Rohan Patrick (Class of 2014): Mar. 2013 in San Francisco

Photos, above, by Rohan Patrick: touring Bunny Carter's home and the Eisenstadt illustration collection.

The MFA in Illustration program at the Hartford Art School prepares illustrators to elevate and reevaluate their skills and marketing abilities along with preparation for faculty positions in higher education. Students have the opportunity to showcase their work and receive constructive feedback from faculty and peers. Done in a comfortable setting, students have the opportunity to travel and experience different artistic viewpoints. On our last trip to San Francisco, we had the opportunity to hear from professional illustrators who love and enjoy what they do. Some of these illustrators include Robert Hunt, Craig Frazier, Mark Ulriksen, Dennis Ziemienski, Lou Brooks, Chuck Pyle, Vivienne Flesher, Ward Schumaker and Brian Stauffer. As part of our experience in San Francisco, we visited the home of faculty member Alice (Bunny) A. Carter to view the Ben and Jane Eisenstadt illustration collection. A distinguished educator in the arts, Carter has risen to the highest levels of accomplishment as an award winning illustrator and writer. Her collection of illustrations shows a long and deep generational love for this art form. Opening up her home to allow over 30 graduate students to view this body of work highlights her family’s contribution to the arts. —Rohan Patrick (Class of 2014)

Grad School Catch-up with Andrew Nilsen (Class of 2014): Round #2

Reposted with permission from the blog of Andrew Nilsen (Class of 2014) 

Following the traditional paint and brush work of Robert Hunt (see previous entry) was Craig Fraizer, a traditionalist of on the opposite side of the spectrum from Robert. Craig is a conceptual, graphic illustrator with a background as a designer and art director; a background I share and why I was very excited to hear Craig talk about his work.

Craig’s traditional process involves using amberlith, a masking film used in the days before computers when pages where laid out by hand (paste-ups) and then shot with a stat camera. He uses an Xacto to cut out pieces by hand, working at a very small scale. He said that most pieces for his figures are no bigger that 3/4 of an inch long. Working this small forces him to simplify everything down to basic shapes and captures the happy accidents of cutting things by hand. Seems kinda crazy to me to work so small but, hey, he makes it work quite well.

Craig then scans and vectorizes the shapes before compositing them in the computer, so not all of his process is so old school. When scaling the shapes and repositioning the pieces to create the illustration, Craig says he always leaves the edges as is, never cleaning up or modifying what came from the original cutouts so the hand work comes across in the final. This approach made me think that I could probably benefit from getting a bit looser in my own work and not over think the construction of things.

As you can see from his samples above, Craig’s work is always very clever and uses surrealism to engage the viewer in the conversation. I am very excited that he has a full collection of his work online, as it is such a great source of inspiration and great reference for all kind of optical illusions. I know I will continue looking back to this whenever I am hitting a wall when sketching on a new piece.

Reposted with permission from the blog of Andrew Nilsen (Class of 2014) 

Grad School Catch-Up with Andrew Nilsen (Class of 2014)

Reposted with permission from the blog of Andrew Nilsen (Class of 2014) 

Whoa nelly! What a week! It’s taken me nearly two weeks to recover from the amazing, mind-openeing experience of grad school (and a sinus infection). Where to start!

Robert Hunt was our first presenter of the San Francisco contact period. I’ve met Robert a few times before when attending guest lectures at CCA, where he teaches and was invited to speak to his class once to talk about art direction (back when I still worked at SF Weekly). He's a great guy and an asset to the illustration community.

Robert is the opposite of me. He uses oil paint, not a computer, he's focused, not all scatter-brained, and he has somehow got over the fear of starting (and finishing) things. He is constantly producing work, stating that he spends about 50% of his time on personal work. That's a great ratio if you can manage it.

And his work is beautiful. Maybe it’s more amazing to me because I’ve never once put oil paint to canvas, but he is a true master. Just see for yourself over on his website.

What stood out most to me about his work was not how he applies his immense amount of talent a wide range of subjects and the subtlety of styles within those, but was his branching out into to animation, doing film-house logo intros in particular (the original DreamWorks logo). What was most fascinating to me about this was how the majority of his process remained traditional, doing multiple, sometimes hundreds, of finished paintings to then be used as a sequence of images, morphed from one to the other to create the animations. Robert definitely has more patience than I to pull something like this off but the result is obviously worth the effort.

View his examples of the above examples here.

Thanks to Robert for coming by and sharing his process and knowledge with the Hartford Illustration MFA posse.

Reposted with permission from the blog of Andrew Nilsen (Class of 2014)

Shayna Cochefski (Class of 2014) Documents Mar. 2013 SF Trip

Above: Shayna in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Contact Period was truly remarkable as both a tourist and an illustrator. I feel over-privileged, in a sense, to have had the opportunities and experiences offered to us during just a week's time.

The city was visually and figuratively 'colorful' with its beautiful landscape, variety of characters and easy-paced, daily flow. Like any of our contact weeks, I left feeling full of energy and inspiration contributed by the guest presenters, faculty and by my classmates.

An aspect of having illustrators speak to us that I enjoy is the exposure I gain to different artistic styles and business practices. I appreciate how many of them take into consideration that we are an audience not only admiring their work, but looking for insight on experiences and trials they have encountered in the field. Chuck Pyle, for example, brought an energy to the room that I think made us all anxious to step outside and draw! You could hear in his presentation the passion he has for the profession and for continuing to learn and grow as an artist and illustrator.

Above: Students appreciating the illustration collection in Bunny Carter's home.

One of the highlights of my week was our trip to Bunny Carter's home where we were given an exclusive peek at her collection of original illustrations. I felt like a wide-eyed child as I roamed through each room, occasionally catching a unique story being shared about an individual piece, even if it was filed in the bottom of a drawer. At one point, Bunny explained to us that their family has always been supportive of artists, buying work whether it was a favorite or not. A few days following, I was reminded of that idea and purchased a print from an artist sitting curb-side. No matter where we live or how much experience we have, as artists we're part of a tight, supportive community and I felt that spending time in San Francisco further instilled that in all of us.

Shayna Cochefski (Class of 2014)

Brian Burgess (Class of 2014) Documents Nov. 2012 NYC Trip

This blog post in three parts was reposted with permission from Brian Burgess (Class of 2014).

HAS MFA Illustration NYC: Part-3

We wrapped up our NYC contact period with an intimate tour of The Illustration House on 25th West Street. I was stunned by the incredible collection of original J.C. Leyendecker paintings on hand and will post those details very soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures of my fellow students in the midst of some best examples of art from the Golden Age of Illustration.

HAS MFA Illustration NYC: Part-2

Though most of our time this week was spent at the Society of Illustrators on 63rd East Street, we did manage to get around to a few other places in New York City.

HAS MFA Illustration NYC: Part-1

Our NYC contact period with the Hartford Art School MFA Illustration program got off to a great start!

Reposted with permission from the blog of Brian Burgess (Class of 2014).