-
- Chris Payne, Sterling Hundley, Doug Chayka, Robert Meganck, Jon Foster. Mary Pratt with me, John English, Brent Watkinson, George Pratt
I just returned from teaching at the Illustration Academy at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota Florida. I’m going to attempt to put the student work up here, but the resolution won’t be great. I gave a conceptual portrait assignment to the students, and after rounds of sketch critiques they came up with some great work! Thanks to John English for making the school happen and thanks to the students for making my time at the Academy fun and inspiring. For more information about the Academy please visit:
http://www.illustrationacademy.com
Anita Kunz's Weblog 
August 13, 2009 at 7:04 pm
nice student work. when you say ‘conceptual portrait’ assignment, what did you ask them to do?
August 15, 2009 at 9:30 am
I asked them to pick a personality that everyone would know, and do a portrait of them, incorporating something conceptual into the work. That could be either something to do with what that person does, how the student feels about that person, etc etc.
I find that with that assignment we are able to cover a lot of areas. For instance we cover how do do a likeness or caricature, how to properly use reference so as not to infringe on a photographers copyright, and then we cover how a student would come up with an idea or concept. So the piece is ultimately idea driven. And then to top it all off we critique the final results…has the student followed through on his or her idea? Is it a successful rendering? And most of all, at the Academy since we stress the bridge to the working world, is the piece strong enough to be published?