AIB Illustration & Animation Blog

Yuko Shimizu speaks @ AIB

The AIB Illustration Club invites you Thursday, April 4, at 6pm for an artist talk by Yuko Shimizu. Yuko is a Japanese illustrator living in New York City. Her work, which is awesome, appears in DC Comics, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, New Yorker and she works with clients like the Gap, Pepsi and Visa. Feel free to check out more of her work on her website. The talk is at 601 Newbury, in Room N340. We hope to see you there!

Youth Art Month (YAM) @ Boston City Hall

Calling all art students!
The Boston Public Schools Visual & Performing Arts Department is seeking volunteers to assist with Youth Art Month (YAM), an exhibition and celebration of BPS student artwork at Boston City Hall.

The YAM exhibit will be on view at City Hall from April 1-27, 2013. Volunteers are needed to assist in the installation of the exhibit on March 27 and 28; the Opening Gala Reception on April 1; and the Interactive Opening for Schools on April 2.

We'd love your help for any and all of these events, and thank you for your support of BPS art students and teachers! Please register as a volunteer at: http://goo.gl/DzS6x, where you can find exact dates and times, and contact Leslie Karten, BPS Program Director for Visual & Media Arts, at lkarten[at]bpsarts.org with any questions.

AIB @ Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Exhibition

The AIB Illustration Department, and AIB at Lesley University community as a whole, wishes to congratulate Illustration Majors Melissa McGill & Nick Nazzaro. They've been juried into this years Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Exhibition.

This summer, May 15-June 5, their work will hang in The Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. Their work will also appear in the printed exhibition catalog.


In addition to their print and exhibition honors, Melissa and Nick's work will also be considered along side 240+ other top students selected from art colleges around the country to receive financial awards. Awards Ceremony and Opening Reception Friday, May 17, 2013. Congratulations once again, and good luck Melissa & Nick, you make us proud! Check out there work on the Society of Illustrators website here.

From the Phoenix, with love: Clip-and-share Valentines

We are nuts about AIB Illustration Aluma, Elizabeth Siegel's Valentines Day illustration: PRINT YOUR OWN: Get this Valentines as a PDF

V-DAY PHOTOBOMB! Take a selfie with one of our Valentines and tag @bostonphoenix on Instagram, and we might publish your photo!

Read more, and get yours: http://thephoenix.com/boston/life/151497-from-the-phoenix-with-love-clip-and-share-valent/#ixzz2KsXCk1zC

SHARK LOVE INC. Art Benefit for Sharks & Oceans

PangeaSeed Presents: SHARK LOVE INC. - Art Benefit for Sharks & Oceans

In collaboration with Pow Wow Hawai'i, The Box Jelly and the Refinery Project, PangeaSeed is pleased to present Shark Love Inc. during Pow Wow Hawai'i 2013. PangeaSeed, with an inclusive approach to spreading its message by engaging audiences through the mediums of art, design, photography, film, music and discussion, will host a series of events tailored to address one of the biggest threats facing the health of the world's oceans, the rapid mass depletion of sharks.

Peter O. Zierlein: Under the Knife

Peter Zierlein’s symmetrical paper cuts are based around the concept of balance, power and equality. On view from Thursday, February 14, 2013 through Wednesday, February 27, 2013. This exhibition of Zierlein's paper-cut art features a special opening reception with a lecture and demonstration on Sunday, February 24, 2-6 pm. More information

UPDATE: Other Worlds @ AIB

AIB Screenprinting Workshop

Illustrator Anna Jo Beck, Art Institute of Boston Alumni, will be hosting a silk screen workshop and demo on Saturday February 16th at AIB. The workshop is free to attend and watch. Workshop participents will have the opportunity to print your own design - please be prepared to pay $15 and purchase a few of your own supplies. 

Email Anna an RSVP if you would like to attend: anna[dot]annajobeck.com

Please indicate if you just want to watch or intend on printing yourself!

The event is limited to 8 people. First come first serve. Sign up today!

Additonal workshops may be scheduled if more people show interest. If you have any questions, ask Anna and visit Annajobeck.com

Other Worlds @ AIB

Check out some senior illustration work now on view at the Other Worlds exhibit! Opening reception Febuary 8th 6-8pm at 601 Newbury Street, 2nd Floor.

AIB Interview: Angryblue

AIB Illustration student Kristin Musser talks shop with illustrator Justin Kamerer of Angryblue. Don't get angry - It's right here, check it out...

What are your most productive hours of the day? What is a day in the life of "Angryblue" like?
It really depends on the day. I work at home, so the day sort of goes like this: Wake up. Coffee. Attempt some sort of morning practice (very important) - which might end up setting the tone for the day and then figure out what the hell is happening for the day and get going. I may spend the day packing orders, doing emails, creating or at the print shop destroying perfectly innocent pieces of paper.

What was your first art related job and how did it go?
Before I decided to do freelance work as an artist/illustrator/designer/whatever, my day job was doing web design. Before that, it was working at a sign shop. Before that, I learned a lot at a magnet high school and from whatever self-teaching I did after that.



Did you attend a 4 year college? What was your major?
I did a few semesters and then needed to pay my rent/bills, so didn't have the funding to do that. I think the route I've gone with experience has personally done way more for me than what college could offer my attention span. As a result, it's provided me with self drive to really understand the facets of art history and design that resonate with that I really love and then I learn as much as I can from peers.

What inspires you?
Anything. I try to keep myself in a constant state of brainstorming. Movies, music, banter with friends and mere opportunities. My house of full of things I've collected, so I've always got skulls, posters, prints, paintings and knick-knacks in my periphery. Though organized, there's always some sort of visual noise and I think that keeps me going.





The art world is full of highs and lows, what was your best success so far and your worst failure? How did you handle each of them?
The only failures I feel I've had are when my schedule has been too frantic to meet a deadline. Other than that, every single project is an exercise. Sometimes, you're going the motions on what you're comfortable doing and sometimes you're trying something completely new because it's uncomfortable. I've had some of those things not resonate with my current fan-base just because it's not what they're used to seeing from me, but I hope that I'm building a presence to where it's a little bit of a mystery about what I might offer up next. The theme of my 'brand' is how I bounce off of my random inspirations and hopefully my jackassery-fueled humor pops up here and there as well.

Sometimes something just doesn't resonate. With what I do as a print artist, it's a gamble every time I do a gigposter. Either the fans might not care about it, or they might be broke or people might love the art, but not the band ...or don't want a poster for a band they don't know, so they hold out hoping for an art print - and I can't do an art print version of every poster because it'll compete directly with sales. Something might KILL as an art print, but if it doesn't go over well as a poster, I don't have a way of knowing.  Sometimes, a year down the road, a poster or print that didn't resonate when they dropped will randomly blow up and I'll sell out in a week without being able to track down the reason.  Then again, maybe I'm just more optimistic than I come across by the nature of my work. If  I'm completely botching my way through a job, I generally know it before anyone sees it. I've been lucky enough to where I've not had my heart invested and excited about a project and then when it was delivered had a client say "what the hell is this?!" I think the only way i could fail is just by not producing or getting lazy and feeling like I was done learning. That's the ultimate failure for any creative.



Lastly, what is the best advice you would give an artist who is just starting out?
Sponge everything up. Obsessively dive in. Research. If you have a style of art you like, research the crap out of it. If you like art nouveau, figure out what makes it work. Figure out the typography and which faces work together and why - don't just find some typefaces that are sort of cool looking for the style. Pay attention to the colors, line weights and anything else that might be important to the nuance. Though I didn't stick with a formal school of training, research and independent study into the masters and the modern leaders of design and illustration are incredibly important. I feel like every artist needs at least 3 (at least) artists they actively pay attention to that makes them think, "why the hell do I bother" whenever they release a new print. I have that with probably a dozen and it just makes me re-evaluate and think, "OK. It's time to up my game."