Class This Week...

Bring your sketchbooks and stuff to work in them with (pens, pencils, markers, etc.). You'll have to be "portable."

Also, preview the show in the Contemporary Art Gallery, "Ornithology." Click here for a show preview.

Don't forget to think about the work as you look at it. We are going to have this in our memory banks so that when we go to the screening of Michael Gitlin's "The Birdpeople"and "Ornithology" panel discussion at the Dodd Center during our class time we will have context:

Click here to learn about Michael Gitlin and "The Birdpeople."

We're Going To This

So block it out on your calendar.

Click on this picture for details.

FREE Conference Upcoming- Also, Nearby

The Connecticut Art Directors Club is local AND not expensive for you to join as a student. You should! Never underestimate how important it is to get out and connect with other professional people. PLUS, they sponsor a conference in April that is FREE for students to attend. They get some great pro's coming in to speak, so go. Here is a handy link to the conference:

Conference you should NOT MISS!

They also have a $500 scholarship opportunity for students currently enrolled in an accredited program (UConn is). Check it out!

Special Guest Star!!

Hi Folks!

We're having a visitor on Thursday (afternoon) that will provide us with an up-close-and-personal view into the current state of children's books in the US. So, come prepared to dialogue and ask questions (yes, I'm watching). Here is her bio:

"Susannah Richards is an Assistant Professor of Reading/Language Arts at Eastern Connecticut State University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on language arts methods, children's and young adult literature, and reading and writing strategies for elementary and secondary teachers. She reads, collects, reviews and presents on books for youth at state and national conferences. She currently writes a column on books, reviews picture books for School Library Journal and is on the ballot for the 2010 Caldecott Committee."

And just in case you don't know, the Caldecott Medal is THE award for illustration in children's picture books. So, that makes Dr. Richards a total expert AND genius, and we are lucky to have her visit.

Go here:  Guess I should learn about the Caldecott Medal

She'll join us at 12:30 pm in #108.

A-L-M-O-S-T Break... But Not Quite

Ok, as you careen into the Spring Break week please keep these things in mind with regard to ART 271-02:

Our blogs need an infusion of creativity. I'm checking them out over the break. So far you have added a CafePress Store link and added a Flickr link. Now, put stuff in both of those places so that we have something to see when we follow your links, instead of feeling like idiots for blindly following your "links-to-nowhere."

You're working on assignment #3, "Calendar." Don't lose sight of this completely in the mists of inebriation that will cloud your vision as you laze about Cancun, Ibiza, or wherever else you are celebrating Spring Bacchanal. We continue on our work full speed ahead the following week. Think of the return as your ART Bacchanal! Come back with thumbnails, 3 roughs, 1 color comp. Show value decisions. Decide on a major palette. Don't overcomplicate the color! Use reference! LOOK at other illustration work! LOOK at other ways of making work!

Invest in the process and the great product will evolve from that.