Dig Our Current Student!

Ok, I know I miss out on LOTS of accomplishments, but sometimes I'm able to catch something and put it up for posterity.

"Posterity" is a big $10 word that means "forever." Only it sounds smarter. Feel free to use that.

Here is the article on Laura Byrne's book, of which we are all jealous but happy at the same time.

There will be a lot of that happy/jealous dichotomy in your life (if you're lucky) so be of good cheer and offer congrats to Laura. Laura, keep pursuing projects like this one!

TRIPLE-B* Countdown, Spring 2008!

Spring semester is about to mercifully slide into eternal oblivion and your blogs still S*CK! Can that be any clearer? Yes, probably so, but then  your parents would take me to court and I'd end up in jail. Hmmm... then I'd have lots of sketchbook time and plenty of source material, eh? It'd be like a 5 (to 10) year artist's residency.

By the final (May 10th- 8 am) your blogs MUST:

1. Link successfully from the class blog
   
2. Include images of all your finished work from the semester
   
3. Include brief but scintillating text along with your finished work
   
4. Include some process/sketchbook work (if you want to really look good)
   
5. Link successfully to your CafePress store (make the link obvious to us. Don't let it fall below the browser window)
   
6. Link successfully to your Flickr space (make the link obvious to us. Don't let it fall below the browser window and don't overwhelm your work with your family vacation pictures)
   

In turn, your CafePress store must have:

• Multiple items featuring your great artwork (and not just two)
  

In double-turn, your Flickr account must hold:

• Multiple images (not just two) of great work from your other classes or personal projects
  

In addition:

• Get more selective with the "look" of the blog. If your blog is still the default design selection that Blogger provides to you, well, change it! Look around, make some choices about layout, color, type and more.

This is not hard to do but you do have to make some time to do it. Now is the time. The blog counts as a project (which you already know. I'm just sayin'...). You need this in more ways than one:  Why you need this blog

*BIG, BADASS BLOG

Free and Faboolous Events!!

Want to see something interesting, fun and F R E E  (yes, F R E E) this Sunday?!

Go to the Co-Op at 3 pm. Author/illustrator Anna Dewdney will be there to talk about her work. While you're there...

Stick around and attend a reception for your friend and UConn IllustratioNation alum, Bonnie Sullivan, at 4:30 pm. She's done a mural for the Co-Op's Children's Section and they're celebrating! Go. After all, you're family!

R+E+A+D For This Week

Greetings, Studio Survivors,

Please do some research on Shepard Fairey and his work (conveniently, two great links are provided in the post from 4/18). In addition, you can add this gallery archive of work:  This is the gallery archive

A helpful hint: explore different areas of the Obey Giant website. Don't just land on one page and only look at that. You won't get a sense of his work that way and you have to be able to discuss this in class.

How is he making his work? What is he using for content? Why? How/why is this controversial?

From My Deathbed...

4/24/08: "Birds" studio time

Come with 8.5 x 11 piece as a dummy with values (gray marker set). Bring as many cards as you have done. Prepare to go forward great guns with both! More! More! MORE!

InDesign demo (if enough of our computers are working- all bets are off, as you know)

Scan your calendar pieces!
Calendar wrap-up information: where we can print and how

5/1/08: "Birds" due: critique on final art (we will pop into layouts during studio)
Calendars, continue; InDesign continues
Appropriation vs Plagiarism: "Obey Giant" or "Obey Plagiarist"

Final: You are online moguls! Everything will be online!
Individual blogs up and complete: all work from the semester with some genius text!
CafePress stores stocked!
Calendar specs for ordering!

This is AMAZING!!

I still feel lousy.

In the immortal words of one Dan Clowes, comic genius and author of "Art School Confidential,"   "Hope I die soon."

But, if not, I'll see you Thursday (that's actually my preference).

Birds and More Birds

I'm about to put some further directions on the blog along with a quick calendar of how our year is wrapping up (gasp!!). For this week you'll proceed to work in class on the 9 card series/set of images as well as produce the sketch/comp for the single, large piece. This might be tough, because you are working with mixed media. Do the best you can to indicate to me (the Art Director) what/how you are thinking.

If you want to branch out and have more blanks to work with buy some cards. There is not a limit on these small, immediate pieces. The flavor you get going in those will help inform your larger piece and vice-versa.

Here are the links we explored in class (among others):

Example #1
Example #2

These need to be mixed-media pieces, so mix it up! See you in studio this week- work day!

This Week- Big BIRD Doin's! And Who is Ustad Mansur?

Ok, campers, bring to class this week the following items, 'cause we're working up a STORM of visual BIRDNESS on the heels of our total immersion in "Ornithology" last week! Here goes:

Those markers we talked about last week (set of cold or warm grays, not mixed, and a black sharpie).

Bring your regular art kit with stuff to make color (pencils, paints, markers, and/or pastels, etc.), cut things (scissors, or X-acto knife), adhere things (masking tape, glue stick, or acrylic medium) and your notes from last week's activities.

Your genius text (you're writing this, remember? 1-2 paragraphs of intelligence, wit and/or profound musings on birds, birding, or another bird-related avenue you've been led down through your research).

For more inspiration, click here: CLICK HERE, or HERE, or HERE , or HERE, and so on. I mean, stretch your (bird)brain!

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.