Just yesterday, CD Dept. chairperson Todd McFeely told me he sensed the job market for designers was turning the corner. He’s been hearing more and more good news from recent grads who have found work in the design field.
Even more encouraging is that grads are starting new businesses from scratch. Victor Beazzo wrote yesterday to announce the birth of Solid Design Group. That sounds stable. Solid’s website has launched at soliddesigngroup.net. Victor, since graduating from K.U.in 2008, gained experience working at two well-known Pennsylvania agencies and is now putting out his own digital shingle. He says he still has a lot of work to do. We wish him luck.
Example of web design by Solid Design Group, Whitehall, PA
Logo for holistic health clinic in Bethlehem, PA. Solid Design Group
Below is a quote from Solid’s inaugural blog entry, a bit of advice that illustrators might take to heart. Visit the site to read more.
“If you can’t find paying work, do pro bono stuff to learn. Your cousin’s wedding invitation, a local band’s album artwork, or a website for a local non-profit, are all great examples. Craigslist is a great place to start when searching for low pay or charity work for experience. You’re getting your name out there and building a reputation for yourself, but the most important thing is that you’re actually learning and improving! The more you do, the faster you’ll get better!”
Kelly Weihs' illustration for The Tower (Click image to enlarge)
Kelly Weihs just graduated May 2010, BFA, Communication Design. When I saw her illustration in the Tower, I wrote to ask her how it happened. She wrote back, “I was in professor Dr. Ed Simpson’s Dinosaur class at KU. I’d sent him dino artwork I had done in one of my illustration classes, and he liked it. I ended up doing an illustration at the end of the spring ’09 semester based on his scientific findings. He showed me a photograph of the dinosaur diggings he had found, and some skeleton photos and references of what this dinosaur may have looked like, so I recreated what I thought the scene would look like.”
Dr. Simpson’s research, as noted in the Tower, was reprinted in publications around the world. The British magazine the Economist, wrote about him here.
Kelly’s illustration media? Graphite pencil scanned into Photoshop and colored using a Wacom tablet.
KU design students tend to complain about being forced to take General Education courses, but here is one instance where a Gen Ed course paid off. Even though Dr. Simpson’s Dinosaurs is a large early morning lecture class, it is so popular that it fills quickly.
Kelly has a keen eye for historical details, above is a piece she did for a visual essay on Civil War Reenactor village near her Maryland home. Another research intensive project she completed during an Illustration Senior Seminar, below, is her “paper theater” or “toy theater” based on the life of Napoleon. Toy theaters were once sold a souvenirs at the concession stands of Victorian-era theaters and opera houses. If you’d like to learn more about the fascinating history of these theaters, you might start with the Wikipedia entry, here.
Kelly is currently planning to do a new toy theater based on colonial U.S history. This project seems like a perfect fit for Colonial Williamsburg or other historic sites in the Mid-Atlantic states. Kelly’s website is worth a visit, it has many more examples of her creative illustration and carefully researched graphic design projects.
The Kutztown University Bookstore now has copies of A Dog Named Pavlov/ Un Perro Llamado Pavlov for sale. They are stocked on the faculty author shelf. I wrote about the book here. Pick one up and I will be happy to sign it!
Someone slipped BEANO (not the anti-gas medicine!) the British comic book, under my door. This was just before break, during exam week. I was thrilled and amazed. I hadn’t seen a copy since I was in England in 1995 teaching British Humorous Illustration as part of the KU/UK program. This copy is dated July 30, 1938 with Big Eggo, the ostrich, on the cover. I thought it may have come my way because on my door hangs a woodblock print of an ostrich that I carved at Evil Prints. I took Beano home in my backpack and read most of it in bed. It is a strange mix of cartoon styles, some very juvenile gags, a few more sophisticated adventure strips, including one about a bullwhip expert, Cracker Jack. Some pages have more text than pictures. The drawing styles are varied, often charming, and with distinctively British characters.
It occurred to me Beano is quite different from the famous U.S comic that also appeared in the summer of 1938, in which Superman made his debut. Everyone knows Superman’s Action Comic, Number 1, is worth a fortune. In 2010 a mint copy sold for 1.5 million dollars at auction. I wondered about the value of Beano, Number 1, and who had slipped it under my door.
Turns out it was Prof. Elaine Cunfer who sent it my way. She said, “I’ve had that for ages, never got around to reading it; glad you like it.”
I googled Beano #1 and found a blog about a recent EBAY sale. Better yet, there’s a video about Beano’s value on a UK version of Antique Roadshow. Beano # 1 is worth about 4,000 pounds, more if it still has the free Whoopee Mask (1 British pound = 1.54 US dollars, over $6,000.) I emailed these links to Elaine Cunfer telling her I couldn’t accept such a valuable gift, but asked if I might to scan a few of these amazing illustrations before returning it.
A panel from Wild Boy, Beano #1. More scans below.
Elaine Cunfer wrote back to tell me this Beano was a reprint that came with the Sunday Funnies. She got it last time she was in England. She was touched that I wasn’t intending to rip her off. “My” Beano has 24 pages, a real 1938 Beano has 28 pages. Beano’s original 1938 masthead features a crude caricature of a grinning black boy eating watermelon, not the sort thing you would find in mainstream comics today. During the World War II years, Beano was filled with equally crude anti-Italian caricatures and slurs. These are not the things I like about Beano, but any popular magazine is a time capsule. And alas, unedited time capsules include some ugly curios among the gems. The U.S. is no different from England in this respect. I’m guessing the missing four pages might have featured a story about the boy with the watermelon. If anyone can shed light on the mysterious missing four pages, please do get in touch. Here, below, is one of the original Beano comics in its entirety, Ping! illustrated by Hugh McNeill.
This blog began in June as a sort of trial balloon with the intention of highlighting the many accomplishments of KU’s illustration concentration. There is a myth, repeat myth, that KU is shutting down illustration. The roots of this misconception may be due to the reduced footprint of illustration in the new Sharadin building. But we have had some significant accomplishments in the illustration area in the new Sharadin, including the Brad Holland Exhibition. This was the first one-person illustration exhibition in Sharadin in over 25 years! This year we also had The Dornish Collection Exhibition of children’s book illustration, which broke all records for gallery attendance. We also hosted three exceptional visiting artists illustrators in 2010, Bret Helquist, Peter Kuper, and Megan Halsey. We look forward to Caldecott winner Jerry Pinkney‘s visit in April.
The future looks bright. Enrollment in upper level illustration classes is up at Kutztown University. Applications for CD are higher than ever, and there is a lot of talent headed our way. Spread the word.
A special thank you to Prof. Denise Bolser. She wrote two blog posts this year, and one on advice for illustrators is among our most popular and practical, See link below.
The folks at WordPress sent me stats and a chart for the first year of Illustration Concentration Blog :
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,800 times in 2010. That’s about 14 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 33 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 111 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 24mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was December 4th with 152 views. The most popular post that day was What’s SpongeBob Really Like?.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, kutztown.edu, faculty.kutztown.edu, mail.yahoo.com, and twitter.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for spongebob, spongebob pictures, sponge bob, renee french, and tom whalen.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Illustration Concentration signed up for the WordPress POSTAWEEK 2011 challenge. We will try to continue to post something worthwhile weekly. Kutztown alums with illustration news please keep us posted about your successes!
What’s SpongeBob Really Like? is the most visited page on this blog. KU grad Amanda Geisinger, web designer of Nick.com’s SpongeBob site, told us she can fiddle with SpongeBob art, but only a few select artists are actually permitted to draw SpongeBob. Of course, Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of all Bikini Bottom’s characters, is in that category. But who else?
An Amazon.com search reveals over 650 results for the term “SpongeBob” in books and at least a dozen illustrators. I was amazed to find these titles: SpongeBob RoundPants, SpongeBob SantaPants, SpongeBob SpookyPants, SpongeBob PartyPants and WhoBob WhatPants? Based on the cover art by Clint Bond, it seems our mellow yellow hero becomes a nudist in SpongeBob NaturePants!
Seems I’m always reading 3 books at once. I am working my way through Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Freedom and two SpongeBob Books. (If read concurrently with SpongeBob books, anything else seems rather dry.)
I’m reading A Very Krusty Christmas by David Lewman and The Art Contest by Steven Banks. These choices are not random, but rather based on my background as a Santa turned illustration professor. Both books, it turns out are ably illustrated by NY-based illustrator Robert Dress. Dress’s blog is a lesson in illustration; the fluid line drawings that fill his many moleskine sketchbooks are a joy to behold. I wrote to him and he was good enough to answer a few questions.
From A Very Krusty Christmas, art by Robert Dress, Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon
What is SpongeBob really like?
Robert Dress: “Um hmmm…I’ve never met Stephen Hillenburg.”
Has SpongeBob changed your life?
R.D. “Changed my life? Yes, he’s allowed me to work with some amazing illustrators and art directors at Nickelodeon.”
Identify SpongeBob's inspirations or go back to Art History class. (answers below ) art by Robert Dress from The Art Contest, 2009, Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon books
What is the project you enjoyed working on with him the most?
“I love just sketching him and getting into how he’s feeling and reacting to a situation. He’s an emotional guy which makes him fun to draw. Because his eyes are so large he’s not too hard to get expressions out of. One of the hardest things to do when your drawing a character like SpongeBob is to pull out genuine feelings and the eyes are the most revealing features.”
Sincere thanks much to Robert Dress for his quick responses. As he points out, he is one of many artists privileged to work with SpongeBob. He also wrote that he wasn’t permitted to dicusss future projects, but we hope to see more of his work. By the way, Stephen Hillenburg, SpongeBob’s creator, doesn’t do many interviews, but made exceptions for his alma mater, Cal Arts, here, and the Washington Post.
(SpongeBob’s paintings inspirations: Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, Edvard Munch’s Scream, Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa, and Jackson Pollock. The cover, above, channels Rene Magritte’s Son of Man.)
Chris Dacre (rhymes with baker) is the winner of the 2011 Sharadin Gallery Installation Residency at Kutztown University. The residency, which comes with a $10,000 budget, attracted over 150 proposals from all corners of the world. I visited Dacre’s website to learn about his artwork. Most recently living in New Mexico, he has a BFA in Graphic Design and MFA in Printmaking. An Air Force veteran, his recent work is about how we think about (or avoid thinking about) war. His upcoming Kutztown project is called “War is Fun.” I emailed him a few questions.
“I learned to draw by copying cartoons out of the paper when I was young and after I enlisted in the Air Force I picked up a copy of ‘Cartooning the Head and Figure’ by Jack Hamm and would use that as my primary reference tool while I was sitting at work trying to stay awake. So I guess the answer is yes and no.”
Why is there suddenly new enthusiasm for printmaking?(when lots of colleges seem to be shutting down their printmaking studios to make way for new media.)
“Hmmm. I believe Drive By Press, that Joseph Velazquez started, has brought more awareness to the medium by taking it across the country and introducing a wide variety of students to some really cool artwork. I think that was an important breath of fresh air that this medium has been waiting for… In the past -in my opinion- a majority of printmakers were making really serious, dark imagery and, of course there is still a lot of that around but Drive By Press has shown that it can be quite a fun medium without all the stuffiness that used to be associated with it.
I went to Southern Graphics this year in Philly after taking a 3-year hiatus and was surprised at the amount of people who attended that conference. It’s great to see that there is a real enthusiasm for a medium that I love.”
Any particular artists you found influential?I thought of Red Groom’s Ruckus Manhattan looking at your installation images.
“I do love Red Grooms and recently bought a copy of his book that is basically a retrospective of his work. After I finished my undergraduate degree in Birmingham, Alabama, I was asked if I would be interested in being an assistant to the Chicago-based artist, DZINE. That was probably one of the best things I could have done for myself. I basically helped him paint this huge painting in the gallery but what was so important was that it was my first real exposure to a “real” artist- who just happens to be blowing up lately. Chris Burden is also someone I looked at lately- I love the way that he seems to just go for it and push the limits. But the first influential artist that really opened my eyes and made me see that you can really push the boundaries is Jonathon Borofsky- in graduate school I found an article that talked about an installation that he put up in LA in the mid-80’s and it was a room that was just crammed with stuff- it may have been his retrospective, I’m not sure, but it made me see that ‘hey, I can do that as well’. Oh, and of course- Chuck Jones- probably the very first artist I looked at who drew my favorite cartoon character- Bugs Bunny.”
“I guess the best advice I can give- well maybe two bits of advice- the first being something that DZINE told me was that you need to learn about the history of artists by reading their biographies, looking at contemporary art publications and by watching movies/shows like ART21. At first when he told me this I was like “yeah, yeah, whatever” but then I realized he was right. Look at other artists and learn from them- when you get out in the art world these people will be your competition.
And the other bit of advice I can give is to make work for nobody but yourself because you have to…the work is what is most important, everything else will follow with a little bit of patience.”
Chris Dacre is looking for a few student volunteers to help him install “War is Fun.” If you have some time, roughly between Jan. 12 and 18, contact Gallery Director Karen Stanford, stanford@kutztown.edu, or drop by the gallery and meet the artist.
UPDATE: 2/21/11 : The Reading Eagle wrote a thoughtful review of the exhibition here.
It is always worse somewhere. The NY Times reported on China’s “vast army of college graduates seeking professional jobs.” Gordon Chang tells the sad story of 1,100 Chinese college grads applying for 8 jobs shoveling human waste, or “night soil.” Sometimes it seems like the prospects for illustrators are just a bleak.
Years ago, Prof. Cunfer and I went to a conference at the Society of Illustrators in NYC. Representatives from big city schools known for illustration, –Parsons, Pratt, and my alma mater, SVA, spoke about the job prospects for young illustrators. Murray Tinkleman, the moderator, asked each prof to honestly estimate what percentage of their recent illustration grads were making a living as illustrators. The highest estimate was 5%.
Kutztown Communication Design illustration grads are highly skilled and most find work in a related field. The key word in that statement is related. The pool of talented young illustrators grows, but demand is, at best, stagnant. Not long ago, every city the size of Allentown had its own newspaper editorial cartoonist. Many big city papers had multiple staff artists. Those days are gone. Newspapers are dying, and survivors settle for inexpensive syndicated editorial cartoons. These cartoons, naturally, focus on national stories, so state and local stories don’t get the attention they deserve.
The well-rounded illustrator will survive. I always advise illustration majors to take upper-level graphic design or web design classes. It is still quite possible to land a graphics design position that will permit you to do some illustration. If you have drawing skills you can save your boss, or yourself, time and money.
The other option for illustrators remains creating one’s own material. In this regard, face it, we not that different from “fine artists.” Take the image above, for example. Originally, cartoonist Daniel Clowes drew Art School Confidential as four-page story for his indie comic, “8-Ball.” I remember the day I first saw the original art for those pages hanging at Exit Art in New York. Those four simple pages struck a nerve, and the story became viral. Eventually it became a movie starring Anjelica Houston and John Malkovich.
Truth be told, the movie wasn’t half as funny as the comic, but the point is this: Nobody I know has the money or ability to make a Hollywood movie, but many illustration students have the ability to single-handedly create a four-page comic. I don’t mean to diminish Daniel Clowes’ considerable talent. His well-deserved success is the result of years of work at the drawing board. Illustrators with guts and ideas can self-publish their best ideas on paper or the web. Who knows what might be the next big thing?
There are some obvious blockbuster movies based on superhero comics: Spiderman, Superman, Iron Man, etc. There are also many fine films that owe part of their genesis to the fevered imagination of an illustrator, including: Road to Perdition, V for Vendetta, American Splendor, Men in Black, and Unbreakable.
Pavlov, the real dog, photo courtesy Howard Campbell
Howard Campbell first told me the story of the real dog Pavlov at Zandunga, a restaurant in Oaxaca, Mexico. Pavlov is a bright and fun-loving dog, who learned a lot through positive psychological reinforcement. Pavlov had belonged to his late brother. The photo above shows Pavlov at George Campbell’s grave. Howard asked me to illustrate a children’s book he wrote about the shaggy hound. Below is how I drew Pavlov based on that one photo.
Howard Campbell, PhD, of the University of Texas, El Paso, is an interesting guy. As an anthropologist he is one of the foremost experts on Oaxaca’s Zapotec culture. He also has the considerable courage to document the most terrifying stories of the border region in a new book, Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juárez. Alma Guillermoprieto’s recent essay The Murderers of Mexico in The New York Review of Books called this work “so breathtakingly sensible as to amount to genius.”
He told an El Paso newspaper writing the drug book was an “arduous process because of the delicacy of the topic and the need to handle it with scientific rigor.” A Dog Named Pavlov, on the other hand, he calls a “labor of love,” a memorial to his brother loosely based on his beloved and energetic dog.
Pavlov as a Puppy
For me, it was fun trying to draw Pavlov as he grew from puppy to adult. Technically, I got to try something different. I sketched in ink on paper until I got the right likeness, then scanned the ink drawing. I open the drawing in Photoshop. There is mode in Photoshop called Multiply. Basically, it makes my ink drawing into layer that can be “back-painted.” I used a Wacom tablet rather than a mouse to lay down the color. The end result is much like an animation cel.
Pavlov at Play
A Dog Named Pavlov, Un Perro Llamado Pavlov, is a bilingual, Spanish and English children’s book published by Stanley Publishing of El Paso, Texas. The 44-page paperback tells just a bit about the famed Russian scientist, Pavlov’s namesake, then launches into the story of the shaggy dog’s life. Most bookstores should be able to order a copy in time for Christmas, but the quickest way to get a copy if you’d like one is to order direct from Stanley Publishing though this link.
Update 1/7/11: NYC Exhibition Extended through Jan 22, 2011. See gallery link for more info: Adam Baumgold Gallery.
We’ve had over 3,200 visitors to this blog in its first five months. Thanks to the way WordPress works I’m able to see which search terms people used to get here. “Renee French, Illustrator.” is one of the most frequently searched terms. Folks enjoyed our email interview with Renee. Thanks to Dr. Tom Schantz we have some updated news about Renee to share below. Oddly enough, a lot of people also search for “French Illustrator” and end up on this blog because of Renee’s surname. I feel sorry for these people. Renee is from New Jersey.
Okay, Okay, if you are looking for a French Illustrator, check out Tomi Ungerer. The man is a genius. He has his own museum in Strasbourg, France. Just this week Prof. Cunfer walked into my office with a wild Tomi Ungerer book that she found in the Reading Terminal Market. I’m so glad she reminded me of my favorite French illustrator.
Back to Renee French, illustrator and KU grad. Her latest book, H Day, got a thoughtful review from comics scholar Douglas Wolk in the NY Times. It appeared around Halloween, appropriately enough: “Renée French’s graphic novels … tend to split the difference between adorable and horrifically gross. The wordless H DAY , its cover informs us, addresses “her struggles with migraine headaches and Argentine ant infestation.” Wolk also notes, “You can skim through the whole thing in about four minutes or spend hours puzzling over how it all fits together.” You can read the entire review just as it appeared in the NY Times here.
Here’s how the NY Daily News explains H Day, “Renee French’s first graphic novel in four years, the artist illustrates her struggles with migraine headaches and Argentine Ant infestation through her haunting pencil drawings. H Day can be read both as an oblique autobiography and as a suspenseful fantasy story.”
You can meet Renee French and get a signed copy of H Day on Monday, Dec 6 at 7:00pm at The Strand Bookstore, New York, NY. She’s doing a book talk with Myla Goldberg. The Strand now has 18 miles of books. They must have a whole wall of French illustration.
Slug Girl @ Renee French 2010
SLUG GIRL, 3-D
Renee shared another bit of exciting news with Dr. Schantz. One of her characters is going to be turned into an Japanese designed action figure. In this case, it is more like an inaction figure, Slug Girl. Just in time for the holidays the resin cast figure will debut at the Galley Meltdown in L.A. this November. According to Renee, Slug Girl is “based on a drawing that was part of a series of little girls and rabbits with various ailments and prosthetics.”
The first edition of Slug Girl is limited to 100 pieces. Details at the Gallery Meltdown blog. Renee French continues to amaze. Check out her blog.Renee French’s one woman show will be up Adam Baumgold Gallery, 60 E 66th St, NYC starting on Dec. 7 through Jan. 15. Gallery hours: Tues. thru Sat, 11:00 – 5:30. The gallery is closed for the holidays Dec. 23 to Jan. 1. An extensive selection of her works from the exhibition can be viewed at the gallery website.
Even more encouraging is that grads are starting new businesses from scratch. Victor Beazzo wrote yesterday to announce the birth of Solid Design Group. That sounds stable. Solid’s website has launched at soliddesigngroup.net. Victor, since graduating from K.U.in 2008, gained experience working at two well-known Pennsylvania agencies and is now putting out his own digital shingle. He says he still has a lot of work to do. We wish him luck.
Illustration Concentration 
