I’ve known Susan for a number of years and first met her when she was working as a professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design teaching a pattern-making class. Beyond being an incredible teacher, she is an extremely talented illustrator who’s work is playful, energetic, and always full of life and action. Her ability to place characters within a scene is sensational, and she has an acute awareness of the way that textures and shapes can work together to make a whole, cohesive, image. It was an abosolute delight to have the opportunity to learn more about her process and work.
About a year ago, I was struggling to stay creative outside of work. I had a million ideas of what I wanted to do but needed to hone it in and get to work. I believe strongly that my maker side contributes to my design skills at work. A co-worker recommended Skillshare. I signed up for free trial. After forgetting to cancel, the trial membership became a year long membership. Skillshare is an amazing creative community. Each class has a project section so you can share your work and see what others are doing. For me, it has become an On Demand binge-worthy hide out. There are three teachers that I follow on Skillshare that are my current favorites.
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Music and Productivity at work
12/19/2017
Harry Campbell – Artist Portfolio
Do you swear by that 90’s R&B Pandora station as your work playlist, or do you prefer silence to hone in on your projects? Whatever your music taste, there are theories that link music with productivity—depending on the task at hand.
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Getting to Know the Locals: Cassie Genc
12/05/2017
I had the great opportunity of talking with Cassie Genc, a local Milwaukee illustrator living in the Bayview area. Her work is full of whimsy, wonder, and robots. I have looked up to Cassie as an artist for many years and have always appreciated her use of vibrant colors and attention to detail. The pieces she creates transport to magical other worlds that leave you thirsting for further exploration into her work.
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The making of a mural, in chalk
11/09/2017Day 1: Setting the scene
One of my first assignments at Composure was to create a wall mural. It was the largest piece of artwork I’ve ever done. It was slightly intimidating at first, but I was ready to take on the challenge. Here’s a behind the scenes look at creating my first chalk wall mural!
First, you must do the research. Pulling inspiration pieces is not only a great way to get your creative juices flowing, but helps create a starting point for what will become the finished work. As an inspiration point, I began to gather pieces from past projects, a wide mix of different works. I wanted to incorporate designs from all different clients and find a way to integrate them all together.
Creating a cohesive layout is like solving a puzzle. You start out with individual pieces and begin to find which pieces fit together, which pieces don’t.
Our Kids: Childlike Creativity
11/09/2017Anyone that knows me will tell you I talk about my two daughters—a lot. In my defense, it’s pretty much “Dad Law” that I have to brag about them whenever I get the chance and think everything they do is amazing.
All joking aside, my kids’ imaginations never cease to amaze me. Whether they are creating incredibly detailed plots for stories while playing with their toys or making up random lyrics to songs, I find myself often times just watching and smiling.
What I am most in awe of, however, is the way I can give them a stack of paper and just watch them create page after page of drawings. They’ve spent entire afternoons with nothing but their imaginations, a binder of loose-leaf paper and crayons—so many crayons.
Cast of Characters
10/06/2017Portraits have always been about more than ink and paint to me. Part of what sparked my interest in them was finding ways to show the idiosyncrasies of the people around me. Things like the curve of a nose or how someone’s chin sits against their cheek, or in this instance, how much they really do look like their pet.
Jim Madsen
http://www.shannonassociates.com/artist/jimmadsen
Madson has been illustrating for the past 15 years, and has 75 illustrated books to show for it! His work has a soft, dreamlike quality. He uses subtle humor which brings charm to a lot of his pieces. There’s warmth through his color palette that helps create a sort of comfort to the characters he constructs. I really enjoy his work, and he is fantastic to work with.
Wales, Wis.
A magic wand sits high on a shelf in Patricia Deklotz’s office. It was a gift in 2005, the day after she accepted the Kettle Moraine school board’s challenge to “transform the educational delivery system to better and more efficiently meet the needs of all children.” But the board had just cut about $1 million from the budget for the 4,100-student district.
What “transform” meant was undefined, except Deklotz knew that they needed to do something different for less. Innovate on a dime.
The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers
Described by Oliver Jeffers as “A thrilling tale of mystery, crime, alibis, paper planes, and a bear who wanted to win.” This book is illustrated beautifully through humor, Jeffers ‘childlike’ type and lovable characters. I love the animals stick figure legs and the sky always changing bold colors. It was nearly impossible for me to choose a favorite among Jeffers books-so I must cheat my “3” favorites list here and mention two more titles by Jeffers, The Incredible Book Eating Boy and This Moose Belongs to Me. Though lets be honest, they are all great!