SVA Summer Residency

While you might have been focussed on the World Cup this month, I had the pleasure of teaching an intensive class in Illustration and Visual Storytelling at the School of Visual Arts Summer Residencies. It was a terrific group from around the world—a global mix to rival any international football competition—with representatives from Uruguay, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, and Japan to name just a few.

Several months ago, while discussing the nature of my class with the Residency Director Viktor Koen—one of my former and favorite instructors in the SVA MFAI—we decided students should come away with “a series of something.” Since the bulk of my experience is in books and narrative illustration, that seemed a natural fit to me, and would differ significantly from the other classes taught by Viktor, and illustrator/designer Paul Hoppe which were centered on editorial illustration, professional practices, and comics. I had students come to the first class with a text of their choice, and we took it from there. What you see below is a sample of their projects, a collection as diverse and impressive as the individuals themselves. It’s amazing how much great work they produced in just one month.

On a personal note, I’d like to give a big shout out to these fine folks, to thank them for making my first post-graduate teaching experience so rewarding. Bravo!

Adriana Miralles

Anuranjini Singh

Ashleigh Green

Brian Britigan

Esther Aarts

 

Catherine Liu

Ignacio Serrano

Jo Lee

Karina Dimitriu

Mai Moroe

Pablo Londero

Paola Pagano

Shane Cluskey

Teaching at SVA’s Illustration Summer Residency

Since graduating from the masters program at the School of Visual Arts in 2009, I haven’t given 

much thought to teaching. Primarily, I’ve focused on my own illustration career in the children’s book market, with a bit of editorial work. So far so good, I’d say, as this year has me working on more books than ever. But when my favorite (and toughest) instructor in the Illustration MFA, Viktor Koen, asked me to join the faculty of SVA’s Summer Residency, I jumped at the chance.

The Summer Residency brings together students from around the world to spend a month studying in the discipline of their choice with professionals working in New York City. Here’s a quote from the website on the illustration program:

“With guidance from award-winning illustrators, participants will complete a body of work comprised of images created for assignments, as well as personal projects, aiming to showcase their individual style and aesthetic direction. The goals are to advance to the next level of artistic practice and to attain an enhanced position in the illustration marketplace.” 

For my class, students will create a series of images to accompany a narrative text, to be encompassed in a book or visual essay. If you’d like to read more about the Summer Residencies and for information about applying, visit the School of Visual Arts website here.

It will be a high-intensity month of June. I look forward to meeting this group of international professionals, guiding, and watching their work evolve. The Residency culminates with an open studio exhibition, a few images from which I hope to share here in a future post.