Monday, September 29, 2014

Elf Watercolor Demo

In this video, Syracuse Illustration Program's Bob Dacey demonstrates how to paint a portrait  of an elf using watercolor. To accelerate and clarify the process, the hour or more of original video has been compressed to around 12 minutes.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Images from Chris Renaud via Skype

Chis Renaud graduated from Syracuse's Illustration program in 1989 and has gone on to great success with films such as Despicable Me 1 & 2, The Lorax and others. Earlier today, he chatted about his work and career with Syracuse students via Skype from Paris, and here are some shots of the event.


Chris Renaud
Some of the projects Chris worked on while at Blue Sky

Gru from Despicable Me, contemplating stealing the moon
Head study of Gru
Studies of Gru walking
Minion studies
Gru

Thursday, September 11, 2014

John Thompson's Central Park Series

John Thompson painting, with granddaughter Noah.
Travel has always been a major inspiration for my personal work. My painting website www.johnthompsonpaintings.com features paintings and drawings of Italy, Ireland, India, Morocco, Pakistan, and most recently, New York's Central Park.

I have been working on the Central Park series for three years. In the fall of 2011, my wife and I rented an apartment across the street from the Conservatory Garden and the Harlem Meer on the corner of 107th Street and Fifth Avenue. Twenty years ago, we moved from New York City to Syracuse, where I took a teaching position at Syracuse University. While our main residence is now Syracuse, we go to New York on weekends (sort of a reverse commute). New York City, once our home, has now become a travel destination and inspiration for a new series of paintings.

The Central Park series consists of oil paintings ranging in size from 12” x 10” to 36” x 48”, plus over eighty small 8 ½” x 5 ½” plein air watercolors that I paint in bound sketchbooks.

I will give an over-view of the project at this time. It will include a small sampling of the project (three oil paintings and six watercolors). I will post updates of the progress of the series in the future.

—John Thompson

Cherry Trees, oil.

Crab Apple Tree, oil.

Lily Pond II, oil.

Bethesda Fountain, watercolor.

Bridge #28, watercolor.

Conservatory Garden, watercolor.

Harlem Meer 2, watercolor.

Harlem Meer, watercolor.

Lily Pond, watercolor.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Robert Sabuda at the Illustration Symposium Sept. 10th



Our guest symposium speaker on Wednesday, September 10th will be 3-D Paper Engineering illustrator Robert Sabuda. Originally from Michigan, Sabuda attended Pratt Institute. Sabuda has illustrated over forty 3-D pop-up children's books including L.Frank Baum's, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Clement Moore's, The Night Before Christmas. Sabuda has been awarded the Meggendorfer Prize, three times, an award instituted by the Moveable Book Society of America, in honor of German illustrator Lothar Meggendorfer.

Sabuda will be doing a presentation and demo of his techniques in room 332 of the Shaffer Art Building from 12:45pm to 2:00PM.

More information at: