Friday, May 22, 2009
Blog love
5
comments
Labels:
Etsy,
handmade,
Pets,
Plug,
Pug,
stuff I made,
technical pen,
Watercolor
Links to this post
Labels:
Etsy,
handmade,
Pets,
Plug,
Pug,
stuff I made,
technical pen,
Watercolor
Links to this post
Monday, May 11, 2009
MassArt Portfolio Day
Me and Emily Wayne, MassArt '09- Illustration
On May 6, I was invited by illustration professor Irena Roman to come to my alma mater Mass College of Art and Design as a guest portfolio reviewer for her senior illustration class. It was a privilege and an honor to be asked and I was glad to oblige.
The room was set up with tables along the perimeter of a large room in a semi-circle format. The reviews were one-on-one, and we were to keep each review to 15 minutes or so. There were about 20 - 25 guest reviewers total. The entire timetable was only two hours. I understood the reason for the limited review time even more so after the fact - the time went by very quickly.
This was my first time as a guest reviewer. Before the day came, I’d thought about the day: How would the students present themselves on and off the page? How many of them were focused on a specific illustration market/niche, and how many of them were ‘playing the field’? All the typical questions. Despite that, I had a general sense going in that I would come away impressed, and I was right, by and large. They were a great bunch and I wish I’d gotten the chance to see more of their portfolios. (Next year!)
At the end of the reviews, students came around and thanked reviewers with gifts of promo takeaways. It is great to have one-on-one time with a student to talk to them about their work, but seeing how they present themselves in the form of their promo package was a very big piece of the puzzle for me. I’m not only an illustrator but also a graphic designer, and I have strong opinions on the importance of graphic design skills for illustrators. (Graphic design skills are an indispensable, *necessary* tool for illustrators... but that's another blog post). Anyway, I was so overjoyed to see how so many of these illustration students not only understood the importance of *thinking* about their branding, but the hard work they put into the design and packaging of their name was evident! :) Here are few of those packages (artist names/links below pictures).
The room was set up with tables along the perimeter of a large room in a semi-circle format. The reviews were one-on-one, and we were to keep each review to 15 minutes or so. There were about 20 - 25 guest reviewers total. The entire timetable was only two hours. I understood the reason for the limited review time even more so after the fact - the time went by very quickly.
This was my first time as a guest reviewer. Before the day came, I’d thought about the day: How would the students present themselves on and off the page? How many of them were focused on a specific illustration market/niche, and how many of them were ‘playing the field’? All the typical questions. Despite that, I had a general sense going in that I would come away impressed, and I was right, by and large. They were a great bunch and I wish I’d gotten the chance to see more of their portfolios. (Next year!)
At the end of the reviews, students came around and thanked reviewers with gifts of promo takeaways. It is great to have one-on-one time with a student to talk to them about their work, but seeing how they present themselves in the form of their promo package was a very big piece of the puzzle for me. I’m not only an illustrator but also a graphic designer, and I have strong opinions on the importance of graphic design skills for illustrators. (Graphic design skills are an indispensable, *necessary* tool for illustrators... but that's another blog post). Anyway, I was so overjoyed to see how so many of these illustration students not only understood the importance of *thinking* about their branding, but the hard work they put into the design and packaging of their name was evident! :) Here are few of those packages (artist names/links below pictures).
4
comments
Labels:
Design,
Events,
Illustration,
MassArt,
Other Artists,
Reviews,
Students
Links to this post
Labels:
Design,
Events,
Illustration,
MassArt,
Other Artists,
Reviews,
Students
Links to this post
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Dog Painting Demo Part 7
Part 7 is up on You Tube. I discuss a little about watercolor painting in general, then I talk about the inspiration behind one of the dogs I'm painting in the picture. Hope you enjoy.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Illustration Friday: Parade
Friday, May 08, 2009
Chewy is here!
I would love to hear what you think of Chewy's portrait! :) Lay it on me, folks... or maybe I should say, "throw me a bone" instead?? Ha ha, sorry, couldn't resist. It's late and I guess I'm feeling a little silly.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Dog Painting Video Part 6 is up!
In this video (sixth in this series - my maiden voyage of vid demos) I talk about differences between opaque vs. transparent paint and talk a little bit about using metallic paint. It's still totally off-the-cuff and conversational but it's a little more focused - discussing specific topics as opposed to more general painting tips and tricks. Hope you enjoy.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Dog Painting Demo #5 - using "Page White" as a tool
Dog Painting video demo #5 is up on You Tube (if you'd like to see them all in one place, visit my You Tube channel). In this five-minute video demo I explain a way that I like to utilize the white of the page as another sort of "paint" for depth, hilights and textural effects, specifically when painting the coat of a dog (or any animal). Hope you enjoy!
Friday, May 01, 2009
Dog Painting Demo Part 4 is up
Part four of my first video demo is up now, here and on You Tube (where you can also catch video demos parts 1, 2 and 3). I'm getting a little better at putting these videos together (hey, we have a title! Whoopee!) It's also shorter, about 5 minutes long. (I like shorter videos... they are easier to digest.)
In this video, I paint a little Beagle's head. I do a lot of talking about the painting and my process. Of course I hope that this makes up for the lower video quality, but I know better than that. Ha ;). So I will let you know that I am looking into higher-quality video for future video demos! I really want to show you some more DETAIL in the work, than the quality of my Flip video camera can do. So keep that in mind. Have faith! I'm improving!
Dog Painting Demo Part 5 is also complete but not live yet! I will be posting it soon! Demo 5 is all about using the white of the page as a tool to help create texture and light in the painting. So please stay tuned!!
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