Congratulations to student Tan Ming Ken for being one of the winners of the 2012 Illuxcon Scholarship competition! You can see more of his work here: http://www.behance.net/krenx

Spotlight: Anita Kunz

We had the pleasure to have a phone interview with Anita Kunz, a Canadian-born artist and illustrator. Anita Kunz is one of the most known illustrators nowadays, she has worked for magazines, advertising and design firms in England, Canada, South Africa, Holland, Portugal, France, Japan, Sweden, Germany  and more. She has also worked for clients such as Time magazine, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Sony Music. 

What inspired you to get involved in Illustration?

I followed the example of my uncle; he was an illustrator who liked the idea of making art, together with print. He mostly did illustrations for education; he illustrated high school textbooks and filmstrips. His motto was “art for education”. He inspired me mostly because he did art for a meaningful purpose. He influenced me in other ways: for example, he was a naturalist, he would also oil paint and sculpt in front of a lake because his studio was there.

What are the major influences to your work?

I am influenced by science and anthropology. Also when I was a kid, my uncle was not around later on, so my work just evolved by working a lot on figurative painting. I really appreciate and like the figure.

What is your favorite medium when you are creating an illustration?

I work in watercolor, acrylic medium, matt medium, and experiment with various materials. I am very old school!

 

How do you feel about the illustrators and Illustration nowadays?

These kids astound me. I think everything revolves around technology, and the digital work that has been out there is amazing. I still like to work in the old school way; however, if I were maybe born in this time, I would probably work digitally.

Do you have any advice that you would like to give aspiring illustrators when they begin working professionally?

Everybody tells you to work hard, but what it takes is tenacity. Getting your work out there in the social media, putting up your website, entering shows and competitions. When looking for work, it’s important to research what your client wants, because the days when we had fewer illustrators are over. It is also important to learn design and typography because I think that it is important to have variety in your career. The most money out there is in advertising, gaming, and animation. And also be very aggressive, because these days illustration is more competitive than before.

American Illustration - Latinoamerica

Deadline: Monday July 30, 2012, 11:59pm PST

   American Illustration (AI), The leading juried annuals in North America, introduces a new competition to honor the best work being created today in Latin America. AI, well-known for 31 years as the exclusive resource for art directors, designers, photo editors, art buyers and publishers seeks to introduce established, emerging and student Latino illustrators and photographers to the North American market - and vice versa - in a global, multi-cultural exchange of art and ideas.

Latin American Ilustración will be judged by an international jury of top creatives who commission illustration and photography for use in magazines, advertising, books, posters, packaging, promotion, and video.

Eligibility

International illustrators living anywhere who have Latin American representation or have been published or exhibited in Latin America are also eligible.

Unpublished, fine art and student work will also be eligible.

And those working or studying in Latin America with work created or published anywhere for any purpose. Includes Mexico, Caribbean, Central American and South American countries.

For more information click here:

http://www.ai-ap.com/cfe/LAI/address/

Spotlight: Tran Nguyen

Preliminaries usually take about a week, consisting of brainstorming sessions and rough-to-tight sketches.  Once a final sketch is made, it’s then transferred via light table to Rives paper.  The first step of the painting process is to color block in general shapes with diluted acrylics.  After that, many glazes of acrylic is laid to slowly add form.  Then, I go back and begin noodling in the details with color pencils.  I’ll alternate back and forth from acrylic to color pencils till I achieve a smooth gradient finish in the renders.