SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS 54
UNCOMMISSIONED JURY
ART DIRECTOR, THE NEW YORKER
Jordan Awan is an illustrator and art director based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2008, he co-founded Springtime Studio illustration with his wife and fellow illustrator Morgan Elliott. A partial list of editorial clients includes McSweeney’s, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bloomberg View, The New Republic, USA Today, and The Boston Globe. He has also worked on projects with Herman Miller, Doctors Without Borders, and Puma, and has designed t-shirts for howies and a line of dinnerware for Fishs Eddy. Since 2010 he has worked as an art director for The New Yorker. He has received recognition from the Society of Illustrators and American Illustration. In 2011 he was awarded the prestigious Young Guns 9 by the Art Directors Club.
ILLUSTRATOR
Anthony Freda’s politically charged work has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, and Rolling Stone. His illustrations are also seen by millions via controversial, alternative news aggregator sites, and political blogs such as “Infowars,” “Activist Post,” and “Zero Hedge.” Anthony is currently working on a large, multimedia installation titled Blackboard Jungle, scheduled for a 2013 opening in N.Y.C. The show will feature works on vintage school chalkboards and desks with commentary on current socio-political topics. He works and lives in a 19th-century, former convent with his wife, Amber, and seven-year-old boy, Antonio. The nuns were cloistered and took vows of silence. Antonio took no such vow.
DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR, INC.
Sarah Garcea is currently the deputy art director at Inc. magazine. Previous publications she has worked on include: Worth, W, Seed, New York, Men’s Fitness, and Field & Stream. She also volunteers for the student committee at the Society of Publication Designers, which involves hosting portfolio reviews, competitions, and events. In addition to SPD Merit, Gold, and Silver Medals, Sarah has received awards from American Illustration and the Society of Illustrators.
ILLUSTRATOR
Mirko Ilic was born in Bosnia. In Europe, he drew comics and illustrations, and art directed posters, books, and record covers. When he arrived in the U.S. he became the art director of TIME Magazine International Edition. Later he became art director of the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. In 1995 he established his firm, Mirko Ilic Corp. He received numerous awards, including those from the Society of Illustrators, the Society of Publication Designers, the Art Directors Club, I.D. Magazine, Print, Graphis, Society of Newspaper Design, and others. Mirko is the co-author of several books with Steven Heller, including Genius Moves: 100 Icons of Graphic Design, Handwritten, and The Anatomy of Design, Stop Think Go Do. With Milton Glaser he co-wrote The Design of Dissent. He teaches masters degree illustration at the School of Visual Arts.
ART DIRECTOR, THE PROGRESSIVE
Nick Jehlen has been the art director at The Progressive magazine since 1999. Before that he was the art director at Boston Review and an interactive designer at WGBH in Boston. His work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Print, How magazine, and the Society of Publication Designers. Nick is also the co-founder of The Action Mill, a community organizing and design studio that helps organizations tackle intractable problems.
ILLUSTRATION
Rick Lovell is the illustration program coordinator at the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art and Design. Since 1979 he has been an illustrator at Whole Hog Studios in Atlanta, and Loucks Atelier in Houston. He has been freelancing in Atlanta since 1981 and has multiple awards from the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles, Communications Arts, Print, and others. His works have been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators in its Statue of Liberty in Illustration Show, Our Own Show, the Student Scholarship Exhibition, and Illustrators Who Teach Show. He has also exhibited at the Chicago Museum of Technology. His clients include Coors, Delta, Simon & Schuster, Atlantic Monthly, Business Week, Doubleday, Avon Books, Bantam Books, Showtime, and Disney. He lives with his wife, Bonnie, in Alpharetta, Georgia.
ART DIRECTOR, SF WEEKLY
Andrew Nilsen doesn’t care about titles. Call him a designer, art director, illustrator, photographer, flying trapeze instructor, white water rafting guide, or motorcycle whisperer and he will have a few stories for all of those things. At the end of the day, Andrew is just a guy who likes to work. Some of that work has been recognized by the Society of Publications Designers, the Society of Illustrators, 3x3, Creative Quarterly, Print, Communication Arts, the London International Creative Competition, CMYK magazine, and more. He was recently named Graphic Designer of the Year by International Design Awards. Andrew is currently the art director for SF Weekly in San Francisco, where he lives it up with his superhero wife and kangaroo-like Boston Terrier.
ILLUSTRATOR
Katherine Streeter illustrates and exhibits work globally. A few of her clients include The New York Times, HarperCollins, McSweeney’s, and Target, and among her awards and accolades are those from the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Communication Arts, and 3x3. Her work has been featured in many industry publications, including the recently released Cutting Edges-Contemporary Collage by Gestalten Publications. She balances her commercial art with making dolls, drinking coffee, and walking her dog Olive in Central Park.
ILLUSTRATOR
Harvey Award-winning artist José Villarrubia is chair of the Illustration Department of the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has also been nominated for the Eisner Award twice and regularly works for all the major American comics publishers (Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Publishing) as a colorist. His fine art photography has been shown internationally in over 100 exhibitions and is in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Inter-American Development Bank. As an illustrator he is best know for his collaborations with Alan Moore: Promethea, Voice of the Fire, and The Mirror of Love. This year he completed the graphic novel Gone to Amerikay by Derek McCulloch and Colleen Doran, and Get Jiro by Anthony Bourdaine, Joel Rose, and Langdon Foss.
GOLD MEDAL WINNER
CHRIS BUZELLI
Krampus: And the Children Shall Inherit the Earth
In early 19th century European folklore, Krampus was a creepy devilish figure who accompanied St. Nicolas during the Christmas season. If you were a good boy or girl, St. Nick gave you gifts, but if you were bad you got a visit by Krampus who would punish you with his switch and take you away in his sack! My version of Krampus utilizes one of my childhood toys in a devious way!
GOLD MEDAL WINNER
AARON MESHON
Supa Sento
SILVER MEDAL WINNER
Daniel Hertzberg
Snowpocalypse
Winter in New York was epic in 2010-2011. The ground was covered in white for four straight months. After what seemed like the fourth blizzard of the season, I thought this would best illustrate what every New Yorker was feeling at the time. I submitted this to the New Yorker as a cover idea, with an animated version as well. Though it was rejected, I was humbled, shocked, and honored that this was awarded a Silver Medal from the Society. I cannot thank the Society enough for this honor.
SILVER MEDAL WINNER
STEVEN TABBUTT
Infest
Infest is a personal piece used for self-promotion and exhibition purposes. It was created using acrylic and pencil on watercolor paper.
SILVER MEDAL WINNER
BRIAN WON
Drawings for Charlie #5
My two-year-old son, Charlie, inspired a series of illustrations. Charlie #5 is his undying love of all things truck related. The first word out of his mouth in the morning is “truck.” I informed him “truck” does not keep the lights on at home.
LINCOLN AGNEW
Soldier
ANDREW BANNECKER
No Turning Back: Night Falls
LOU BEACH
Babe
PHILIP BLISS
Real Estate Deception
For any proposed concept, I like to find an idea that hooks the viewer’s attention through a play of their visual imagination. This visual pun is a way to express ambiguity in real estate information, information that is less than truthful. Style is of little concern in my process of executing an aesthetically effective illustration.
PHILIP BLISS
Lurking Temptation
In this case, the concept to be expressed was answered with the use of a visual pun. The circling shark-fin/pizzas taunt as they simultaneously tempt and alarm the chubby dieter. I am not so interested in style as I am with executing an aesthetically pleasing image.
RICHARD BORGE
Life During Insanity 2011
In this piece I was revisiting a sculpture I had initially made for a Gov’t Mule CD cover several years ago. I’ve always liked the sculpture and wanted to use it in a series of new pieces both for self promotion and for an exhibit in September 2011. The process consisted of building the sculpture out of many different materials, photographing it and compositing it digitally, then outputting it to 100% cotton paper. It is being offered as a limited edition print.
SAM BOSMA
A Short Story
DAVID BRINLEY
Hugh Stout
JULIANNA BRION
Pin-Ups 1 & 2
MARC BURCKHARDT
Kindred
The following four images are part of a series of allegorical images for a recent exhibition of personal work.
MARC BURCKHARDT
Bridle 2
MARC BURCKHARDT
Aestas
MARC BURCKHARDT
The Three Fates
TAYLOR CALLERY
Seeing the Forest
JARED CHAPMAN
Japanese Macaque
This illustration came about one evening for no other reason than because I was bored. There wasn’t any sort of goal in mind, I just sat down and drew. Some of my favorite things have come about this way.
VIKKI CHU
Space Landscape
JOSEPH CIARDIELLO
Marty & Nucky
Steve Buscemi plays Nucky Thompson, fictional boss of Atlantic City during prohibition in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. The series is produced by Martin Scorsese, who also directed the pilot episode. Buscemi has one of those fantastic faces that practically draws itself. This piece was drawn directly with pen for no other reason than to amuse myself.
JOHN CUNEO
Life Coach
JOHN CUNEO
Philip Larkin & Bob Dylan
KALI CIESEMIER
The Savoy Affair
A self-promotional illustration for the Loud Cloud Mixtures iPhone drink app, illustrating the mixed drink, “Savoy Affair.” While creating the image I wanted to focus on the mood and potential story behind the interesting title of the drink, rather than just drawing the drink itself.
JOHN S. DYKES
Snake Bite
Many of my illustrations have their beginnings as sketchbook drawings that explore various themes. This one: a mistaken or false sense of being in control. I then developed the final in my graphic style (Leo Acadia). The creative accident that helped this concept along further (the “bite”), most likely only occurred by working digitally.
ANTHONY FREDA
Order Out of Chaos
This piece is part of my ongoing, self-prescribed art therapy designed to provide a creative outlet for my political passions. Pictured here is the national security state personified as an imaginary Hindu goddess. It’s acrylic paint and Prismacolor pencil on a wooden panel.
TOMER HANUKA
Perfect Storm
This is a metaphor for intimacy: a couple marooned in an overheated apartment while the world outside is slowly being covered with ice. The image was released as a special Valentine’s Day print.
JODY HEWGILL
Drivin’ ’n Cryin’
JODY HEWGILL
Mourning Cloak
JOHN HENDRIX
Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?
This drawing, centered around the Biblical story of Lazarus, was created as a personal image that was displayed in the Gallery Nucleus exhibit of illustrated type and letterforms.
THOMAS JAMES
Overcrowded California Prisons
ANNA-MARIA JUNG
Mister Poe’s Guilt Trip
When creating this image, I intended to express the emotions of fear, the darkness of the human soul, and the unbearable guilt Poe’s protagonist endured after committing such a hideous act. Visually, the limited colors, the playfulness of visual elements, and the stylized graphic style worked perfectly to create an atmosphere of crushing guilt. It was important for me to induce the idea of a thrilling story in the viewer’s mind.
EARL KELENY
Al Sharpton
CHRIS KIM
Worship
Because of their mesmerizing quality, spirals have always seemed like a very ritualistic shape to me. So, when I decided to make an image involving spirals, the idea of a ritual of worship quickly came to mind. The monochromatic color scheme meant I could put my focus on the tonal weight of the elements in the image. In the end, the overwhelming purpleness did end up giving an appropriately surreal feel to the picture.
EDWARD KINSELLA
Bob Dylan at 70
DELPHINE LEBOURGEOIS
Déesse 3
“Déesse” means goddess in French and this is the third image in a series of seven personal pieces. More organic than previous works, the “Déesses” series revisits one of my favorite themes, which is “hats and headdresses.” The headdress is like an extension of the character, hinting at its dreams, feelings, and emotions. Poetic and humorous, each of these “Déesses” explores a specific emotion: joy, grace, fear, arousal, tenacity, etc.) and is influenced by Surrealist collages, Japanese illustration, and mythological tales.
JEFFREY ALAN LOVE
Keeping Track of a Moving Target
This piece was one of the first in a series of self-promotional images. I was experimenting with combining drawings done in ink from a live model, then collaging them digitally with flat color. I wanted to bring a sense of control, to fulfill the often time-crunched requirements of illustration. My goal was to stop trying to manufacture a style and to present myself honestly, rough edges and all. Not to try to polish something to bland perfection, but to have my imperfect, flawed, yet unique point of view show through in my drawing—as if it were my handwriting.
RICK LOVELL
Model
I did a sketch of this young woman with Prismacolor pencils on brown craft paper during one of my portrait classes at SCAD-Atlanta. I scanned it and showed my Electronic Illustration class how one might manipulate it in Photoshop. The gold leaf was simulated in the digital file, but for the exhibition, I added actual gold leaf to a giclee print for a more authentic look. Thanks to Gustav Klimt for the inspiration.
RICK LOVELL
Thom Yorke
With sincere apologies to my friend Sam Weber. Sam visited us at SCAD-Atlanta a couple of years ago and demonstrated his acrylic and watercolor technique. I did my take on it for one of my classes, and I’m surprised but very grateful that it turned out well enough to be included in the Society’s annual!
MÁGOZ
Think and Act
The first step is thinking, the second is action. Without action, our aims remain unaccomplished. The major part of the creative process was dedicated to the conceptual. Once I found the idea, the realization was easy, because effort and work are intrinsic in the concept I wanted to convey.
GREGORY MANCHESS
Figure 2
This is the second in an experimental series that started from the inspiration I found while painting a very conceptual pharmaceutical advertising job. The discoveries I made pushing myself to capture that work drove me to think along the same lines for my favorite subject—the figure.
MICHAEL MARSICANO
Paradox of Choice
AARON MESHON
Nagoya
ZACHARY MONTOYA
Digital Identity
ZACHARY MONTOYA
Nurture Over Nature
SOLONGO MONKHOOROI
Werewolf
As an illustrator, monsters always seemed to have something beautiful in them and I ignored their ugliness. By referencing Mongolian painting style, I used an uneven scale of forms to express power of one over another. Centered in the middle of the piece, the gigantic werewolf is a dominant feature that is great danger, a living nightmare to humankind. The scene of villagers fighting for their lives represents how 16th century men and women were constantly threatened by random violence and death.
JACQUI MORGAN
Julie Muz & Dirty Martini Living It Up!
ALEX NABAUM
The Evolution of China
KEITH NEGLEY
Trapeze Girl
This piece was inspired by Brendan Mathews’ short story entitled “My Last Attempt To Explain To You What Happened With The Lion Tamer.” It’s about a clown who’s in love with a trapeze artist who’s in love with a lion tamer. Almost everyone dies. I painted the layers separately with acrylic on paper and assembled it in Photoshop. Special thanks to Viktor Koen.
WILLIAM NIU
Ryu Gu Jo
This piece illustrates a scene from a traditional Japanese tale, “Urashima Tarou.” In the story, a young boy saves an endangered turtle and is rewarded by a visit to the underwater dragon palace called Ryu Gu Jo. This is a digital painting with pencil under-drawing. The focus of this piece was to emphasize the flow of the composition, depicting the beautiful imagery of the story.
TIM O’BRIEN
Reluctant Krampus
Like many fortunate artists, the gourmet chef of illustration experiments, Monte Beauchamp, asked if I would contribute a piece to a project, The Krampus. I accepted, of course, and as I often do in these full freedom cases, run from the concept waving the white flag. My take on this devil-like creature was to imagine a reluctant Krampus who would rather not have the job. It happens to her and she looks at us with a reluctant beauty.
JOHN PERLOCK
Cere-Brum, Part of an Unbalanced Breakfast
Today’s youth seems to be fascinated with Gothic culture, so why not make a breakfast cereal just for them? The younger the zombie, the scarier they turn out to be, so the little girl from J.C. Leyendecker’s classic Kellog’s illustration was the perfect model of the Undead. This image also gives Night Of The Living Dead filmmaker, George A. Romero, the credit he deserves for introducing us all to the modern zombie.
RED NOSE STUDIO
Stilty
CATELL RONCA
Amy Winehouse
BENJAMIN SACK
An Urban Perspective
RICK SEALOCK
Pied Piper of Main Street
This is the latest image from my “Fowl Play” series which revisits my first love—drawing. The honesty of pen and ink allows this new imagery to reveal a more sympathetic and positive viewpoint/outlook that differs from my known satirical and overly-manic approach. In this piece, the Pied Piper represents a savior and hope to those socially and economically downtrodden.
DADU SHIN
Solitude
BRITT SPENCER
Straw Man
I had been doing a series of work revolving around a “man-child’s” voyage to sexual maturity. However, at some point I decided the structure of narrative itself was more engaging and I began tinkering with what it means to tell a story when communication is secondary to the primacy of aesthetics. Therefore, it’s a piece about looking like it’s telling a story when it’s not. I call it a “counter-illustration.”
BRITT SPENCER
Plane
I wanted a large image that seemed both grand and simultaneously pathetic. I had been struggling with a life-size image of a Yugo packed full with a family of vacationers. For a number of reasons it wasn’t working. For one, conveying any sense of grandeur when depicting a Yugo is a bit foolish, if not impossible. Fortunately, after stumbling upon the spectacle of my nephew “piloting” a fiberglass plane at a roadside carnival, I knew I had my imagery. Eventually, I took the digital file and created a 12-foot, life-size acrylic painting using a vinyl plotting technique.
STEVE SIMPSON
Signs of a Revolution
OTTO STEININGER
Angel Feeding Devils
FRANK STOCKTON
Fighter
VAL PAUL TAYLOR
Harmony in the Ruins
Along the Northwest American seacoast, hidden in the fir and cedar trees, are the remnants of an ancient and long forgotten culture. When visiting one of these sites I could just imagine the sounds of the people, their voices and music, and how nature continues even when man is not there. Here, the Native flute player has a captive audience; the birds love the old songs and voices their ancestors heard. My goal was to tell their story and remind us of those who keep our heritage alive through stories, music, dance, and pictures.
GINA TRIPLETT
Peacock
MARK ULRIKSEN
Doug’s Blues
BEN VOLDMAN
Tuning into Your Pet’s Needs
OWEN WILLIAM WEBER
December Maple
This was a deeply personal piece for me: It shows a tree I grew up with in my backyard, and my fiancée. It is meant to evoke a feeling of loving tension between humans and nature. During the process, I realized how aggressive the life of a tree is. By painting each individual piece of bark, I started to understand the eruptive force of every branch and the scarred texture of the bark.
MICHAEL WARAKSA
Do
Unlike much of the commissioned work I do, these pieces begin with a much more vague idea of what the finished work will look like. I am attempting to build something new and unexpected by layering and juxtaposing a variety of disparate elements together without adhering to a predetermined sketch. Nature, history, technology, advertising, and dreams are some reoccurring themes and influences, but much of the direction is driven by my simple subconscious reactions.
MICHAEL WARAKSA
Indirection
ALICE WELLINGER
Wasted Effort
One day I decided to bring order to my chaotic workroom. While cleaning up, a heap of half-done pictures, never-realized concepts, and castaway sketches fell into my hands. So much wasted time! All this toil for nothing! On the same day I painted Wasted Effort. The chaos in my workroom remained in its disorder—up to this day.
ALICE WELLINGER
Blossfeldt’s Dog
The noble, almost cast-iron elegance of Karl Blossfeldt’s photographs of plants inspired me to paint this picture. Why a dog running through Blossfeldt’s garden? It’s because I prefer to portray aristocratic dogs rather than bearded photographers!
BRIAN WON
Drawings for Charlie #1
My two-year-old son, Charlie, inspired a series of illustrations. Charlie #1 was made after a day at the local aquarium. With his face pressed against the glass, Charlie tapped at an assortment of sea creatures, big and small.
MASAKAZU YAMASHIRO
The Bigger Man
This piece was drawn based on a 3D model and modified by hand retouching, so it has an atmosphere of real drawing plus oil painting. It audaciously grasps the motif, yet the composition is simple. The aim is to make people feel some kind of effect from the elephant’s eyes.
DANIEL ZENDER
Lil Red
I was traveling somewhere, maybe in Montana, observing the negative/positive relationship of a forest of trees against a beautiful sky, when this idea came to me. I immediately sketched out a few different versions and settled on this composition. As soon as I got home I cut out all the paper pieces, scanned them in, and colored them on my computer. I intended to do the whole thing by hand, but was so pleased with the digital version I never looked back. And that is how I did it.
JAIME ZOLLARS
Her Sadness Seeks Resolve
This piece was submitted to Gallery Nucleus for their Harry Potter Tribute show. In this portrait of Cho Chang from the beloved series, my goal was to create a piece which would not appear as fan art and could exist as any other portfolio piece. I tried a new technique here of cutting a frisket stencil, applying spray paint, and creating the drawing on top.