AIB Illustration & Animation Blog

Rob Dunlavey Visits us @ AIB

Illustrator Rob Dunlavey stopped by AIB's Illustration Junior/Senior studio last Friday! He gave a great talk, and showed off his process! Check it out :

For More of Rob's Work Check out his :

PORTFOLIO

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FLICKR

POINTY PEOPLE

 

AIB Senior Illustration Exhibition

On Friday April 27th, in AIB's Main Gallery, the Illustration Department proudly opened the exhibition that featured the work of 21 graduating Illustration Seniors. The show was well attended due in part to the standing room only crowd exiting the PIXAR event hosted by both the Animation and Illustration Departments, that preceded the senior opening.

To See more photos of opening night please visit:

http://www.flickr.com//photos/aiboston/sets/72157629987349985/show/

 

Shown Above: Mimi Alves

Shown above: Aaron Pino

AIB Tech Opaque Media

 

 

Here are some select student samples from AIB's Tech Opaque Media course taught by Ryan Maguire. Students are asked to complete illustration assignments with Acrylics and Gauche mediums. From portraits to plein air painting students explore how opaque mediums could be used in production for color comps and final illustrations. View the AIB Flickr set for all samples here.

Shown above: Ashton Blackman

Shown above: Keely Mills

Shown above: Rachael Hawkes

AIB Student Interview with Illustrator Rob Dunlavey

Rob Dunlavey (with paper sculpture)

Web Promotion for Illustrators asks students to connect with creative profesionals through student interviews to learn what it takes to be a profesional Illustrator working in todays various markets. Julia Walters, one of AIB's own Illustration/ Fine arts undergrads reached out to one of her favorite illustrators, Rob Dunlavey. 

Dunlavey's interests and accomplishments are in the fields of: Children's book illustration, Editorial illustration, Educational illustrations (for Museums), as well as advertising and book illustration! Rob was nice enough to share some of his expertise in the world of self promotion, check out what he has to share!

1. What was your first job and how did you find it? Was it paid, or did it lead to other paying jobs?

My first jobs as a free-lance illustrator were for the Christian Science Monitor whose offices are in Boston. I walked in the front door, with my portfolio and announced my desire to see an editor. I knew that they published an international newspaper that was widely respected. Of course the job was paid and it led to many more assignments over a period of years. I feel loyal and nostalgic about the Monitor. They are still publishing but I think the years have not been easy on small newspapers (that have no advertising!).

2. How much are you willing to cater your style to fit a client's demands?

I think my style is pretty set and we're always in agreement about that. I am usually very willing to dialog with the client about the content and editorial concept of the illustration.

"Riffii et Azimut" 2010 for "Les Belles HISTOIRES" Bayard Presse, Paris FR

("Les Belles HISTOIRES" - a magazine for children)

 3. How do you deal with client rejection?

Sometimes you wish they would just reject the project rather than getting the shoe to fit "no matter what". It doesn't happen too much and is often the result of some breakdown along the way or a misunderstood chain of command. But, it's all business. Some things work great and others don't. You do need to assume (or agree beforehand) that there is compensation in place in the form of kill fees based on how much of the assignment you have completed. Yes, sketches, even rejected ones should be paid for.

 4. Do you find any websites more "profitable" than others, by volume of sales or commissioning of work?

Not really. I'm not part of any paid portfolio sites. I've made profitable relationships through work I've posted on drawger, illustrationmundo, flickr and facebook. The volume is not great nor is it consistent.

 5. How else do you promote yourself (maybe mailings, promotional items, paid advertisements, etc.)?

I post many images on-line (at my peril I think --but that's another discussion). I do several postcard mailings a year and a few other targeted mailings (I make a special calendar that people collect). I often send specific work to specific people. It's very personal. It's my attempt to keep them in the loop; just passing something in front of their eyes. Often, there is no immediate response; it's a form of tending one's garden of contacts and being proactive. I try to enter competitions. I've found purchased mailing lists to not be so useful as they once were, but I use them once or twice a year.

"Riffii et Azimut" 2010 for "Les Belles HISTOIRES" Bayard Presse, Paris FR

6. How often do you submit work to galleries or participate in call for entries?

As often as I can. 3-4/year. I wish I could do more.

7. How do you determine the sale price for your artwork? Originals vs.prints?

This is a tough call. Family members say I charge too much. Colleagues say, and my research shows, that my prices are reasonable. But this is all DIY entrepreneurship (Etsy, etc.). A gallery or rep situation would probably increase and stabilize the rates.

8. How do you retain copyright when negotiating with clients?

It's all in the contracts: For editorial: first magazine rights and various forms of "electronic" rights. The picture in book publishing is a bit murky with publishers attempting to set a minimum compensation for electronic forms of books. I retain all rights to any original art that I sell. And in general, I assume ownership of ALL rights and refuse to enter into any situation where my ownership is assumed by the client.

9. What is something you wish you had known when you first became a professional artist, or general advice for those starting?

Don't be afraid to embrace the fact that Art or Illustration is an actual career and that regardless of the practicality of your work, it's of value to people and other businesses. That's how our economic system works. The more joyous, honest and inspired you are, the more people will know about and value your work.

personal work (from sketchbook) watercolor, charcoal

A special thanks to Rob and Julia for sharing swith all of us here at AIB!

To view More information and work, check out Robs online galleries:

Website: http://www.robd.com/

Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/robdunlavey

Store : http://www.etsy.com/shop/robdunlavey

And for More of Julias work, check out her online portfolio:

http://www.wix.com/juliawalters/illustration

LARRY HAMA : A Multi-Talented Storyteller

Larry Hama the multi-talented storyteller is comming to AIB!

Artist talk is Friday April 6, from 6pm-730pm
at AIB 700 Beacon St - Room 215.

Hama is a: Comics writer (14-years on G.I. Joe and 7 years on Wolverine), comics editor (8 years at Marvel Comics), comics artist (Marvel Premiere, G.I. Joe, and Daredevil), freelance illustrator (Esquire, National Lampoon), storyboard artist (Activision’s X2: Wolverine’s Revenge video game and HBO’s The Sopranos), and currently, NYU’s 2011-2012 Artist-in-Residence.

Students and alumni are invited to an informative artist’s talk on visual storytelling. This is a great experience for students and alumni to hear about first hand experience in a wide variety of formats dealing with the world of comics! 

Come check it out!

On The Wall: Tegan Harmonay & Mike Centeno

             

AIB Illustrators Tegan Harmonay and Mike Centeno have been hard at work. These senior illustrators are currently displaying final pieces, as well as process work on the second floor of 700 Beacon. 

    
Shown above: (Left) Tegan Harmony, ink on paper, "Lost Someone" (Right) Tegan Harmony, ink on paper, "Don't You Know?"

During Tegans senior year she is focused on developing a series of character illustrations inspired from her roots in NY, more particularly the MTA North in NYC. "Since taking Junior studio last semester I've realized how much I love creating characters, most of them are derived from past experiences and relationships, but this project is going to be a little different."  Tegan hopes to complete the series by the end of April 2012. 

You can also see Tegan's sketchbook, which is featured as part of the Sketchbook Project 2012. The tour begins April 14th at the Brooklyn Art Library. 

 

     
Shown above: (Left) Mike Centeno, digital, "Cleveland Circle" (Right) Mike Centeno, digital, "Young"

For Mikes final semester he is transitioning his school projects into the real world! For the rest of the semester Mike plans to write the basic structure of his first foray into graphic novels. Mike is set to have final pages done by May, his current focus is "diving deep into defining who these characters are and where the story is going to go."

Since January Mike has also been interning at DigBoston doing the weekly illustration for Oh Cruel World!; a reader based column where people write in to complain about different aspects of the city. As for other future projects, Mike is planning on submitting a strip for the Hellbound comic compilation being produced by the Boston Comic Round Table. Since taking Alternative Comics and The Graphic Novel class last semester, with Tim Finn, this artist has found himself more proactive in exploring the medium. " I've always been obsessed with this medium, yet always found excuses not to work on." Get to it Mike!

Head over to 700 Beacon, and check whats On The Wall out!

For more information visit their websites: Tegan Harmonay and Mike Centeno

AIB's Social Media gets attention!

If you need another reason to submit your work to the AIB Illustration & Animation Blog and Flickr sites - then check out the recent feature on BostInno.com: A Snapshot of The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University!

BostInno is New England’s fastest growing online media property, providing the view from inside the place that Oliver Wendell Holmes famously called “the hub of the universe.”

Created in 2008 as a community startup blog hosted on WordPress, BostInno went through brief stints as a wiki and then a Twitter aggregator.  On December 7, 2009, BostInno was re-launched as an online news platform focused on creating original content covering Boston’s innovation ecosystem.  In the early fall of 2010, the team behind what is now Streetwise Media (BostInno’s owner), started focusing full time on BostInno and reinventing city news online. Learn more here

Thanks BostInno.com!

Make It: A Puppet a Day

Check out AIB's Erin Stainken's Puppet a Day project, a creative collaboration of Erin Stainken and Jenna Walsh. Erin makes one puppet and Jenna writes one poem every day for the month of December.

"We don't preplan and the pairings are random and suprise to everyone including us. We're hoping this project will be a fun motivator to help us generate more work and keep us creating daily."










View more on the Puppet a Day project website: http://ekspuppetaday.blogspot.com/

Happy Halooween!

Fresh from our student body we have an essay on Edger Allen Poe written and illustrated by Keeley Mills for her Obsessions & Phobias Illustration course.

 

Edgar Allan Poe: Great American Poet & Mentally Insane Loner   

    Edgar Allan Poe has many literary accomplishments under his belt. His talent with words and confidence to embrace such dark subject matter make him the creator of the surrealist movement. This Gothic Genre god has also written one of the most well known poems in American Literary history, “The Raven.” As if that is not enough, he is also to thank for the first ever detective story, “The Murders in Rue Morgue.” While one would assume that would come with a life of riches and happiness, it did not, quite the opposite. Poe led a life of sadness, loneliness, and grief.

    Using modern terminology, Poe is classified as Manic Depressive, Bipolar, and Schizophrenic. These disorders saturated Poe’s mind and thoughts, driving the themes and plots of his writing. His mental misfortune, while enhancing his stories, created quite the opposite for his realms of reality. Poe was abandoned by his father and was orphaned at an early age when his mother died of tuberculosis. His manic psyche developed an infatuation with the death of the mother he barely knew.  This infatuation was repeatedly shown in his writing through his manipulations of female death.  

    Drawing on his mother’s death was just one of many ways that Poe intertwined his life, his disorders, and his writings. Consciously or not, he often depicted stories that were reflective in his life; horrific and full of death. These sad tales of a world that existed in his head were often autobiographical glimpses presented in a theme of “double-self.” That is, the characters he created often were conflicted with aspects of   multiple individualities in the one, Bipolar or Schizophrenic. From his writing, you get no sense of a physical realm; there is no reference to social or political issues.  In fact, it makes you wonder if psychologically he was even aware of these issues. Instead, he wrote only of the contents of his disordered mind, showing the dark troubled world in his head. 

    Poe, most likely, retreated even further into his unstable mind because the outside world he lived in was a place few would want to live. Having no professional respect for his work during this time drove him to live the life of a pariah. After being disserted by his parents, the family that took him in wouldn’t even adopt him. Disturbingly, following  no successful relationships with family or any acceptance of any kind, he wed his thirteen-year-old cousin. Being mentally ill, depressed, and socially rejected drove him to attempt suicide. Still, through all this, he wrote, turning his physical life inside out, and extracting and documenting chronicles of his morbid imagination. 

    Poe died oddly and unsettlingly. The exact cause is not known, as he was found rambling and incoherent in a stranger’s clothing. Mysteriously, he passed a few days later. Like many other praised artists and writers, he was not deemed famous until long after his death. Though he was mentally unstable, estranged, and misunderstood, he eerily recognized the bizarre relation between psychological imbalance and creative beauty:

"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not…whether much that is glorious, whether all that is profound, does not spring from disease of thought…”— Edgar Allan Poe 

Almost, as if he knew of the recognition, esteemed status, and importance that his work would one day be recognized for. Poe, clearly a narrative genius, is also a solid confirmation of the union between imagination and insanity. 

by Keeley Mills, Fine Artist and Illustrator, for Obsessions & Phobias
View more of Keeley's process work on her twitter feed here

NEW: AIB Call to Artists

If you have not seen the new AIB Call to Artists blog, then its time to check it out! The blog features a range of internship, freelance opportunities, and creative competition information for AIB students and alumni. Who knows - your next illustration could get published, land that dream job, or better yet win some cold hard cash!