Student Spotlight: GRANT HANNA

We are proud to shine the SCAD-Atlanta Illustration Student Spotlight on Grant Hanna,
MFA candidate and all-around great guy. As usual, we asked him the obligatory 10
questions so everyone could get to know him a bit better. Enjoy his answers and his
wonderful artwork...

1. Where are you from?
I grew up in Chiang Mai, Thailand and lived there until I was 18 years old, then moved to the North Shore of Massachusetts for undergrad. I guess I consider Beverly, Massachusetts my adopted hometown.

2. Where have you been to school (and if grad student what kind of degree did you receive)?
I went to Gordon College in Wenham, MA for undergrad, and majored in Sculpture and Graphic Design. Then I took three years off before applying to the SCAD Illustration MFA program. 

3. What attracted you to Illustration?
I’ve always liked drawing pictures that have stories associated with them, especially when I can work collaboratively with other artists like musicians or writers to bring a visual element to what they’re doing – expressing both their and my points of view simultaneously.
My favorite pieces that I’ve done strike that place between communication and ambiguity, where the viewer can sense underlying and overlapping layers of meaning through an expression, a decorative element or a color choice.

4. Who are your biggest influences?
Hokusai, Mucha and Murakami for a long time now. Then James Jean and Sam Weber showed me how to bring those things into a contemporary setting.

5. If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?
Probably I’d still be working a day job and painting at night, and going down to the beach at night to look at the lights across the bay.

6. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love catching up on new music and talking with friends about what projects we’re working on and where they’re going. I spend a lot of time hanging out with my cat, Frog, as well.

7. What is something that most people don’t know about you?
I cook myself a meal from scratch almost every night of the week.

8. What would your dream job/client be and why?
I would love to do a wide-scope collaborative project with a publisher or author where I can
be involved from conception to execution, putting together a complete, intricately conceived design.

9. What’s your typical process for creating your artwork (technique, media, etc)?
I always start with a pencil drawing in mechanical pencil. From there I might go directly into the computer and start doing digital color, or more likely do some painting in watercolor or acrylic, or both, and then scan it and make color adjustments.

I love working with layers, textures and subtleties, especially when they come together to evoke a dreamy or melancholy air to a piece. 

10. Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
"By being natural and sincere, one can often create revolutions without having sought them."
-Christian Dior

GENERATE! artwork is getting noticed...

The Battle and Brew challenge that our students did at this year's Generate event has been getting a bit of buzz online by several gaming blogs. Take a look at what they are saying!

Examiner.com
The Military Gamer
Game Informer

The opening of the gallery show will be posted as soon as a solid date has been nailed down.
Great job, everyone!

The Thumbnail

There is a great new blog called Muddy Colors, that is a collective of the best concept artists working today. One of our guests for this winter's Forum, Jon Foster, recently posted about his thumbnail process, which is something that we all should read and follow. Our friend Bill Mayer does upwards of 50 thumbs for each project, and his success speaks to the benefit of such intensive exploration. So, the big idea is to not fall in love with the first idea that pops into your head; dig deep, then deeper and deeper still until you've approached the problem from every conceivable angle. Let your subconscious lead you to new places, and allow things to just happen. But most of all, have fun!

Fall Quarter Bliss

Whew! What a whirlwind quarter so far. Here are a few highlights...

Thomas Blackshear

Thomas Blackshear was in town and stopped in to pay us a visit. What a phenomenal talent, and genuinely nice guy. I had met Thomas years ago and had the good fortune of crossing paths again at ICON6 in Pasadena. I have always admired his work and was tickled when he stopped by on September 22nd. He gave an inspiring presentation of his work, from movie posters to ceramic figurines, and spoke about his career, apprenticing for Mark English, working at Hallmark, and moving on to the world of fine art and collectibles.

Thomas was in town to unveil this beautiful lithograph entitled "Intimacy".

Methane Studios

The next day, on September 23rd, the guys from Methane Studios were here for the opening of their show in Gallery See called "Fuel to the Fire: The Poster Design of Methane Studios".

The show was amazing, and featured dozens of their gig posters and other beautiful screen print pieces.

 
Robert Lee and Mark McDevitt came by the classrooms to spend some time with the students, which was really a bonus. They spoke of their humble beginnings, what they found valuable about their time in art school, and the importance of drawing.

Their lecture that night was also inspiring; they showed lots of their work from Dave Matthews gig posters to advertising and logos, to packaging for clients like Blue-Q. The panel was moderated by Michael Ouweleen, Senior V.P. at Cartoon Network, another very talented and very nice guy. It was an amazing night of great artwork and smart, insightful, funny banter.

Steven Charney

On Thursday, Oct. 14th, Steven Charney, Art Director for Rolling Stone Magazine dropped in for a visit. His lecture was about his tenure at the magazine, his earlier career at other magazines and ad agencies, and the amazing illustrators he's worked with for the Review section of Rolling Stone.
He also took some time to do portfolio reviews for several illustration students, and by all accounts was very impressed, indeed.

Wayne White

 

"You're supposed to act all impressed" was the theme of his visit, and we were. VERY.

 
He charmed us with his genuine Southern Gentleman demeanor and the rich tapestry of stories that flow so effortlessly from a man who has done everything from working on his junior-high newspaper to designer and puppeteer for Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Here's a small snippet from Wikipedia:
Wayne White is an American artist, art director, cartoonist and illustrator.
After graduating from Hixson High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and studying at Middle Tennessee State University, White went to New York City and worked as a cartoonist and illustrator for a number of publications including The East Village Eye, Raw, The New York Times, and The Village Voice.
In 1986 he worked on Pee Wee's Playhouse where his work for his set and puppet designs won three Emmy awards; he also supplied a number of voices on the show. Other television credits include production and set design for Riders in the Sky, The Weird Al Show and Beakman's World.^[1]
He art directed two seminal music videos, Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" in 1986, for which he won a Billboard award for best Art Direction in a music video, and in 1996 he designed all the Georges Méliès inspired sets for the award-winning video for the Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight, Tonight".


And, he's a very nice man, to boot. If you missed his talk, you missed a lot. Thanks, Wayne. You are welcome back any time!


It's been an awesome quarter so far, and we have even more inspiring and humbling stuff planned, so stay tuned!

GENERATE Winners!

It was a long 24 hours, but for those who stuck it out, it was worth it! What a great day, and night, and next day. Many thanks to our terrific sponsors; Wacom, Adobe and Strathmore. They really came through for us again with great prizes and art materials. Also, thanks to Chick fil a, Papa John's and Publix for keeping us well fed.

There were 17 Illustration entries, and we chose the top 6 for prizes and recognition.

First Prize, and winner of a Wacom Large Intuos4 tablet...
 
Ae Ri Yoon: Half Life2 (digital)

Second Prize, and winner of Adobe CS5 Suite...

Sean Twiddy: Galaga Dogfight (digital)

Third Prize, and winner of a Wacom Intuos4 medium tablet...

Solongo Mellecker: Shadow of the Colossus (Acrylics and powdered gold pigment)

Fourth Prize, and winner of a Wacom Intuos4 Grip Pen...

Annik Huber: King Bowser (digital)

Honorable Mentions, and winners of a SCAD-Atlanta Illustration T-shirt and signed print by Sam Weber or Anita Kunz ...

Julia Berman: Mario (digital)
and...

Andrea Sipl: God Mario (digital)

Congratulations to the winners, and our thanks and appreciation to everyone who participated!

GENERATE!

v. 2010 is here!

Get ready for 24 hours of creative mayhem, courtesy of Battle & Brew!

The Illustration Department's Generate challenge this year is to create a piece of artwork that will grace the walls of Battle & Brew, a gaming bar in Marietta, GA. They are looking for artists and illustrators to create artwork which depicts your creative reinterpretation of your favorite video games and their characters.

The challenge begins at 10am on Friday, Oct. 1, and ends at 10am on Saturday, but everyone should be on campus, ready to create, no later than 9:30am. The main gathering area for the Generate kickoff is the homework computer lab area on the 3rd floor of the main building (B) near the elevators. All the challenge specifics will be handed out at the beginning of the challenge.

There will be door prizes and materials given away all day and night, and the Challenge winners will receive terrific prizes donated by our Platinum Sponsors, Adobe and Wacom.

DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO SLEEP.

Sean Twiddy in the AJC

MFA candidate Sean Twiddy's editorial piece entitled "Education in Peril" appeared in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution. It's the second piece of Sean's to grace the pages of the AJC's editorial pages. Congratulations, Sean!