Visiting Artist Series: Jade Orlando

Photos © Ravenshutleystudios.com

This week, we had the pleasure of hosting Jade Orlando, a talented illustrator based in Atlanta, as part of our Visiting Artist Series. Over the course of three days, Jade engaged with our students visiting different classes through presentations, demos, and insightful discussions, leaving a lasting impact on our Illustration community.

During her visit, Jade stopped by my class, ILLU 386: Repeat Pattern for Illustrators, where she shared insights into the surface design industry, including tips on portfolio building and navigating the freelance market. Given her extensive experience in surface design, including greeting cards, pattern design, and packaging illustration, her insights were invaluable to our students. She shared her journey as an illustrator, offering practical advice on building a strong portfolio, navigating the industry, and identifying opportunities in the illustration market. Beyond the technical aspects, what made Jade’s visit truly special was the personal and candid nature of our discussions. Students were engaged in an extended Q&A session, where she generously answered questions about her career, process, and challenges. The conversation felt natural and open, making it incredibly relatable and motivating for students who are preparing to enter the field themselves. 

On Friday morning, Jade wrapped up her visit with a hands-on department-wide demo and workshop, where she walked us through her illustration process step by step. We had a great turnout, with students eager to see how she approaches her work, from concept to final execution. Seeing her workflow firsthand was both inspiring and educational, offering valuable takeaways for students looking to refine their own creative processes.

Jade’s energy, expertise, and willingness to share her experiences made this visit a memorable and enriching experience. Her visit was an incredibly motivating and enriching experience, and we are so grateful for her time with us as part of our Illustration Department community, and we hope to welcome her back in the future!

Check out more of Jade Orlando's work at jadefrolics.com and Bright Agency!!

Book Illustrator Micheal Austin visits SCAD

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!

Steve Sweny at SCAD

Professional freelance illustrator of close to 30 years and good friend of mine, Steve Sweny, will be visiting SCAD during my Materials & Techniques I class this Monday Sept 21st from 12-1:30 in room 379. He will be showing his portfolio and some originals and I have also talked him into doing a demo! He is excited to do a quick portrait painting in ink of two celebrities. Come by and see who! Unless he gets the Swine Flu he will be here this time!

Who: Steve Sweny - Freelance Illustrator
What: Show & Tell and Demo!
When: Monday, Sept 12st from 12-1:30pm
Where: SCAD, Building B, Room 379 in Jay Montgomery's Class.
Why: Learn from his craft and experience, and who can pass up a demo?