the entire audience (sadly, it wasn't one of those comically over-sized checks).

Thanks Brian Stelfreeze!

2010-02-26T18:46:00.006-05:00

Brian Stelfreeze of Gaijin Studios spent a few hours with us today sharing his skills and wowing everyone in the process.

There was a good crowd of Illustration and Sequential students in attendance, and everyone was soaking up the goodness from Brian's brush as well as the wisdom from his years of experience.

Brian uses a combination of Acrylics, Acrylic inks (for intense color), and watercolors to achieve his veil-like transparent work that is at once delicate and vibrant. He doesn't hide the process by overly blending his colors, but celebrates the layers of transparent color that activate the work and make it more interesting and organic. He pays close attention to color temperature and to the edges, modulating soft and hard, warm and cool to guide the eye through the piece.

He was working on a block of 300# cold press watercolor paper, using Schmincke watercolors, Golden Acrylics, FW Acrylic inks, and a variety of cheap brushes. I'm telling you this as if it matters, but it really doesn't. It's all about the brush mileage; draw, paint, repeat. And mix in a bit of reading, thinking, and life experience. Then repeat again. And again. Then you might get something like this...

Thanks, Brian!

Brian Stelfreeze Demo

2010-02-24T21:06:00.004-05:00

Brian Stelfreeze of Gaijin Studios will be at the Illustration Asylum this Friday from 1 to 3 pm to do a portrait demonstration. He's a terrific colorist and painter, and will share his talent with us in room 379. Mark your calendars!

Brian Despain

2010-02-17T22:15:00.008-05:00

SCAD Atlanta Illustration Dept. had a wonderful opportunity on Wed. Feb 17th with Illustrator turned fine artist Brian Despain. His Agent, Kirsten Anderson, of the owner and curator of Roq La Rue gallery in Seattle was scheduled for a lecture at SCAD on Feb 18th at 6pm behind the hub. Professors Mike Brown and Kenneth Knowles were working with Kirsten for the painting Dept. Brian was driving up from Florida (where he was staying) to meet with her at SCAD for some business. So we got lucky to have such an amazing talent or as his Dad would say "the best thing since sliced bread" to come a do a lecture and demo for the Illustration Dept. It was a great collaboration with the Painting and Illustration Departments that should happen more often. There was a pretty descent turn out with students and faculty. Thanks for all that showed up.

Brian was a wonderful speaker and a self admitted artist that likes to be in complete control of not only his paintings subject matter, but every step in his image creation process. Coming from a commercial art background doing a wide variety of graphic design jobs, photo-retouching, video game 3D Modeler, but never really a full-time freelance illustrator. Now for the past few years he has really hit the gallery scene with his stormy clouds, robots, fish, numbers and other elements that captivate the viewers attention much longer than the typical quick read illustration. He talked extensively about his philosophy of art and the connection with the viewer.

He had prepared a painting to start that was due in a month for a gallery show that his agent, Kirsten, was presenting. He starts with an idea, refines it with pencil, scans it in and in Photoshop and Painter he does a really tight color study while still working on fixing details, proportions and angles. This goes pretty quick with digital tools to take about 3 hours or so. Most of his work as relatively small , but he can but a ton a detail in the piece even at 8" x 10" or 11" x 14". The piece he was working on was 11" x 14". He "glues" a tight line drawing print to a sturdy hardboard. He does this first by sealing absorbent board with matte medium, sanding it smooth. Then he brushes on a layer of matte medium on the board and the back of the print which is on 3 ply bristol. He positions the bristol paper that is slightly larger than the board. Cuts off the excess paper. Then brushes it down and seals the bristol with about 5-6 thin coats (sanding in between dried layers) on top of the drawing. The results is a sealed smooth surface to paint on. He then prints out an color and black and white version of the color study.

Painting in oils, Brian has a developed a very controlled and meticulous process that works very well for him. I certainly can't cover every aspect of his detailed painting process, but here is an overview from what I gathered. Feel free to further discuss this in the comments.

He uses the old masters technique of grisaille, which is basically starting with only gray tones of all the details of the painting then colorizing it with several thin layers of color on top of the dried grisaille. His gray color is a 1 to 1 mix of Ultramarine Blue (I think) and Burnt Sienna which produces a neutral gray. He has a special mix of his own oil medium which is three parts linseed oil, two to three parts stand oil and one or two parts oil of spike lavender. He likes the strength and elasticity of the stand oil but it’s too thick to use on its own, and the oil of spike is used as a diluent to speed drying time. Brian uses the oil of spike instead of say, turp as a diluent as it’s not as toxic though it is quite expensive. On his glass palette he adds his medium to the paint with a water dropper controlling the amount mixed in. With a palette knife he mixes then medium into both colors then mixes then together to create a neutral black. Then with white he mixes 4-5 grey tones on his palette.

Then finally with cheap small fine haired flats, filberts, and round brushes he starts from the top down rendering the whole painting precisely in grey tones. His layers are very thin to increase the dry time but still stays workable on the board for the length of the painting session. Once the grisaille is dry he starts in with the color.

Brain uses a palette of 11 oil colors that he exclusively uses on all his paintings. He developed a set of color mixing charts showing how all the color interact with each other and by adding white in varying value ranges. He refers to this constantly during the coloring painting stage. His favorite brand of oil paint is Rembrant and some Daniel Smith. To colorize the grisaille he uses a bit more of the same medium without thinners for a glaze showing the tone underneath the color. A painting this size would take him about 2-3 days do to after all the prep work is done working full days and drying the painting overnight.

It was a real treat not only for the students, but the professors as well to see and hear about his philosophy of art and method of his madness and "pro tips". I know I was thoroughly enlightened! Thank you Brian for a fantastic and well-received lecture/demo. It was more than we all expected. You are welcome at SCAD anytime!

Thanks Helen and Bill!

2010-02-14T11:19:00.016-05:00

The Illustration Arts Forum this week turned out to be a real adventure and, in the end, a terrific experience. Due to what has been termed "Snowmageddon" by the media, Thursday was the worst day to travel since 911; the entire Eastern seaboard was locked down under several feet of snow and ice, and over 5000 flights were canceled. Unfortunately, Jon Foster's flight was one of those on the cancellation list.

Helen Dardik

Helen Dardik's original flight was to leave her hometown of Ottawa, Ontario at 6:50am and connect at Philadelphia. She got a call from the airline on Wednesday that her flight had been changed due to the weather in Philly; she would leave even earlier in the morning and connect in Toronto instead. Thankfully, her flights made it through and she arrived safe and sound about 3 hours earlier than originally expected. Many thanks to Renee Rivas and Pat Bollin for meeting Helen at the airport and feeding her before bringing her to SCAD.

Helen gave a very inspiring and enlightening talk at the auditorium space at the beautiful new Digital Media Center. She showed examples of her pattern work, spoke about her inspirations, and the pros and cons of working with an agent. Her experience with agents has been a very positive one, which is contrary to what we have heard from several other visiting artists. She spoke about the business of illustration as well, and why maintaining copyright is so important, and how licensing your work can bring substantial financial rewards.

Helen also gave us a bit of insight into her working process and technique; she doesn't sketch, but dives right in with Adobe Illustrator and creates shapes and patterns on the fly. Later, she confided that she regretted not having added that she sketched for over 20 years in order to refine her style to the point where it became second nature. So kids, do not try this at home! By all means sketch! Perhaps after 20 years, you won't need to any more.

We had a few minutes after Helen's talk to chat with her.

Friday morning, Helen gave a demonstration of her Illustrator techniques.

Portfolio reviews were scheduled for Saturday morning, but the roads were quite icy in many areas of the city, so for safety reasons, those were canceled.

Thanks, Helen, for spending time with us and sharing your talent, your wit and your insight. We hope you had a good time in spite of the cold and snowy weather. And thanks to Mike Lowery for making sure that Helen was taken care of after the snow came and trapped some of us in our driveways.

Bill Mayer
We were all disappointed that Jon Foster couldn't make it down to the Forum, but there was nothing we could do. Thankfully, we have in our town a world-class illustrator and wonderful human being, Bill Mayer. I made a sheepish phone call to Bill and told him of Jon Foster's flight cancellation, and asked if there was any way he could come in and talk to our students about his work on extremely short notice. It's no surprise that he said yes; he would try to put something together and do whatever he could to help us out. And, it's also no surprise that he was amazing. He drove in despite the snow and blew everyone away with his artwork, his humor, his warmth and his sensitivity.

He brought in a stack of prints of love letters that he has sent to his wife Lee over the years. He had secretly collected them from her drawer, scanned them, printed them, and is having them made into a book for her Valentine's gift. What a guy; it's not only a touching tribute to his love for Lee, it's also an amazing window into the mind of a creative artist who is constantly exploring new ways to communicate visually. It's the reason his work remains fresh and vital, even after 40 years of making art and illustration.

Bill spoke about the creative process, and how he uses his sketchbooks to capture ideas on paper before they disappear. He also said that illustrators shouldn't take themselves too seriously; we're not curing cancer or saving the world, we're just communicators who are fortunate to be able to make a living making pictures, even silly ones that start out as a sketchbook page with stamps and a few lines that ends up winning a Gold Medal in this year's Society of Illustrators Competition.

Bill's SI Gold

and a better look at the artwork

Thanks, Bill, for braving the weather, and on no notice at all, taking time to share your work and your insights with all of us. We are very lucky to have you as a friend and a neighbor, and will always be grateful for that.

Congrats Society of Illustrators, NY Winners!

2010-02-12T21:33:00.005-05:00

The judges have spoken, and SCAD-Atlanta is very proud to have three students in the BIG SHOW!

Grant Hanna; Sufjan Stevens Portrait

Renee Rivas; Christmas Box

Katrin Wiehle; Prof. Pipapo - Land of Ice and Snow

Great job everyone! Now, your next tasks are to get these pieces framed, sending them to New York, and saving up for a trip to the Big Apple in May for the opening of the Student Scholarship Competition Show!

Illustration Arts Forum Week is HERE!

2010-02-07T13:06:00.005-05:00

We are very proud to be bringing in two superstars in the Illustration world this week for our annual Arts Forum event; Helen Dardik and Jon Foster. They come from two very different areas of illustration, and will bring an interesting and broad range of experiences to the forum.

They will each be speaking and showing their work on Thursday, Feb. 11th at 5:00pm at the Digital Media Center, in the 3rd floor auditorium space; take the elevator to the 3rd floor and look for the round structure clad in rusted sheet metal.

Friday, Feb. 12th is Demo Day: Room 374 in the Illustration area.
10am to noon: Helen will be doing a digital pattern demo and workshop. If you are interested in vector art, children's imagery, pattern design and licensing, this workshop is for you. There is limited space for participating in the workshop, so sign up for it on the sheet on office door 381 (Prof. Lovell and Mueller-Brown's office). There will be extra seating for those who just wish to watch the demo.
2pm to 4pm: Jon will be doing a digital painting demo and possibly a workshop, so if you want to participate in it, please sign up for it on the sheet on office door 381 (Prof. Lovell and Mueller-Brown's office). Bring your Wacom pens! There will be extra seating for those who just wish to watch the demo.

The lecture on Thursday is required for all ILLU majors and will serve as a field trip; there will be a sign-in sheet at the door to the auditorium.

Book Illustrator Micheal Austin visits SCAD

2010-02-03T23:20:00.006-05:00

Last Wednesday, Jan 27th, Atlanta based Illustrator Michael Austin was kind enough to come visit Jay Montgomery's Book Illustration class. Micheal has illustrated for Highlights, Spider and Cricket magazines. His illustrations hang in Children's Museums and has even made an appearance on the GCPSTV television program, The Author in You. As an Author, Illustrator and full-time Art Director he has seen the many sides of the Illustration market. He currently has 8 children's books and has received several Society of Illustrator awards and countless book publishing awards. He is a truly busy man! I first learned about Michael through our friends over at Peachtree Publishers. He has illustrated a few books working with Art Director, Loraine Joyner.

He brought in several large originals mainly created with acrylics and a tad bit of airbrush and colored pencils, but he does what ever it takes to make right. A set of well organized and clean tight pencil sketches on tracing paper gave the students a clear understanding of what a tight pencil should look like. He was very insightful about the publishing industry and had some great stories about working with Art Directors and illustrating a whole picture book in 18 days!

As you can see he was gracious enough to do a quick demo in acrylics. He works mainly on Strathmore illustration board with thin washes of color. Michael showed us how he would create an old wooden fence. He masks off certain foreground and background areas with frisket film being very careful not to put very wet acrylics right up to the edge of the film. Using a fine round brush he paints in the open spaces between the wood with a dark brown.

Then applied thin washes of oranges and grays for the tone of the wood using acrylic glazing liquid and water. He tested his colors on top of the frisket before applying the paint.

Added texture with a natural sponge. Then with a fan brush he quickly and almost effortlessly created all the wood grain. In about 30 minutes he had a realistic wooden fence.

He got the see some of the students work and to quote an e-mail I got from him: "You have some gifted people in your class who appear to be on the path to very successful illustration careers! I was sincerely impressed and inspired."

Many thanks Micheal for an exceptional and informative visit to SCAD!

Vote for SCAD students!

2010-01-28T12:12:00.008-05:00

Right now a few of our students have shirt designs on threadless.com for the big 10k design competition (grand prize = 10 thousand bucks!). Check out their entries here:

- Patrick Kennedy's Duck Crossing

- Renee Rivas' Clumsy Space Octopus

- Renee Rivas' Made of butterflies

- Amber Gardner's Packin Heat

And Grad student, Julia Berman, is one of the finalists for the Strathmore student art contest. Be sure to vote for her entry here:

Remembering Asia (the show)

2010-01-27T21:47:00.015-05:00

This week's exhibition at StudioPlex by Solongo Mellecker and Sojung Yu is an astounding show. These two Illustration MFA candidates filled up the entire gallery with beautiful work that celebrates their Asian heritage (Solongo is from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and Sojung is from South Korea), as well as their places in the modern world and the influence that their time in America has had on them. It is a wonderful mix of old and new, of traditional and digital, and of East meets West. If you haven't been by to see it, try to before the show closes on Saturday, the 30th of January.
Here are a few shots from the opening...

Shannon, Duncan, Nazanine and Julie all approve.

(add your own caption here)

So proud.

Sojung's wonderful dimensional book for the Teatrio competition.

The student schooling the master.

Solongo met some new friends from Mongolia.

Some folks dress up a bit for gallery openings, others, not so much.

Peace, out.

Kudos for Archer Artists!

2010-01-16T18:42:00.010-05:00

The numbers are in, and "Archer", FX's new animated series, is a hit!
"Archer is an animated, half-hour comedy set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), a spy agency where espionage and global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other."

According to TV By The Numbers, Archer's premier this Thursday was...

FX’s Highest-Rated Comedy Premiere Among Adults 18-34

Congrats to Rod Ben, (ILLU MFA candidate), Katie Stockton (BFA '09) and Dan Murdoch (current ANIM student who is minoring in ILLU), who all had a hand in creating this very successful, and absolutely hilarious new series. If you haven't yet seen it, it's a hoot!

Remembering Asia

2010-01-14T20:22:00.004-05:00

Two of our shining stars, Solongo Mellecker and Sojung Yu are having a show at StudioPlex this January. The official opening reception is Monday, January 25 from 6 to 9pm. The show will be up for the Art Walk on Friday the 22nd if you want to stop by then.

Congratulations SI-LA Winners!

2010-01-05T18:32:00.015-05:00

A big, fat, WELL-DONE goes out to several of SCAD-Atlanta's finest for being accepted into the VERY competitive Society of Illustrators Los Angeles 2009 Annual Competition. All are Illustration MFA candidates.

They are Solongo Mellecker, Sojung Yu , Fernando Vazquez and Heather Elder. Way to go, guys!

Solongo Mellecker

Sojung Yu

Fernando Vazquez

Heather Elder

Wonderland Show at Kai Lin Gallery

2009-11-30T07:39:00.003-05:00

Kai Lin Art, the contemporary art gallery in the heart of Midtown Atlanta on Peachtree Street near the Fox Theatre, will host its sixth art gallery opening, “Wonderland” on Friday, December 4 from 7:00-10:00pm.
“Wonderland” is a group show presented by over ﬁfteen established and mid-career artists, all professors, deans or chairs from the Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta (SCAD-ATL):
Kent Knowles, Larry Jens Anderson, Carl Linstrum, Michael V Brown, Dale
Clifford, Amanda Dumas, Richard Lovell, Mike Lowery, Jay Montgomery, Brett Osborn, Alex Kvares, Robert Brown, Tom Francis, Matt Maloney, Ann-Marie Mankur, Lisa Hart, Matthew Burge, Kelley McClung, Jim Gladman, and Alessandro Imperato.
The exhibit will be open through January 22.

Congrats Renee Rivas!!

2009-11-23T16:53:00.004-05:00

Atlanta INtown Magazine unveiled Renee's winning cover last week at Atlantic Station.

Read all about it on Renee's Blog!
Way to go Renee!!

Sterling Hundley Interview

2009-11-14T21:39:00.005-05:00

Painter Sterling Hundley who graciously came to ACA in 2006 for an inspiring lecture and demo was recently interviewed on the Podcast Sidebar. It's a great talk about his beginnings, self promotion, being an illustration professor, and his first gallery show in September called "Emergent". A true intellectual with a great work ethic and some mad drawing and painting skills. At the end he talks about the story behind this piece entitled 'The Bends" If you have iTunes, subscribe to the Sidebar podcast here to listen to tons of other famous illustrator interviews.

Josh Cochran interview

2009-11-06T16:20:00.004-05:00

Our good friend Yuko Shimizu recently interviewed Josh Cochran, an amazing young illustrator who Mike Lowery and several SCAD-Atlanta students got to meet last year. The interview appears on the Illustration Friday website.
Here is the direct link to the interview. Enjoy!

Student Spotlight: Corinne Francilus

2009-11-03T18:39:00.007-05:00

Corinne Francilus (aka Corinne Stevie to the musically initiated) is one of the last ACA folks who transitioned to SCAD way back in 2006. As she nears her graduation, we'd like to make sure her awesome work is recognized before she leaves us. She brings a colorful island vibe to her work, and somehow it also feels like music - no surprise there. Enjoy!

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Miami, Fl but my parents are from different parts of Haiti.

Where have you been to school?

Well I was at Atlanta College of Art the last year it existed and then I came to SCAD in 06.

What attracted you to Illustration?

I’ve always been an Illustrator at heart. I was always interested in drawing when I was younger because my older brothers drew around me a lot. Once I got into college I knew that I would get into Illustration because of my drawing style.

Who are your biggest influences?

My older brothers, graffiti art, comics, fashion photography, Audrey Kawasaki, Kehinde Wiley and Michel Gondry. I have a lot of big influences.

If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?
Illustrating is my life but um, I would probably be studying sound engineering somewhere. I love hearing unique sounds in music and trying to create them.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love working on music. When I’m not drawing or painting I’m normally messing around with garageband and making tracks. I actually just got a midi keyboard so I’ve been working on composing my own music and writing songs. I’ve been recording music since high school though.

What is something that most people don’t know about you?
I’m really shy.

What would your dream job/client be and why?
My dream job would be to work on a movie with an amazing team of artists and create the soundtrack for it.

What’s your typical process for creating your artwork?
First I sketch out the image I’m creating in pencil. Next, I spray fix it and then I paint. I like to use acrylics but sometimes if I’m being really experimental I’ll use tissue paper, house paint and spray paint.

Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
Never stop creating. The more you create the better you get at it.

Peachtree Publishers Field Trip

2009-10-31T10:42:00.008-04:00

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!

2009-10-28T20:24:00.003-04:00

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

The Illustration Asylum

2009-10-24T19:38:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-19T22:49:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-18T02:16:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-14T23:11:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-13T09:12:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-09T18:28:00.010-04:00

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!

2009-10-09T17:49:00.007-04:00

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

2009-10-06T19:03:00.044-04:00

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

2009-10-02T21:23:00.002-04:00

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.

Strathmore Generate Challenge

2009-09-29T19:24:00.002-04:00

Illustration students will have a few options for Generate Challenges, and one is from our good friends at Strathmore Papers.
Their challenge is called "How do You See Green?"...
"Create a piece of art that expresses the theme of “green” and “environment” using dry media techniques on Strathmore paper. (pencil, pastel, charcoal, etc.)"

Please visit their website for specific details. The finished work will be judged at 10am on Saturday morning. No digital manipulation or enhancements allowed.

VOICE Today Generate Challenge!

2009-09-29T18:04:00.004-04:00

Want to be a character designer? Want to see your characters made into dolls and appear in books? All for a great cause?
Then join the VOICE Today Character Design Challenge at this year's Generate!

VOICE Today is a non-profit group which works toward the prevention of child sexual abuse and recovery for victims. They will be producing children’s books, dolls, etc., so they need character designs for those products.
The winner will receive:
- The student(s) will participate in the manufacturing process, interfacing with the China factory and Krazy Houze. They will have sign off on the final project specs (control sample) before moving into production.
- Their name(s) will be on the label as the designers, as well their name(s) will appear in / on all products listing them as the character design of Grant and Gracie.
- 12 of each doll will be made and given to the student(s).

The work to be accomplished for each of the two(2) main characters:
4 pose turn-around (front, side, ¾ front, ¾ back)
4 head turns (front, side, ¾ front, ¾ back)
Expression sheets – 8-10 expressions
5 poses
1 supporting character (of your choice)
- 4 pose turn-around (front, side, ¾ front, ¾ back)
All inked and colored! Work may be submitted as a pdf.

For more information about VOICE Today, go here.

Name That Club

2009-09-23T10:21:00.004-04:00

SCAD-Atlanta Illustration is forming an awesome Illustration club, and we need an awesome name that will become an awesome logo that will be tattooed on every member's forehead. Or arm. Or not.

Anyway, think of an amazing (short) name, and the winner will get free stuff!!

Send your suggestion to Prof. Lovell.
The entries will be collected and voted upon in a few days. And an official announcement about the club will be coming up in a couple of weeks, so watch for that.

Thanks!

Podcast to check out.

2009-09-18T10:45:00.003-04:00

I've been listening to a couple podcasts lately, and found Big Illustration Party Time, which is all about every aspect of craft. These guys go on rants we've all gone on, discuss problems we all have, and really give some good insight to the business, both being freelancers just like ourselves. It's serious, it's funny, it's informative, and everyone should check it out, just search 'Big Illustration Party Time' in that apple store, find an episode that sparks your interest, and enjoy!

Brandon Sadler at StudioPlex

2009-09-16T18:18:00.003-04:00

Greetings to all,

I would like to invite you to view recent SCAD alum Brandon Sadler's newest exhibition, "Octopus Tempura", including the unveiling of his Irwin Street mural, an 100' x 10' painting on the back of the Studio Plex property.

Sadler will present “Octopus Tempura”, a collection of his new works in the Pavilion at Studioplex during the Art Walk. “The work for “Octopus Tempura” was created over the past two months, said Sadler. “When working on a concise series I typically focus on a symbol or image to bring my concepts together. The octopus became a strong force of inspiration for me recently and I’ve incorporated it heavily in this body of work.”

For more information about Sadler and to view his work, visit www.RisingRedLotus.com