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Our Second Year Students have been flexing their bookmaking muscles recently for our three week long MapBook project. The task was to produce a map book, with the theme and format being completely up to the individual.
Students produced a stunning range of books, including star charts, maps of the underworld, maps of Edinburgh, Ireland, South Africa, or Taipei or even more faraway places. Their books took the shape of folios, concertinas, float books and some for which a name has yet to be invented.
Map of the Greek Underworld – Peony GentMap of Irish Myths – Mhairi Braden
Map of a walk through Edinburgh – Victoria Ball
Beasts of Burden – Felix MiallTaipei Travel Guide – Liv WanMap of Lithuania – Gabriele Lisauskaite
And to finish off, all maps were combined into one big big map by the students – look at them go!
Our First Year illustration students have been busily working away creating Pop-up books that illustrate Robbie Burns’ epic tale ‘Tam O’Shanter’. They turned into veritable paper engineers, making books of all shapes and sizes: one comes in four little coffins, and another one is contained in two halves of a bottle.
But where can you see all these wonders? The work is on display in the entrance hall at Edinburgh’s National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge until Thursday 20 February 2014. Entrance is free!
This week’s visiting speaker will be Eleanor Crow, as part of our ongoing Professional Practice Lecture Series. Eleanor is a book cover designer and illustrator, and has recently produced a series of portraits of East London cafes. This Friday, 24th January, at 2.30pm in room 2.13. Come and be enlightened!
Cafes by Eleanor Crow – image via http://www.eleanorcrow.com/
Last week we celebrated the end of our Oban project with an exhibition of students’ work in the art college’s Andrew Grant Gallery.
Each student had been given a board to pin up their work after resolving and ordering what they had taken away from the trip to Oban. They did so rather excellently, using a wide range of approaches including drawing, painting, writing, photography and installation to suit each student’s field of study and working methods.
Here are some impressions from the exhibition opening:
Cheerful faces all around, in spite of near Arctic conditions – photo by Lucas Clauser
The annual Illustration trip to Oban is quickly becoming a beloved tradition, and this year our illustrators were joined by a number of Graphic Design and Animation students on their quest to draw, explore and develop their work while breaking out of their daily routines.
Setting off from Waverley Station on a Thursday morning, we arrived in Oban just in time to see the sun dip into the sea (rather spectacularly so) and got a first taste of the short northern Winter days. The good weather was to last, and even though temperatures remained around freezing point, our time in the Highlands was marked by bright weather and, unusual for Scotland, very little wind. We stayed in Oban’s Youth Hostel, which is right by the sea and made a great base camp for the following days.
Perfect drawing conditions – photo by Jo-fan Liao
On Friday Astrid began our stay handing out maps and sketchbooks, and sent each student off to draw and document a different location in and around Oban. Each of them returned with cold fingers, a diverse range of drawings and evidence of where they had been, and a starting point for further exploration of the area.
Saturday students were free to take their drawing further in a location of their own choice, with the majority catching the ferry to Mull and set off for Tobermory, Salen or Duart Castle and making the most of the stunning weather outdoors. The conditions for drawing were great, with warming sunshine and lack of wind, and nobody lost any fingers in the cold.
Duart Castle on Mull – can you spot the illustrators in the distance?
Sunday, our last day in the area, saw most students explore the the town and its immediate surroundings further, with some walking to the hills and forests and others heading for the local cafes to shelter from the cold. By 6pm everyone had made it onto the southbound train, which took 21 weary but happy students back home to Edinburgh.
An exhibition showcasing drawings from our Oban trip will be coming to the Andrew Grant Gallery soon, drop by to see some great work!
First and Second Year students have been teaming up over the last week to produce small editions of books about Edinburgh’s famous Grassmarket as part of a collaborative book project between the Illustration Students at Edinburgh College of Art and Analogue Books to celebrate Book week Scotland.
Julie from Analogue Books did a splendid job of starting off our students last Wednesday and Thursday by showing them around her shop, and it has been very exciting to see their projects develop from early sketches and location drawings into fully fledged books and zines.
Come along at 2.30pm tomorrow, Friday 29th November for the book launch and students’ presentations in room 2.13 of Evolution House – samples of the books will be on display at Analogue Books from Saturday 30th November until Saturday 7th December. Come and have a look!
The Third Year students recently tried their hands at animating with the help of Michael Kirkham. Each of them created work in response to 20 seconds of Chopin’s Polonaise in F Sharp Minor, which was then put together to form ten minutes’ worth of eclectic moving images. Impressive work from our first-time animators!
Congratulations to our former student Cat O’Neil for winning the prestigious Emerging Talent Award at the 2013 Cheltenham Illustration Awards for her mini-comic “The Way We Move”. Well done Cat!
Make sure you check out the rest of her work as well, it’s stunningly good stuff.
Our Second Year students finished their PRINT project last week, with great results! The task was to produce a set of four original A6 prints on the theme of “pairs”, two in full colour and two in monotone. Here are some close-ups:
