Who Are We? The Fall 2013 Digital Illustrators

Who are the 47 great, future professional artists enrolled in the Cal State Fullerton Digital Illustration classes, who will contribute to this blog?

Most students come from Southern California, yet a few have travelled from the remote lands of Porterville, CA (Monache HS), Fremont, CA, Kingsburg, CA, Escondido, CA (technically in Southern California, but pretty somewhere out there!), Seattle, WA and Payson, AZ (Payson High School).  One student even listed a Vietnamese high school, but we’re not sure if it’s local or 14 time zones away!

When they’re not doing homework, our classmates are clocking in as retail managers, pet groomers, PMC Event Coordinators, and Disneyland dancers.  What they’d really like to do for a living is: children’s book writers and illustrators, greeting card designers, art teachers, multimedia designers, storyboard artists, animators, graphic designer for video games, 3D modelers, interactive art directors, wine label artists, actor, visual developers, concept artists, and the owner of gallery/bar/café. 

Where would they like to work?  Some said anywhere that pays them above minimum wages, but the more obsessed students mentioned: UDON Entertainment, Disney Imagineering, Microsoft, any prestigious fashion magazine, and Wired.

Which past and current pros inspire our future pros?  Mary Blair, William Bouguereau, Tim Burton, Alphonse Mucha, Paul Rudish, Scott Campbell, Julie Vivas, Brianna Garcia, Dr. Seuss, Sandy Skoglund, JMW Turner, Tex Avery, David Wiesner, Norman Rockwell, Luke Lucas, Paul Rand, Carlox Angarita, Chuck Jones, Frank Frazetta, Andreas Deja, Audrey Kawasaki, Gustav Klimt, Dave McKean, Aubrey Beardsley, Pearl C Hsiung, David Delamare, Marumiyan, H.R. Giger, and many more.

What do they do in their spare time?  One student recently became a first-time father of a little girl (so he’s swamped!), while another is a mother who impatiently nags her kids into making her a grandma.  And with what little time they have enjoyed recently, they have read: Engulf in Flames by David Sedaris, Talisman by Stephen King, Storm of Swords by George RR Martin, Soul Obsession by Nicky Cruz, Free Pizza for Life by Chris Clavin, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, as well as many classics, such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, The Little Engine That Could, Where the Wild Things Are, Lolita, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Figures of Visual Communication - An Introduction

In 1958, Gerald Holtom drew an inverted "V" and crossed it with a line before fitting it inside a circle, creating the peace sign.  Nineteen years later, Milton Glaser placed a simplified heart design between the letters "I" and "NY" and created the iconic  "I ♥ NY."  In so doing, these illustrators added to our visual lexicon.  They took what was once the domain of words and sounds, and they drew a visual translation.  Thus, just as writers coin words, illustrators coin symbols.  This ability ranks as one of the powers of a visual artist.  

To create icons or symbols, artists draw never-seen-before combinations of marks or, alternately, they explore the magic of figures of visual communication.  Unlike the peace sign, which in itself doesn't look like peace, figures of visual communication allow illustrators to introduce new signs that need little to no explanation, because their appearance usually relies on a combination of existing and recognizable images. And remember, by definition, an illustrator's job is to enlighten, make clearer; therefore, clarity (that is, no need for explanation) drives our efforts.

Imagine an old-style iron key.  Now, instead of the typical oval shape for the bow (the part held between your fingers as you turn the key), draw instead the shape of a heart.  You now have created a sign to symbolize the key to one's heart.  

Figures of visual communication, a phrase adapted from literature's "figures of speech," come to life as the result of many different types of processes or operations, such as the substitution of the oval with the heart onto the key in the example above.

In class, I presented many such families of processes, including one based on arithmetic operations, as a method for creating new signs.  Here is a visual summary of it.