10 College Rules to Help You Never Become a Successful Illustrator

1. Skip as many classes as you can get away with.

2. Don’t make an effort to submit assignments and catch up with your homework when you skip a class.

3. Always be late to class.

4. Recycle assignments from other classes so you don’t do as much work.

5. Don’t ever do more than you’re asked to for your assignments.

6. Don’t participate in class so you don’t learn how to articulate your thoughts while you’re still developing your skills.

7. Get sick so often and for so long that you can’t even draw for school.

8. Don’t take advantage of the opportunities given by both your school and professors while you’re still a student.

9. Spend as much time as possible hanging out, drinking, smoking, watching TV and sleeping while you’re still in school.

10. Don’t realize you’re graduating and entering the real world until you’re a senior.

From personal experience and the observation of others, I could add some more:

- Excuses in general. It seems like one excuse is equal to one point toward reaching the goal of not reaching the goal. One example is not having the tools or facilities. Just wait until the perfect setup and situation comes along, especially since perfect scenarios are rare. Another example is saying I have a life with other things going on in it, assuming other people don’t have things going on in theirs.

- Talking about something more than doing it. It’s almost as if intentions are actualized enough in the mind that the rest of the person doesn’t need to follow through with it. This is good, because it saves more time toward becoming unsuccessful.

Fernanda continues in her handout saying that “otherwise, in order to help the odds of becoming a successful freelance illustrator, you should be reliable, consistent, passionate, persistent, dedicated, driven, grateful, considerate, flexible, and talented.”

Can anyone else attest/relate to these, and have stories to share? And feel free to copy the list, as long as Fernanda Cohen is credited. Thanks!

-Manolo M.

Share/Bookmark

Panelists is a series of Giant Robot shows that puts a spotlight on indie-comics creators from across the country, ranging from stapled-and-folded stars of DIY to art-gallery superstars. The show features original illustrations, paintings, mixed-media work, and special surprises from an assortment of contributors–including many Eisner and Ignatz Award nominees and winners. The event coincides with the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Festival… as if you needed another reason.

Share/Bookmark

More info at her blog, French Toast Girl, and a Flickr group too!

Share/Bookmark

Front

If you are an indie music fan like myself, no doubt you already own Red Hot‘s latest compilation, “Dark Was The Night.” As a visual artist it is highly likely that you also fell in love with this brilliant double CD’s packaging as I did. Not only is it gorgeously-designed, but it features classic illustrations from 19th century french engraver Gustave Doré‘s “Paradise Lost.”

Inner panel

Upon scanning the liner notes I found the cover packaging was designed by NYC illustrator/designer Ryan Feerer, and the inner booklet by John Giordani. The common thread between Ryan, John, Red Hot and “Dark Was The Night” is interactive agency Funny Garbage, which was started by Red Hot’s founder John Carlin, and designer Peter Girardi. In following this chain of hot creative links I landed on Ryan’s website and poked around his portfolio. Inspired, I contacted Ryan and picked his brain, and was rewarded with bits of news and interesting facts about his solo and agency work.

Illustration by Ryan Feerer

First off, Ryan shared that he is currently churning out a series of illustrations that will grace the walls of NYC’s Ace Hotel. This musician-friendly location not only features original illustration in all its rooms, but it also provides guests with unusual sonic bonuses such as turntables, guitars and amps. How cool is that?

Ryan's hand-hewn typography from "Dark Was The Night" in one of the hotel rooms.

Ryan’s design work is very illustrative, and his illustration work well-composed and designed�??something I admire and have been trying to achieve in my own work. I asked for his thoughts on the marriage of the two:

“I often have difficulty separating illustration from design. They work together in most of my work so combining them becomes second nature to me. For example, while creating the design for Red Hot’s Dark Was The Night compilation I was given Gustave Doré’s image of the fallen angel from Milton’s Paradise Lost. This was the one image the packaging had to revolve around. If you’re familiar with this image you know how beautiful and powerful it is. The mysterious winged figure floating down past stars and clouds through space towards what seems to be earth. When you have to design around such a magnificent piece of art, you have to take precautions. You can’t just slap some type onto the illustration because the original piece of art is so much more beautiful than anything you could possibly do, most likely. Keeping this in mind, I created the cover image and typography using Doré’s illustration as texture and detail. This was an introduction to the rest of the packaging. As you open the packaging the (almost) full Doré illustration is revealed. I think that is where the whole wow factor comes in. You’re able to make the visual connection with the cover without compromising the powerful and original artwork from the interior. Taking details from the existing artwork and using them as accents throughout the design created a strong consistency throughout the packaging. I think its a good example of how to create designs and illustrations using existing illustrations.”

On his illustration background:

“I’ve been drawing as far back as I can remember. My father is a preacher so I grew up going to church several times a week. I was stuck on a church pew for hours at a time with nothing but blank membership cards and pencils attached to the back of the pew in front of me. So, I did what most children do, I picked up the pencil and cards and started doodling. I would draw Biblical characters or other religious imagery pertaining to my father’s sermons. There are only so many Biblical figures a kid can draw, so when I was tired of drawing religious imagery I would start to pull things from my own imagination and draw, and draw, and draw. Although my passion for illustration started long ago, still to this day, when I sit down at church on Sunday morning I have to have my sketchbook and pen in hand. “

Illustration by Ryan Feerer

On his work space:

“I’m sure there are a thousand people that have a more interesting or quirky work-style, but I guess everyone is unique in their own way. In an ideal world I’d do all my work in a small wooden shack of a studio floating in the middle of a foggy lake surrounded by a thick forest. Unfortunately I don’t have that option. Most of my work is done in a small office space in my New York City apartment with a tiny window behind me facing a brick wall which voids my desk of any natural light. It’s definitely not an ideal situation, but its nothing a little Will Oldham and a cold beverage can’t fix.

On his process:

Although my designs and illustrations work together in most of my work, the process of starting a design is quite different than starting an illustration. Design is a lot more structured for me. There are a lot more restrictions and particular problems to solve. I love everything design encompasses but its nice to be able to escape and do what makes me happy. When it comes to illustration, I like to let my mood and music guide my hands. I tend to draw places where wish I could be, a situation I wish I could be in, or a person or thing I wish I could be. I�??m obsessed with some of the things that linger in my mind. The stories within it and the things I see have always kept me entertained.

When I was a kid I used to imagine this fantasy world that I could only get to through a small door hidden in my bathroom closet. The world inside was dark and strange. Humid and cold. It resembled what seemed to be a rainforest and inside that forest was a village where strange creatures lurked. That little world that lay within the depths of my bathroom closet has become an ongoing project I started back in grad school called Thy Old Murkville Forest. Murkville encompasses pictures, stories, music, as well as it’s own language. It is my dream world. Throughout the process of creating that imaginary world [I have been able to] view things from a different perspective. It’s like seeing my work from the inside which helps me create something thats more appropriate for what I’m doing. There is so much freedom in illustration. I can delve into my own world and live there as I create my work. It’s a wonderful place to be.”

Thy Old Murkville Forest

Follow Ryan Feerer on Twitter. Vote for his tee design on Threadless.

(Thanks, Ryan!)

]]> http://illustrationfriday.com/blog/2009/04/29/ryan-feerer/feed/ 19 http://illustrationfriday.com/blog/2009/03/06/the-iliad-by-jane-morris-pack/ http://illustrationfriday.com/blog/2009/03/06/the-iliad-by-jane-morris-pack/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:09 +0000 brianna http://illustrationfriday.com/blog/?p=1566 Jane Morris Pack details her investigations into three-dimensional space and figurative painting from classical Greek artifacts at the Aegean Center blog.

Share/Bookmark

Share/Bookmark

A page from Ellen Donovan's scrapbook, with calling cards

From BoingBoing I discovered a sweet link to The Daily Scrapbook “a book and website by Jessica Helfland of Winterhouse Studio“. The book in question is called Scrapbooks: An American History and the posts on the Daily Scrapbook blog give us an amazing glimpse into this 425 page volume (as well as the collected ephemera of American lives over two hundred years).

Share/Bookmark

Keri Smith asks what if your hand could tell stories?

Share/Bookmark

Danny Gregory’s new book An Illustrated Life features pages from artist’s journals and sketchbooks, a secret glimpse into their thoughts and inspirations. He posted a preview gallery a few months ago and you can imagine my joy when I discovered three of our bloggers, Penelope, Rama and Melanie listed among the distinguished participants, as well as another dear and familiar name to me, Seamus Heffernan.

Seamus grew up in New England and now lives in Portland, Oregon. He recently graduated with a BFA in painting from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, after a year abroad with the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts in Greece. He is a freelance illustrator/ painter/ comics artist and is working on a graphic novel about the Revolutionary War. See excerpts from the novel and his journals at seaheff.com

Seamus and I both studied in Pistoia, Italy and Paros, Greece with the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts in 2005-2006. The first time I met Seamus, in the garden of the Villa Rospigliosi, I was tongue-tied and intimidated – I was an older student with no prior art study, feeling incredibly out of my depth amid this garden of rosy young talent. I asked him about his summer travels and he handed me his journal with ink-stained fingers.

Let me tell you, a few scans in a book or on a website can’t do Seamus’ work justice. The first time I opened his journal I knew I was experiencing something vital and rare – as close to a real glimpse inside someone’s thoughts as you’re ever going to get.

I had travelled to the Aegean Center with six cameras, determined to document every new place and sensation, trying to feel “artistically prepared”, if such a thing is possible (it isn’t). After the first week, when we went on to Venice, I started looking to Seamus to make sure these incredible moments were being truly captured. My cameras did not fail me, oh no, but after each new day I’d ask Seamus to show me his journal and only then was I satisfied that my own memories were in place.

He draws every day. He carries a very nice ink pen with him, as well as a tube of white gouache for highlights. Sometimes he sits so still when he’s drawing that you think he’s missing the action, only to discover later that while you were fretting, he was noting the details you’d missed.

Danny interviewed Seamus last week for his podcast – you can listen to it here and discover more about Seamus’ life and work.

I’ll be writing more about Danny’s new book in the coming weeks, and more about the Aegean Center and its unique and magical classical approach to art studies. Congratulations, Seamus - SUGCARHTHRIA!

Share/Bookmark

need a little birdie in your artistic ear? check out this video (via TED) of maira kalman.

thanks to christine for the pick-me-up!

Share/Bookmark