Lauren Rolwing interview with Urban Outfitters

Lauren Rolwing Interview

2015 Illustration Forum

Student Spotlight: Yohey Horishita

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

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

I was born in a city called Kagoshima, the Deep South in Japan.

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

            I went to Jacksonville State University in Alabama, then transferred to SCAD Atlanta for BFA and MFA

3. What attracted you to Illustration?

            I’m attracted by its storytelling in both visual and conceptual solution. 

4. Who are your biggest influences?

            My biggest influence is Julie Mueller-Brown, my former professor in SCAD.  The way Julie guided me during my time in BFA literally opened up so many creative doors, and solidified my creative foundation.  I’m still and always grateful that I was given this professor who I can look up to.  I have so many other classical illustrators and painters whom I love, but I don’t think they are the obvious influences to my illustration in personal level.  Plus, as I’m getting more established as professional, I really don’t want to get influenced by anyone too much…  However, I do have great mentors (who I personally call them “mentor”) who I have great trust in their opinion, and also I appreciate the friendship I have with them; Rick Lovell, Yuko Shimizu, and Bill Mayer.  These three illustrators are my philosophical influence in illustration, and I very much listen to them word to word.  

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

            I would go to a medical school, be working for my father’s medical company back in Japan, be wealthy and be unhappy doing work that I was not passionate about.  It sounds miserable already, no?  As much as I appreciated the readymade path my parents laid for me, I’m glad that I could raise my voice to them and say, “No, this is not what I want to do.”  My bank account is skinny currently, but I’m very happy. 

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

            I do love to cook.  My kitchen is my kingdom (well, it’s more like “queendom” in my apartment if you know what I mean.)  I’m a person who is normally doing several things at the same time, so I recently realized that watching movie is one of a few times that I can sit and doing nothing but watch.  Otherwise I’m doing something work related; sketch, doodling, felting, and reading.

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

            This is tough question because I’m very open.  I talk about myself quite openly but way too openly sometimes (wink*).  Now I have to be careful what I say in certain level, but I haven't successfully done it quite honestly.  Since I fully came out of the closet few years ago, I have taken off a duct tape on my mouth and left it in the closet.  Bye Felicia.  I grew up in Japan, such a collective community in general Asian culture.  My family and extended families are very conservative Christian family with well-respected businesses, and I always needed to act out as a good boy, good son, and good brother in front of people.  I was destined to suppress my sexual orientation by this culture and religion, so you can imagine what happened when I had a breakdown after 26 years of being not fully come-out to my parents who are also pastors.  It was living hell, but now I’m free.  Amen, y’all.  So, that’s why I’m very open book to anyone about anything. 

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

            I have a list of my dream clients, and I put them into categories.  On my list, there are God-level clients like publishing houses and editorial covers, but I need to earn more recognition and trust in this industry to be hired by these clients.  To achieve those clients, there are “Oh Yohey is Upcoming Illustrator, Let’s Hire Him” clients like major editorial gigs.  To support these clients, there are “Okay, I Saw Yohey’s Postcard, Let’s Give Him a Small Spot” clients like much smaller publications and spot editorial illustrations.  I have these three level client list; dream big but always try to see where I am.  I don’t want to just dream big and not focus on my current position in the industry.  Right now, I’m in the small gig moment of my career, and doing it.  Give me a couple more years; I will crawl up there.

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

            I love both traditional process and digital process, so I do both to finish a piece.  Oil pastel technique, which was introduced by Julie Mueller-Brown, is the foundation of my traditional process.  Digital part is handled only in Adobe Photoshop to colour.  Then I traditionally use gouache painting to establish its light source; highlight and shadow, and compose them in Photoshop to deliver the final piece.  I easily get bored, so cannot imagine myself working neither 100% traditionally nor 100% digitally.  

10. Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.

            “Know your position and play your position.”

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @YoheyHorishita

SI-LA 2014 Winners!

We are super pumped to present the 2014 Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles Illustration West 53 Competition winners. Congratulations to all!

Yohey Horishita

Jing Li: "Miyazaki Hayao"

Jing Li: "Murakami Takashi"

Jing Li: "Yayoi Kusama" Winner of $500 Scholarship

Erin McManness

Erin McManness: "Anne Frank"

Erin McManness: "Sally Ride"

Diego Peñuela: "Drops"

Diego Peñuela: "Shadow"

Elyse Salazar: "Printed Organs"

Elyse Salazar: "Burden of Lying"

SI-LA Winners

Congratulations to all the SCAD Atlanta students whose work was chosen for the 2014 Illustration West Student Competition!

Shir Wen Sun

Amy Scott

Logan Wagoner

Ai Zhang

Ai Zhang; $500 Scholarship and Bronze Medal

Ai Zhang

Elyse Salazar

Elyse Salazar

Denise Plauche

Food Truck Party

Our class just finished up a project all about FOOD TRUCKS. Students were required to come up with a food concept and design the trucks and any extra bits they could think of. Here are a few favorites:

BARRY LEE:

LOGAN WAGONER:

JOE WALTON:  


AIMEE LAURA:  

ERIN MCMANNESS:

BAILEY MENNETTI:

CLAIRE MERCHLINKSY:


DANIEL RODDA:

ALI THOMAS:

Concepts and Compositions class work

This spring I taught ILLU727:Illustration Concepts and Composition to a small but very talented group of grad students.
There were two main subjects for the course; the first was to read and interpret the stories of Baba Yaga, a Russian folktale about a hag/witch who could be hideous and charming, and could take the shape of different creatures. The visual telling of the Baba Yaga stories was straight forward; be true to the text and create characters and environments that depict the stories as they were written.
The second major subject was Alice in Wonderland; a very familiar tale that everyone knows from the classic Lewis Carroll story and Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, but mostly from the Disney animation. The class watched the Disney version to re-familiarize themselves with the story and the characters, but their task was to reinvent the tale. They had to set the story in a different environment and a different time from the original, and they had to reinvent the characters to fit this new time and place. "Wonderland" was to become something else.
Each subject, Baba Yaga and Alice, required the same kinds of illustrations; take two scenes from each story and create a main illustration depicting a pivotal moment in the story, as well as a spot illustration and an illuminated letter. The spots could be a way to introduce a secondary scene, or to introduce a character that didn't make it into the main illustration, or it could be a continuation of the action in the main illustration. The illuminated letter piece involved taking a letterform in a font appropriate to the story, and illustrate it with elements from the story.
These illustrations are the main pieces from the Alice assignment. (there was no requirement to do one vertical and one horizontal, they just happened to come out that way)

Yohei Horishita depicted Wonderland as a kinky masquerade party, where the characters are all humans dressed in costumes and masks that relate to the characters in the story. This is done with traditional line drawn in pen and ink, with digital color and texture.

Elyse Salazar saw Wonderland as the world of drugs and addiction, and depicted Alice as an addict.
The technique was ink wash paintings in black and gray, colorized in Photoshop.

Amy Scott saw Alice as a space traveler, and the other characters took on alien-like forms.
Traditional graphite drawings with digital color and texture.

Logan Wagoner had a different idea; Alice is in an insane asylum and Wonderland is where she escapes to in her head. The characters are other patients or employees of the asylum, except for the Cheshire cat, which is her imaginary pet. Traditional watercolor with digital enhancements.