AIB Illustration & Animation Blog

Monster Party 2013 creeps out UGLY Gallery! –New Bedford MA

October is the season to be creepy!
Studio Miners are so excited to announce the lineup and details for Monster Party 2013, their second annual family-friendly celebration of monsters. This year, the exhibit will be on view at UGLY Gallery, in New Bedford MA. Orginal works by artists including:

David Guadalupe Jr., Eyeformation Ef, Natalie Elephante, Sean Kernick, Jessica George, Matthew C. Albanese, Clams Rockefeller, Casey Weibust, Chelsea Arruda, Ekiem Julien, Elizabeth Siegel, Dan Savoie, Ryan Robidoux, Fish McGill, Britton Walters, Tim Sullivan, Brian Butler, Patt Kelley, Ryan Maguire and Gregory Maxim!


Sean Kernick's piece for Monster Party 2013 at UGLYgallery


Installation for Monster Party 2013! Opening on Oct. 10th UGLYgallery, New Bedford, MA. — with Jessica George.


Installation for Monster Party 2013 has begun! Don't forget to come all dressed up to the opening on Oct. 10th UGLYgallery, New Bedford, MA. — with EVIL DESIGN.


Preview of Brian Butler's piece for Monster Party 2013


Zombie Lobsta prints by MADink available at Monster Party 2013.


Preview of Eyeformation Ef 's piece for Monster Party 2013.


Work in Progress from Dan Savoie. Make sure to make it out to Monster Party 2013 at UGLYgallery, Oct 10th to see the finished product.

The show opens Thursday, OCTOBER 10th from 7 - 10pm, during AHA! (art, history, architecture), a monthly arts and cultural event, and includes some of our favorites from last year - a monster mini golf hole, mural, face painting, artists coloring sheets and prizes.

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-Miners/276279789054936

Please Touch opening reception!

"I am for an art... that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum."
-Claes Oldenburg

Check out the opening reception slideshow from Please Touch, the debut show of the sixteen diverse and talented illustration graduates of 2013 at the Art Institute of Boston.




The focus of the show is to reintroduce illustration to consumers not just as drawings in books and magazines, but as objects to be experienced. In the past fifteen years we have seen a change in illustration that mimics this sentiment. Illustration is leaving the page and enriching our cultural landscape.



View all photos from installation to opening reception here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annajobeck/collections/72157633597878044/

We chose to create this shop to share our creations with the viewer and invite them to inspect, enjoy, and take the work home, as opposed to viewing it temporarily from a comfortable distance. Pop-up shops are perfect for limited edition products from niche retailers, such as artists. We also love our work, and want it to live and thrive outside of our view. So please, touch.

The curator would like to thank Susan LeVan and Keith MacLelland for their patience, guidance, and support. Thank you to Andrew Mroczek, Fred Levy, Santiago Hernandez, Joe Schwab, Erich Shafer, and Matthew Cherry for humoring my often odd requests and helping me along the way. Thanks to Cambridge Arts Council, for helping spread our message. And lastly thank you, fellow illustration graduates of AIB, for without you, my college education would have been far less entertaining!

Boston Bruins off the leash!

After a historic 2013 Stanley Cup Playoff Game 7 comeback - DIG Boston unleashes the Bruins Beast! AIB Adjunct Ryan Maguire's illustration attacks the Boston news stands and rallys the the Black n' Gold! Grab yourself a copy today. Good luck Boston - Play Strong! #Attack #LetsGoBruins

"Art of the Line" new works by Marietta Apollonio

AIB Illustration alumni Marietta Apollonio '02, will have new work featured at the opening of "art of the line" at the Dedham Square Artist Guild on June 1st. Apollonio helped found the DSAG in October 2011. The show will run for the month of June and will include all new pieces. Congratulations and goodluck!

An Illustration Pop-Up Shop: Please Touch!

Please Touch hopes to reintroduce illustration to consumers not as just drawings in books and magazines, but as objects to be experienced. In the past fifteen years we have seen a change in illustration that mimics this sentiment. Illustration is leaving the page and enriching our cultural landscape.

The Please Touch shop shares our creations with the viewer and invites you to inspect, enjoy, and take the work home, as opposed to viewing it temporarily from a comfortable distance. Pop-up shops are perfect for limited edition products from niche retailers, such as artists. We also love our work, and want it to live and thrive outside of our view.

So please, touch.

See our progress on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pleasetouchshop

Work Featured From:
Sadie Allen
Ashley Almeida
Lucia Balcazar
Anna Beck
Samantha Benc
Olivia Dinnall
Ellen Dubreuil
Tegan Harmonay
Rue Hartsell
Kris Phero
Nate Mitchell
Nick Nazzaro
Chelsea Osgood
Tai Sae-Eung
Erin Stainken
Adele Tobin

May 7th - 12th 2013
Tuesday - Friday: 12 - 8pm
Saturday and Sunday: 12 - 7pm

Opening Reception on 
Saturday May 11th 5 - 7 pm

The Art Institute of Boston Gallery at University Hall
1815 Massachusetts Avenue 

Cambridge, MA 02215

*Please note the PLEASE TOUCH shop  only accepts debit or credit cards payments. We will be utilizing PayPal Here for all transactions.

DIG Boston “Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions by Coner Corbett

DIG Boston “Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions.
By: Conor Corbett - AIB Illustration

What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of working in the world of editorial illustration?
Definitely scheduling my time around meeting deadlines. Sometimes I would get the next article on Thursday or Friday, but the deadline was always Monday morning. My entire weekends were soon dedicated to working on the Dig, especially when I was given a featured article!

What was the most rewarding part of working for Dig Boston?
Besides picking up the latest copy to see my work in print, as well as establishing a good sense of what a deadline entails, I would have to say the most rewarding part of this internship was how confident I have gotten at drawing digitally. It was a challenging and repetitive workout for my tablet skills!



What are the three most important things you learned from this internship experience?
1) Communication – whenever I felt stuck or crunched on time, I would always shoot Scott an email about my concerns and we would figure them out together. 2) Time Management – really having to set aside time to have a comfortable and efficient working schedule. 3) Research – I can honestly say that I’m not familiar with the markings of the Juggalos’ face paint.

How did your training as an AIB Illustration Major best prepare you for this job?
As an illustration major at AIB, we are always taught and told to express ourselves how we see fit and rid ourselves of all boundaries. I’ve grown to become comfortable enough to voice my own personality in my work, which I believe shines pretty bright in my sketches for the Dig!

As a student how did you balance your internship with your academic responsibilities? 
I was fortunate enough to be working for the Dig over my summer break, so I didn’t have to worry about my school life. I did, however, have to cut some weekend hours from my other job, but that was absolutely fine with me (haha)! 

How did you feel knowing your illustrations were being published and seen by thousands of people in the metro-Boston area?
It really didn’t dawn on me until after I started to notice how often I would catch someone nose-deep in a Dig while riding the T. It was really cool and fulfilling to see my work functioning in the real world!




What was the strangest Oh Cruel World article you illustrated?  and… Did you do illustrations for articles that never went to print?
The strangest article I was given to illustrate was during my fourth week at Dig. It was about a famous homeless Bostonian who was getting pissed off at how often they were photographed without a tip. I totally agree with the guy in saying he was completely justified for the reaction; a fat group of loud and tacky tourists, cradling countless bags of leftovers from dinner, tags still stapled to their neon palm tree shirts (palm trees in Boston?), snapping carefully posed photos and leisurely strolling off without any appreciation for anyone’s time would steam me up! I just couldn’t imagine how a passive aggressive homeless celebrity would look posing for a photo. 

How was it working with the Art Director, Scott Murray?
A super awesome and funny dude with an incredible passion for what he does! His critiques and opinions were only honest and very informative, and he was always available by email. He never allowed me to get away with leaving even the slightest details out!

“Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions by Mike Centeno

DIG Boston “Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions.
By: Mike Centeno - AIB Alumni

What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of working in the world of editorial illustration?
Two things: the dimensions of the column, and working digitally towards something that is to be printed on newsprint paper.

What was the most rewarding part of working for Dig Boston?
As silly as it sounds, it's always great seeing your piece work (or not) on the printed page. Checking the end result after it went to print, was always a great moment.

What are the three most important things you learned from this internship experience?
This particular column has it's very own set of challenges, since it's supposed to represent very specific stories with details that are very relevant to it, which have to be represented in a space of about 1.5x2 inches. So consolidating that amount of visual information into that space was the main thing I learned from.
   Other than that I would say, working within a very short time frame every week and dealing with an art director who was very proactive and invested, where the two other things I took away from the experience.


How did your training as an AIB Illustration Major best prepare you for this job?
The whole experience was made a lot easier and smoother when I worked with many of the principles taught to me at AIB. Once I had shown Scott Murry (Art Director) very clear thumbnails, sketches, and concepts from the get go, the process went very smoothly. The days I tried to circumvent my way around those first steps, it became a corrections back and forth. So the training I received at AIB was very valuable in that respect.

As a student how did you balance your internship with your academic responsibilities? 
It was tough at times, because at the time I was also working as an academic tutor at Lesley University. But overall, if I got the majority of work done during weekends it was an easy task to manage.



How did you feel knowing your illustrations were being published and seen by thousands of people in the metro-Boston area?
Like I mentioned before, it was a really great feeling knowing that, even though at a smaller column, this work was not just for and my friends or family. Even at the time I thought no one paid much attention to the space, recently I've heard a lot of people say that they remember “such and such” illustration from it, which makes it even more worthwile.

What was the strangest Oh Cruel World article you illustrated?  and… Did you do illustrations for articles that never went to print?
Every one of the articles I worked with went to print. The weirdest OCW illustration I had to do was for their sex issue that came out during Valentine's Day week. The writer was using really graphic and verbose ways to describe very nasty imagery. So the way I danced around it, was making all of them into visual metaphors and turned it into a very cute, pink and pastel bunny landscape, with loads and loads of hidden meanings.

How was it working with  Art Director, Scott Murry?
Scott was always very helpful during my time there, even when he wanted a lot of things to change about the piece, he would be really sensible about it and let me try out other stuff as well.

“Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions by Nick Nazzaro

DIG Boston “Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions.
by: Nick Nazzaro - AIB Illustration, class of 2014

What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of working in the world of editorial illustration?
Working on a computer knowing the image would ultimately be 1” x 1.5” with very different colors than you intended was very difficult. I really couldn’t anticipate how well something would turn out in print until I actually saw it.

What was the most rewarding part of working for Dig Boston?
Finally seeing my work in print! Having it look accurate was even more of a bonus, and when they spelled my name right, that was the best.

What are the three most important things you learned from this internship experience?
Work as quickly as possible because if something needs to be changed, or you have a question, you have no control over how quickly your art director responds to you. Establishing relationships via email is not as easy as in person, but you have to be as friendly as possible in case of emergency. Really! Always be prepared to receive and reply to emails, you really can’t afford to be unavailable to people who need your services.

How did your training as an AIB Illustration Major best prepare you for this job?
Very well, there really is an exact formula for how editorial works. You read something, you do thumbnails, you do roughs, and then you finalize. It’s is exactly what we did in multiple classes.

As a student how did you balance your internship with your academic responsibilities?
I cheated and used my final illustrations as homework for my Advanced Computer illustration class. Also, the internship came before homework, always. Missing homework is no big deal to missing illustration that’s supposed to be printed and distributed to thousands of people!

How did you feel knowing your illustrations were being published and seen by thousands of people in the metro-Boston area?
I felt very accomplished, even though I was working for free and the actual images were tiny. I saved a hard copy of every paper and so did my grandma.


What was the strangest Oh Cruel World article you illustrated? and… Did you do illustrations for articles that never went to print?
I have two that are both strange. I broke my hand mid-internship and couldn’t draw at all so I did a sculpture with my left hand and photographed it instead. Itwas a very bizarre result. The next week they never gave me an article to illustrate and the night before my deadline they finally told me to write my own article. So I complained about how I broke my hand and drew myself crying.

How was it to work with Art Director, Scott Murray?
He was very supportive and easy going. I was really hesitant to admit I broke my hand at first, but eventually I felt I had to. He ended up offering to do my drawings for me! I ended up doing them all myself, but he was really willing to help me out.

Scott Murry, DIG Boston - talks “Oh Cruel World” Internship!

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be highlighting one particularly unique internship opportunity, along with the students who’ve completed it thus far.

Dig Boston, a free weekly alternative newspaper graciously interns one AIB Illustration student per semester. Over the course of a 14 week semester, the student works closely with Art Director, and AIB Illustration Alum, Scott Murry, to complete one illustration for the “Oh Cruel World” column per.

Recently, Murry agreed to answer a few questions for us, here’s what he has to say about AIB’s internship program.

What do you see as a benefit to hiring student interns? Why do you continue to do it?
During my time at AIB, I enjoyed the classroom setting and projects we did, but always yearned for something that felt more official. That "official" experience is what I'm hoping the illustrators get out of this experience. It's always fun to see your own work in print, knowing that it’s reaching thousands of readers. And outside of the academic environment, it's much more comfortable to draw a vomiting dog and be proud of it. I love seeing what students come up with each time when they're given assignments that reach a new audience. And it's awesome for us to have good looking illustrations in the paper, of course!

Have there been any drawbacks?
Nick Nazzaro. Next question. I kid, everyone has been a lot of fun to work with. There have been assignments where both the illustrator and I are facing a hard deadline that can make meeting goals tricky, but that pressure is all part of the job. There have also been weeks where an illustrator wants to go all out with details, and I have to bring up the hinderances of reproduction in newsprint at a smaller size than they're working. Tiny detail lines can get lost very quickly scaled down.

How has your experience been working with the students at AIB?
I quite enjoy it. Seeing new styles and clever solutions from each new student is always enjoyable. From the beginning of an internship to the end, I enjoy watching the work grow and get more daring both in content and skillz. (The "z" shows their exceedingly proficient skills.)

What has the response been from colleagues or customers since this programs inception?
There have been a number of illustrations that catch the attention of readers on our site, twitter, etc. Whenever I hear excitement around a student's illustrations in the office or through social networking, it gets me all worked up. That's an all-around victory.

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!