Fashion Illustration Week
Thanks to the Illustration Institute and sponsorship from the Roxanne Quimby Foundation, I was immersed in Fashion Illustration Week, held at the venerable Mechanics Hall in Portland, Maine. On Monday our class received a swag bag of treats including an Uppercase Magazine! Alex Rheault, a former colleague at Maine College of Art, demonstrated the croquis, a fashion sketch figure upon which any garment can be drawn. Our class of 20 included painters, designers, textile artists, actors, writers, retired art teachers, illustrators, and fashion thinkers. We worked in the spacious ballroom with...
Read MoreJumpin’ July
A friend recently called July the “ADHD of months” and I agree. So. Much. Going. ON. Normally I make blog posts about individual events, but they have been coming at me too dang fast. Here is the whole jam of July: kids books, talks, classes, travels, friends, family. A bounty of sun and color and amazing humans. I was off to the Friends School for their Story in the Forest program on July 9. I read Ana and the Sea Star and then eager campers played a lively game of Ocean Locomotion. They tried moving like sea stars! They also drew sea creatures in pastel, with gusto. I’m...
Read MoreIllustration Feast
Thanks to the Illustration Institute, my summer is off to a bountiful beginning. A little jet-lagged from our Ireland travels, we still made it to the first lecture on June 24 by Chris Raschka who was a Faison resident two summers ago. This time he shared wisdom on keeping travel journals, such a timely topic! His hand-lettered agenda covered all the bases at the Portland Public Library’s event. He discussed the need to work fast, as travel companions may not want to linger for the long looking that sketching or painting requires. With a pot of ink in his pocket, he captures moments...
Read MoreOpossum Tails to Come
I met Wilbur well before I began illustrating a picture book story about opossums! Last October the Center for Wildlife brought him in as a wildlife ambassador to my junior illustration class at Maine College of Art. We were all smitten by his toothy grin. This was my first sketch of many. By the spring of this year, author Lyn Smith sent me her manuscript for What Makes an Opossum Tick? and another journey of illustrating a picture book began. I gathered all I could on opossums and traveled to Moody Point for a creative retreat in late May. This house would become the setting for the...
Read MoreIllustration Parade
This summer has been a marvelous parade of illustration. What a life! On August 14 Ricardo Siri, an Argentinian cartoonist known as Liniers, gave a talk for the Illustration Institute. Even a rainy day couldn’t keep the illo peeps away. He brought his adorable daughters up on the Lions Club stage to sing and warm up the crowd before his presentation. He is well known in Latin America for his cartoon Macanudo which has recently been syndicated and will appear in the US. With the news in Argentina so often miserable, he aimed to feature a little bit of something positive every day. He...
Read MoreAnita Kunz
When an internationally acclaimed illustrator lands on your little island, the sun shines so much brighter. Anita Kunz arrived for a residency at the Illustration Institute in early August and my family eagerly attended her workshop at the Fifth Maine last Tuesday. Anita’s presentation began with the claim “Art has power” and her show of illustrations by others from history and contemporary culture made that point brilliantly. Art can incite violence, recruit people to war, or to resist war. Art can challenge the status quo or invoke worship, provide satire or remind us of...
Read MoreVisit JamieHogan.com
