Category Archives: Illustration Industry

Post-it Show at Giant Robot New York

Post-It Show 5 open through July 7, 2009
Giant Robot Gallery
437 East 9th Street Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A,
in the East Village New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY (4769) | grny.net

Giant Robot is proud to present Post-It Show 5 at GRNY. Curated by artists Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson, the show is slated to feature roughly 1,000 works by noted contributors for only $20. These pieces will be on standard-sized 3″ x 3″ Post-It notes. (Larger sizes of 4″ x 4″ and 6″ x 6″ will cost a bit more.) The pieces will be cash-and-carry.

Thus far, the ever-expanding list of contributors includes the following:

Trevor Alixopulos, APAK, Andrice Arp, Scott Bakal, Melinda Beck, Mike Bertino, Tim Biskup, Jon Boam, Pakito Bolino, Michelle Borok, Aaron Brown, Jude Buffum, Chris Buzelli, Christine Castro, Martin Cendreda, Kris Chau, Louise Chen, Marcos Chin, Chris Clayton, Tim Cochran, Eric Collins, Jen Corace, Matt Curtius, Kelsey Dake, Eleanor Davis, Vanessa Davis, Nathan Doyle, Seth Drenner, Susan Fang, Korin Faught, Nina Frenkel, Shannon Freshwater, Matt Furie, Nick Gazin, Frieda Gossett, Katherine Guillen, (Parsons Illustration Adjunct) Peter Hamlin, Jon Han, Jaime Hernandez, Andrew Holder, (Parsons Illustration Alum) David Horvath, Patrick Hruby, Rama Hughes, Mari Inukai, Yellena James, Hellen Jo, Nathan Jurevicius, Andrea Kang, Dan-ah Kim, Hawk Krall, Lamour Supreme, Travis Lampe, Blaise Larmee, Sarah Lavoie, Jesse LeDoux, Dongyun Lee, Eli Lehrhoff, Bill Main, Jacob Magraw-Mickelson, Ben Marra, Ted McGrath, Mark Allen Miller, Mike Miller, Brendan Monroe, Mark Murphy, Andrew Neyer, Tru Nguyen, Anders Nilsen, Saejean Oh, Saelee Oh, Martin Ontiveros, Sidney Pink, Luke Ramsey, Ron Rege, Jesse Reklaw, Martha Rich, Joe Rocco, Brooks Salzwedel, Anna See, Raymond Sohn, STO, Deth P. Sun, Gary Taxali, Team Macho, Gina Triplett, Twerps (Greg Mishka), Edwin Ushiro, Jing Wei, Steven Weissman, Gillian Wilson, Calvin Wong, Jaime Zollars, Trevor Alixopulos, Peter Arkle, Matthew Bandusch, Karen Barbour, Angie Clayton, John Cuneo, Bob Dob, Nathan Doyle, Austin English, Jason Fischer, Anne Ishii, Claire Johnson, Terri Fry Kasuba, Phillipe Lardy, Sarah Lavoie, James McShane, Dave Plunkert, Jason Polan, Jarret Quon, Deth P. Sun, Francesca Tallone, and more!

For more information about the artists, the show, GR2, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311.

From the Vault: Gareth Hinds interviewed by School Library Journal

Parsons Illustration Alum Gareth Hinds was interviewed by School Library Journal back in January.  With a final release date (October 12th!) set for his upcoming graphic novel adaptation of The Odyssey, we thought it would be great to revisit that interview.  Here’s a snippet:

Are there some stories that won’t work as graphic novels?

There are stories that don’t lend themselves quite as well to the graphic novel medium, but there are no stories that can’t be done. I’ve put off doing certain books because they were just too huge—War and Peace, for example, is not only incredibly long, it covers a very long period of time, includes a lot of characters, and would require a tremendous amount of historical research. I may adapt War and Peace someday, but not in 2010!

I’ve never hit an actual dead-end once I started working on a book, but occasionally difficult scenes can bog me down, and I have to walk away from them and work on something else for a while. For example, the very end of The Odyssey is rather abrupt in the original. I wanted to somehow slow down the last few pages and tie up some of the themes and plot threads, but I didn’t want to add any new material or change the story. That took a while to figure out.

What’s special about your version of The Odyssey?

For one thing, at 256 pages it’s a lot longer than anything else I’ve done, or most graphic novels for that matter. It has a more expansive, epic feeling than my other books, with a lot of landscape, open ocean, and crowd scenes. What I think distinguishes my books from other graphic novel adaptations is the way I approach the classics. It’s very important to me that my adaptations do justice to the originals, and to me that doesn’t just mean not changing the story too much, it also means bringing a high level of art, craft, and sophistication to the way the story is told in the new medium—like the original author did. That’s a tall order, of course. I don’t think it’s enough to give a classic story the gloss of a modern comic or dress it up with special effects. To whatever extent my adaptations succeed, it’s because I have equal dedication to the source material, the craft of telling a story in pictures, and the creation of a beautiful book.

Read the rest of this interview here.  And over on his blog, Gareth has posted tons of progress updates about The Odyssey so can follow his creative process.  Definitely check them out here.

Congrats to Gareth on his new book!

Garrett Pruter is a Grand Prize Winner!

Parsons Illustration graduating senior Garrett Pruter
was chosen as the GRAND PRIZE winner of
Macy’s First Annual Fireworks Design Contest,
sponsored by Macy’s Parade and Entertainment Group.

Garrett’s illustration was chosen out of numerous entries
from Parsons and other art/design schools
in the New York City area.

Congratulations, Garrett!


Silent Witnesses: Graphic Novels Without Words exhibition in England

Silent Witnesses: Graphic Novels Without Words
Curated by Darren Diss

Venue: Danes Terrace
Lincoln
Lincolnshire
LN2 1LP

29 May 2010 to 30 Aug 2010
Admission price: free

Artists include: Lars Arrhenius, Hendrik Dorgathen, Eric Drooker, Max Ernst, Matt Forsythe, Alexandra Higlett, Laurence Hyde, Jason, Andrzej Klimowski, Peter Kuper, Chris Lanier, Frans Masereel, Otto Nuckel, Shaun Tan, Zoe Taylor, Lynd Ward, Sara Varon and Jim Woodring.

This exhibition brings together the work of internationally recognised artists and illustrators from around the world working in Graphic Novel form. Spanning publications from the early twentieth century to the present day, the works contained in the exhibition are distinct in that all use the capacity of images alone to communicate narrative, functioning entirely without the use of text.

The exhibition celebrates the book form and in particular the Graphic Novel as an increasingly popular medium for artists and explores its enduring appeal to readers of all ages. By focussing on works without text it examines the underlying structure and mechanics of developing a Graphic Novel, exposing it as a unique art form. It looks at the Novel in the true sense, as an extended sequence conveying a narrative. The show includes preparation and working drawings, writings, flat plans, sketch books and character studies and associated works alongside complete book-works to reveal the various developmental stages in creating a Graphic Novel.

The exhibition combines works from a wide range of cultural contexts, from modern popular Graphic Novels, with scratchboard images by Eric Drooker produced for his novel ‘Flood’, to woodcuts by Frans Masereel for his his 1925 work ‘Die Stadt’, to original drawings by Sara Varon for her well loved books, ‘Sweater Weather’, ‘Robo and Hund’ and ‘Chicken and Cat’. Also in the show will be a large scale flat-print version of ‘A-Z’ by Lars Arrhenius, a novel produced on the iconic A-Z map of London. Shown in print form it allows the viewer to scan the intersecting narratives sewn through the map in a single image, creating ever new readings.

Works for the exhibition have been loaned to The Collection from the British Museum, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Klinspor Museum, Offenbach, Scott Eder Gallery, New York, and from the exhibiting artists.

The show’s curator, Darren Diss, is an established illustrator and Senior Lecturer in Illustration at The University of Lincoln. He has a specialist academic research interest in Textless Narratives.

David Sandlin “Sleep O’History” Opens in Berlin

DAVID SANDLIN “SLEEP O’HISTORY”
Bongout Galerie
Torstrasse 110
10119 Berlin
Opening Friday 28. May at 7 pm
Exhibition 28.5 – 10.7

Bongoût Gallery is proud to present New York artist David Sandlin in his first exhibition in Berlin. He will be showing his books; new paintings; “puritanical novelty items”; and a collection of drawings from his 2006 book, An Alphabetical Ballad of Carnality.  This will be the first major showing of Sandlin’s artist’s-book opus A Sinner’s Progress, an eight-volume series comprised mostly of large-scale hand-printed books, including his most recent work, Slumburbia, a nine-metre silkscreened panorama of sloth and indolence in sumptuous hand-separated color silkscreen.

David Sandlin floats between the worlds of painting, printmaking, comics, and artist’s books. Since he began his career in the 1980s, visual narrative, usually nonlinear, has been a core component of his work. He uses it as a structural device to build content and express ideas while still being able to experiment with form, using symbolism and allegory to amplify his social commentary. Sandlin’s books range in form from complex hand-bound silkscreened editions to offset pulp-style comics—each volume’s form in service to its content to some extent. “The book rather than the single image is the ideal medium for me to explore content and experiment with form,” says Sandlin.

Eccentric modernist painters like Beckmann, Ensor, and Guston have inspired Sandlin’s explorations into the mythic/transformative utility of personal history. His love of words and literature also draw him toward narrative: “I was born in Northern Ireland and moved to the USA, to Alabama, when I was a teenager—both places steeped in the narrative-literary tradition—so I’m not surprised that I need to incorporate words into my images. I love the wordplay used by Irish and southern American artists like James Joyce, Flann O’Brien, Flannery O’Connor, and Hank Williams.”

Other works in the exhibition reflect Sandlin’s love of narrative. “The Sleep of History,” a large work on canvas, is part of his ongoing series of epic paintings. Drawings upon which his abecedarium, An Alphabetical Ballad of Carnality, are also on display as a 22-metre-long panorama. He will also be showing components of “The Pur-Ton-o-Fun Co. Reading Room,” a multimedia installation piece based on A Sinner’s Progress.

David Sandlin’s work has been displayed in galleries and museums worldwide, and his comics have been published by Fantagraphics and Cornelius Editions and have also appeared in many anthologies, including Raw, Strapazin, The Ganzfeld, and The Best American Comics 2009. He is currently preparing to start his next book, a graphic novel, as a Fellow of the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, at the New York Public Library, in NYC.

DAVID SANDLIN “SLEEP O’HISTORY”
Bongout Galerie
Torstrasse 110
10119 Berlin
Opening Friday 28. May at 7 pm
Exhibition 28.5 – 10.7

Call for Entries: International Illustration Competition

New colours for a classic
International illustration competition Laura Orvieto

To mark the centenary of Storie della storia del mondo (Stories of the History of the World) by Laura Orvieto, published for the first time by the Bemporad publishing house of Florence in 1911, the publisher Sergio Giunti (the heir and custodian of this prestigious publishing history) has sponsored an international illustration competition to select the illustrator for the centenary edition of the book.

The publisher’s intention in this competition is to stimulate young artists to measure themselves against classical art and the iconography of the classic that can be traced in the history of art and in the contemporary visual universe.

An international jury, chaired by the publisher, will select a shortlist of ten projects from which it will choose the winner who will receive a reward of 20,000 Euro in order to illustrate the volume.

Illustrators of all nationalities can take part in the competition, individually or in groups, whether they are already qualified or are still attending public or private schools of illustration, art academies or universities.

All participants are required to produce three artworks representing either significant moments in history or studies on characters and settings. The size of the artworks must not exceed 50 x 70 cm.

The artworks can either be on paper or any other material, however the artist must keep in mind the requirements and production steps of printing process. The selected artworks will be held at the Accademia Drosselmeier until the 2011 in order to be displayed as an exhibit curated by Giunti Editore during the next edition of the Bologna Children’s Bookfair.

The artworks must be submitted by August 30, 2010 to:
Accademia Drosselmeir
Via Nazario Sauro, 21
40121 – Bologna – Italy

concorsorvieto@gmail.com

download the pdf and read the book

THICKER THAN WATER: 2010 Parsons Illustration Thesis Show opening is TONIGHT!

[Illustrations by Júlía Hermannsdóttir, Meg Eldredge, Gabriella D’Alessandro, and Garrett Pruter; postcard design by Noël Claro]