INTRO STUDIO PROJECTS SKETCHBOOK
My decision to apply to graduate school was borne of necessity: I had been living in Brooklyn since graduating college in 2009, working as a freelance illustrator, and doing fine from the outside. But I felt I was flatlining. I deeply needed to be part of a community, to be around other artists outside of the confines of client-based work. Enter the MICA Illustration Practice MFA program, with its wild notion that illustration could actually be studied seriously on an academic level, dissected, discussed, and practiced in more than one way. So, I moved down here to Baltimore to join these people from all over the world and hear what they had to say. What I did not anticipate was the experimentation and the push, the complete overhaul of what I had learned in the past and my notion of how I intend to apply my skills in the future. The first year of this master’s program was truly a breakdown and build up process for me. I experienced as many successes as I did failures, but always in an upwards trajectory. There was no wasted time. That is what this book is about: the breaking down and the rebuilding in order to progress.
I. REHARVESTING
PROJECT: Take old work and reinterpret it in a new way. I designed a project around a motif I use frequently in my work: constellations made up of stars, dots, and lines. I keyed on on the importance of connectivity in this concept, aiming to maintain the feeling of graphic flatness while reimagining this pattern in a three-dimensional form. BREAKDOWN: The first iteration of this project was troubling; after some initial success using cardboard and fine-gague wire spray painted white, I realized the low quality of the materials combined with my relative inexperience with sculpture contributed only to a piece that felt half-baked. BUILD UP: After reevaluating my approach, I started over. Using the same type of wire, I cut flat “stars” out of white fimo clay and connected them, creating a skeletal structure that was both texturally appealing to me as well as maintaining the graphic integrity of it’s initial incarnation. The sculpture was then spray painted white.
II. REHARVESTING PROJECT: Propose a story idea or book concept, including the construction and physical appearance of the book itself, and produce twenty of them by hand. I took advantage of the open-endedness of this project and chose to tell a borderline disturbing but also semi-humerous personal anecdote about accidentally having a miscarriage in graphic novel format. BREAKDOWN: I’ve always been interested in traditional graphic novels and comic book storytelling techniques. I had produced a few on my own but never under serious time constraint. While I found enjoyment in certain elements of this way of working, I found the general process to be arduous to the point where I began to rethink my approach to narrative work. BUILD UP: I was not prepared for how polarizing certain people’s reactions were in my working with such graphic, strange content. While I had the support of my studio mates and the comic sold well,* I was surprised at how upsetting some people found the story. While initially I felt it was the responsibility of the viewer to understand the point of my story or not, I realized that perhaps this sort of negative reaction could be curbed by a more refined, subtle approach to storytelling and imagery on my end while still maintaining the subject matter. As someone who has never shied away from odd themes or dramatic anecdotes, I feel this was an important lesson for me to learn firsthand. *I sold this comic at art market and to individuals who asked
III. THREE WORKSHOP REACTIONS
In the fall semester, we took part in four skill-based workshops: letterpress printing, sewing, bookbinding, and paper engineering. With the objective of using at least three of these new tools to produce new work or in conjunction with another project, I chose the first three workshops and applied them to the
publishing project. I bound my book using the perfect binding technique I had learned in the bookbinding workshop, coloring the glue black with acrylic paint to produce a rubberized effect. I then used the studio industrial sewing machine, which I had learned to operate in the sewing workshop, to stitch the binding for decorative effect. Finally, I chose to apply basic block printing techniques for my book’s cover as a reaction to my experience with letterpress.
IV. ART MARKET
PROJECT: Draft a creative brief, propose, and produce an item to sell at MICA’s Art Market. I dyed and painted twenty tote bags, each with the same imagery, operating under the assumption that tote bags typically sell well and that the handmade look and feel of each bag would be a draw over a digitized or mass-produced product. BREAKDOWN: This was mostly an experiment, so I went in cold and explored a few different techniques before settling on one I liked. The winning approach turned out to be dip dying bags by hand and painting on top of each one with my chosen imagery. I was pleased with the turnout and sold quite a few, but I also wish I had been able to produce something I felt more personally attached to. BUILD UP: This process was a wake-up call to how important is for me to blur the line between sellable work and personal work.
V. HAND LETTERING
PROJECT: Create dynamic and relevant hand-lettering for arbitrarily assigned words. BREAKDOWN: I have a strong interest in hand-lettering and a background as a graphic designer, so this was fun for me. In order to maintain visual interest, the less visual a word was the more decorative a treatment it received. BUILD UP: It was helpful to use this exercise for brushing up on handlettering skills.
VI. WORDS ON WHEELS
PROJECT: In conjunction with the Maryland Transit Authority and the Words on Wheels organization, we were assigned two poems written by K-8 students to illustrate. Selected illustrations would be hung in buses throughout the Baltimore area. BREAKDOWN: Although I enjoy working with children, my work is not typically intended for them and this was the first time I had to tailor my work to that demographic. Without losing sight of the intention of each poem, I sought to produce lighthearted yet sophisticated imagery that did not pander to the age of the writer but enhanced the overall feeling of each poem. BUILD UP: Both of my illustrations were selected, and seeing how much impact it had on the young writers to see their work illustrated was a pleasure. It was also helpful for me to go outside my editorial comfort zone and try creating illustrations for children.
VII. PATTERNS
PROJECT: Based on the workshop and tutorial led by Julia Rothman, create five cohesive patterns and design a real-world application for them. I designed my patterns using the theme “Teenage Kitsch� and applied them to silk scarves and wrapping paper. BREAKDOWN: I have never worked with patterns on this scale and it became my favorite and most obsessed over project of the year. While I had not been particularly interested in producing products from the ground up before, creating patterns and learning about the licensing process bridged the gap for me. Between the
five patterns (“Voodoo”, “Diner”, “Hairdos”, “Purses”, and “Sleepover”), some proved to be stronger than others, but I found the concept of creating patterns with figures and objects interesting, especially once applied to textiles. BUILD UP: Until this point I was very determined to keep my work very traditional in execution. This project is completely responsible for shaking me out of my “I’m a purely editorial illustrator” mantra, and I’m now much more open to the larger possibilities of what I can create as an illustrator.
VIII. MADE AND SOLD
PROJECT: In an three-day workshop with artist-designer Tomi Vollauschek, produce a color illustration and cull imagery for four black and white one inch round pins. Without any prompts as to what the initial illustration would be used for (the project was not revealed in full until the second day of the workshop), I create a mash-up of my own favorite imagery. BREAKDOWN: I found that the best way to translate my large illustration to small buttons would be to take the key elements, constellations, houses, and simple hand-drawn type, and strip them of their detail to create silhouettes that have more impact at such a small size. BUILD UP: Detail is one of my strong points, so needing to simplify a previously done work to fit the confines of an unknown assignment was interesting. I also chose to screen print my initial illustration.
IX. MOCCA FEST
PROJECT: MFA ILP rented a table at this year’s MoCCA Festival in New York, and I went down with a few others to sell work I’d created for the festival as well as the work of our peers. BREAKDOWN: In the spring semester I took a graduate survey in screen printing and decided to take advantage of my access to the studio by printing small cards inspired by David Lynch characters. Priced at fifteen dollars for a pack of ten, the cards sold well and I was able to expand on my newfound interest in product making. BUILD UP: As a regular offender of underpricing work (but trying to reform), I was able to see that I can still sell work even if it is not “cheap,” but actually takes into account the labor and material cost of what I produced. I had also never participated in any kind of convention or showcase before and I enjoyed it enough to try and make this sort of activity a regular part of my business practice.
X. STOP MOTION ANIMATION
PROJECT: Illustrator and animator Melinda Beck ran a workshop/crash course on stop motion animation, in which we were asked to produce a thirty to forty-five second stopmotion animation using cameras, iPads, and no digital editing aside from the placement of frames. I used a song I liked and reacted to it with my animation. BREAKDOWN: I took a very experimental direction with this project, which was interesting enough to push me to take an entire class on stop motionanimation in the Fall 2013 semester, but also yielded mixed results. The story I went with had no linear narrative elements and was more an exploration of imagery, which allowed me a certain amount of freedom. BUILD UP: I realized towards the end of my process that it would have been easier for me to produce something finer and more cohesive had I gone in a more narrative direction, considering the time constraint of the project. I did find I enjoyed creating small, cut paper objects, and that this particular kind of tedium was something I actually found quite appealing.
XI. SKETCHBOOK