Gail Geltner

As part of a lecture on Conceptual Illustration, the artist Gail Geltner came and shared her wisdom and experience as an illustrator. She brought her sketch books and process drawings to share how she approaches an assignment. Her well worn book of etymology was used in a few demonstrations as to how she starts the creative process. Pattern recognition was reinforced as a method to create juxtapositions and associations to build greater meaning.

She also talked about the drawing process, muscle memory, emotion, the senses and a host of other gems of knowledge in the world of creating!

Garrick Webster and Computer Arts Mag

Garrick Webster, a writer, editor and project manager from the UK came to Canada in February of all months! and spent a couple hours talking to the illustration students. He focused on the business side of the industry, the brief, the players, the pay, negotiating etc. Then he shared some artists whose work he is enjoying at the moment. Listing them in order of presentation:
Dongyun Lee
Pirates
Ben Jelter
Yulia Brodskaya
Lizzie Mary Cullen

Two great Art Exhibits

Last week we took a field trip to the ROM to see Portrait of a Patron: Janusz Dukszta at the UTAC (University of Toronto Art Centre) http://www.utac.utoronto.ca/current-exhibitions The exhibit comprised 70 portraits of himself by a variety of Toronto artist over the last 44 years. They were often collaborations between artist and collector and together documented not only Dukszta's path but the Toronto art scene as well. It was a hugely successful trip with a personalized guided tour by Sunny Kerr, Student and Education Program Coordinator. As we were leaving, Dr. Dukszta walked in and we wasted no time asking him to talk about the work and his feelings about the exhibit. He was gracious and funny and donated a exhibition catalogue to the program.

We then made our way up to the ROM to see Dan Perjovschi: Late News in the Institute for Contemporary Culture http://www.rom.on.ca/news/releases/public.php?mediakey=x22qoemq7w. The artist had almost finished his installation of current editorial illustrations on the inner walls of the museum, so he had time to talk to us about his process, his past life in Romania and thoughts on Toronto.

It is not often that you get the backstage pass twice in one day!

Applying for September 2010

The Ontario College Application Service, OCAS, is accepting applications online for the Independent Illustration Diploma until February 1st for equal consideration. After that date your application will go to the end of the line, and will be considered only if there is still room in the program. Portfolio and written requirements can be found at this link . Your portfolio will be due at one of the two program orientations at the college late February and early March. At this point you will also do a drawing test to validate your portfolio. For those not successful the first time around, Seneca offers a fantastic one year Art Fundamentals program to help fine tune those drawing, painting and design skills.

Great Illustration Links

Magazines
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/home
http://www.cmykmag.com/site.cfm?page_id=62&sect_id=7
http://www.uppercasegallery.ca/

Agents
http://agoodson.com/
http://reactorart.com/
http://www.magnetreps.com/
http://www.debutart.com/

Online portfolios
http://www.illustrationmundo.com/wp/
http://www.americanillustrators.com/about.php
http://www.rednosestudio.com/
http://www.workbook.com/illustration
http://www.theispot.com/

Good Resources
http://societyillustrators.org//index.cms
http://www.canadiancartoonists.com/index.html
http://www.canscaip.org/
http://drawn.ca/
http://www.justonemorebook.com/about/

Galleries/Museums
http://www.illustrationhouse.com/
http://www.fashionillustrationgallery.com/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/events/illustration_awards/index.html

Conferences
http://pictoplasma.com/
http://www.theillustrationconference.org/index.html

The First Semester is ready to go!

We have an amazing line up of faculty who will be teaching the first semester of the Independent Illustration Diploma! Brian McPhee will be teaching the Traditional Illustrative Media course, Susan Hedley, the Lifedrawing course, John Stuart, the Conceptual Drawing course, Barney Wornoff will be getting all the students up to speed digitally in the Digital Tools course, Debbie Suddick will be teaching the business side of Illustration and I will be teaching the History of Illustration. The schedules are set and we are getting closer to launch!

Program Launched!

After much heralded anticipation, the Illustration Program at Seneca is finally launched. We will start classes in January 2010, with our first graduates expected June 2011! It is a two year diploma, with the expectation that when you start your education in this program you already have a strong foundation in art. When you graduate you will not only be an awesome illustrator, but also be able to manage the business side of freelance work. You will have a website, a developed portfolio, pst and gst numbers (or hst as the case may be!), an arm load of contacts, and some mean accounting skills to help you get launched.

Check out the curriculum and the portfolio requirements on the School of Communication Arts at Seneca College website.

You can apply now at the Ontario College Application website.