Art and Design Commons^™

Letters To Lindbergh: An Illustrated Children’S Book, Samantha Gottwalt

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Letters to Lindbergh is an illustrated children’s book offering a new perspective on the relationship between the aviator Charles Lindbergh and his father, while also bringing a visual component to historical documents. Illustrated by Samantha Gottwalt, the book’s art explores collage media techniques and the story is told through letters that Lindbergh exchanged with his father during his adolescence (1909-1924.) It aims to explore a facet of Lindbergh’s life that has little exposure and invited the reader to step into a vividly colored collaged world created with paint and cut paper. Through the new perspective of Lindbergh’s correspondence the story …

Gustave Doré: The Magic Illustrations Of Charles Perrault’S Contes De Fées, Stephanie Breed

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Gustave Doré: artist, creator, dreamer. In 1862, Doré illustrated “Les Contes de Perrault,” an anthology of fairy tales by Charles Perrault including familiar stories like Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and Puss in Boots. Doré’s intricate engravings accompanying each story include picturesque landscapes, expansive forests, and grand cathedrals. In his time, Doré did not feel appreciated or understood by his contemporaries in France and he therefore reverted to the spaces of his childhood for inspiration. Returning to the multi-layered landscapes of the forest and the Gothic cathedral, he re-discovered the sublime and grotesque, enfolding them in …

Millennial Rust, John Mcgowan

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Millennial Rust is a one-artist anthology comic, consisting of the first chapter of a serialized story, The Turkey Avenger, a series of autobiographical comic strips, and a collection of developmental material from the two projects.

The Turkey Avenger follows the exploits of the Turkey Avenger, a self-styled superhero with no discernable superpowers who hopes to “do good” in the best way he knows how: fighting crime. Unfortunely for him, the Turkey Avenger has no idea where to begin his quest for justice, stumbles into what appears to be a kidnapping, and is soon drawn into a conspiracy that’s clearly over …

Bernard: An Illustrated Children’S Book, Hansol Kim

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My Capstone Project is an illustrated children’s book titled, Bernard, that I authored and illustrated. It is a 32-page full color illustrated book following the adventures of a bear named Bernard, as he explores what it is like to spend a day in a human town. The idea behind the story was imagined during a serendipitous moment and expanded into a full narrative.

During the creation of the Bernard, I learned the importance of elements such as the rhythm and structure of the children’s book. Wielding a pencil and paper, I explored how little or how much was …

The Light Princess: An Illustrated Fairy Tale, Amanda Shaffer

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Fairy tales teach children important life lessons, and The Light Princess by George MacDonald is no exception. The main lesson taught by this story is that one needs a balance between gravity and levity, or that there can be no true happiness without knowing sadness as well. This fairy tale is aimed at slightly older children, around age ten, so they might begin to understand this lesson. Younger children would not be able to understand this as well, but it may stick with the older kids. I feel that this is a particularly important life lesson, and my illustrations try …

The Cartoon Lady, Laura Jungreis

Honors Capstone Projects - All

“The Cartoon Lady” is the biography of Bunny Hoest, a longtime cartoonist. The biography aims to tell the story of Bunny’s life and how she entered the cartooning world, as well as the history of cartooning and its future. Bunny’s story is used as an example and a vehicle to explore issues in cartooning, such as ownership and advancing technology.

This project preserves a history. Bunny is the subject of the biography because she is a pioneer in the industry as a strong, female figure. The text demonstrates her significant role in cartooning history as well as the resilience of …

Fox Fire, Emily Watanabe

Honors Capstone Projects - All

“Fox Fire” is an independent animated short. Its plot is centered on a young boy, a mysterious girl, and their adventures at a Japanese summer festival. The purpose of this project was to create a short and fun animation to stir the imagination of its viewers while incorporating elements of Japanese culture and experimenting with unique aesthetic choices.

During the initial brainstorming stages of this capstone, I decided that I wanted to somehow incorporate pieces of Japanese culture and mythology into the project. Not only is the folklore fascinating, I often enjoy expressing my Japanese heritage through artwork. The choice …

Visualsthesia: Complex Music Visualization For Live Performance, Tracy Lee Dendy

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Visualsthesia is intended as an interactive visual experience made for the musicians who have influenced my studies while I've been attending Syracuse University. I offer these musicians a gift that I have imagined and created in honor of them, using the medium I desired to grow in. Visualsthesia is a visualization of a live musical performance generated in real-time. The concept is based on Synesthesia, a neurological condition that mixes up the senses. One common type of synesthesia is seeing a color when one hears a note or instrument. Visualsthesia turns that psychological connection between color and music into an …

Lost And Found: Stories From London (A Graphic Novel), Brianna Collins

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My Honors Capstone project falls under the Creative project category. It is a sixty-four page graphic novel entitled Lost and Found: Stories from London. It is a collection of stories and moments from my semester abroad in London in the spring of 2009, when I was a second semester junior. I kept a series of journals during my time abroad, and the content from those journals eventually became the stories that I transformed into the pages of my book.

In essence, the research for my project was my everyday life. From going on weekend trips to other countries like Ireland, …

The Great Teakon: A 3d Video Game, Chad Cable

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The Great Teakon is an experimental 3D video game that uses gameplay as a narrative device. Players take charge of Charles Teakon, a rising film star, during the silent film era in the early 1900ʼs. But when Charles breaks his leg on set, heʼs forced into retirement and obscurity. After a 30 year hiatus, he decides to return to the film world and complete his unfinished movie. ! As the protagonist ages, so will the players - not only is this reflected in the physicality of the characters, landscape, and architecture, but the actual mechanics for interacting with the virtual …

A Field Guide To The Irish Fantastic; A Study In Concept Art, Elizabeth Ames Gross

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract Not Included

Making Home – At Home And Abroad, Stasya Panova

Honors Capstone Projects - All

For my Capstone Project, I created a dual exhibition centering on the theme of home, in collaboration with Elody Gyekis, a Schreyer’s Honor student at Penn State University, double majoring in Painting and Ceramics. The show was entitled “Making Home: at home and abroad” and was exhibited both in State College, Pennsylvania, and in Syracuse, New York, in March 2009. The body of work was the culmination of our three-year collaboration and consisted of photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptures, ceramic, and video art. The making and installation of the pieces investigated the physical and emotional experience of making home, …

An Epic Life: A Story Of Art, Discovery, And Adventure, Sara Silkwood

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This collection of work is inspired by a series of trips I took around the state of Alaska. In the project, I combined illustration, design, page layout and various forms of storytelling.

Initially the project started with the idea that I would be creating both an artist’s journal and a separate body of artwork based around my experiences in Alaska. But the project changed and evolved the more I traveled and the more I reflected by painting, writing and designing.

While I was in Alaska, I gathered reference with photographs and sketches, planning to use them to create a book …

Monkeys And Camels And Hippos...Oh My! An Illustrators Journey Through South Asia, Allison Black

Honors Capstone Projects - All

John Thompson, an illustration professor atSyracuseUniversity, informed me in the fall semester of my junior year that he was organizing a painting course which would fly students toIndiafor fifteen days during our winter break. The students would return and spend the next semester creating pieces based on their travels. I knew that the trip would be an incredible experience and that I had to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.

While inIndiawe passed stores bursting with colors and patterns, we walked through villages with indigo blankets laid out like patchwork on the hot sandy ground, and we observed carpet weavers …

Children’S Book Development, Rebecca Zomchek

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My children’s book development project for the Honors program is the creation of a children’s book ‘dummy’ book. A dummy book is a creative process book that a children’s book illustrator might send to a publishing company as part of an application or as a pitch for a future project. A dummy book includes several stages of production in the creation of a finished children’s book. These steps include: the choice of a story, the initial thumbnail/small sketches, creation of the book’s layout and design sketches, final drawings, and final paintings. These sample books serve as a model to display …

Interviews In Monsterland "What Are You Afraid Of?", Sarah Rebar

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Through my thesis, I sought to make a stop-motion animation and do the pre-animation processes of character designing and storyboarding. Inspired by Nick Park’s Creature Comforts, I interviewed a series of people on their childhood fears and used the interviews as basis for my project. My animation is less than one minute long, and, in addition to the short, I have compiled a book of the art, sketches, storyboards and other preliminary work. Along with this, I have also included footage of my work at the K-6 private New School, where I taught children the same process.

From the …

Pieces Of Africa, Lindsay Ward

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My Capstone project is a collection of boxes incorporating various themes from African literature and culture juxtaposed with illustrations and natural materials in a three dimensional manner. I have created nine boxes presenting the following themes: men, women, children of war, family and community, life and faith, death, love, hate, and the continent ofAfricaitself. Each box has various illustrations corresponding to its theme. I wanted these boxes to create a dialogue about what I believe the general public knows and does not know aboutAfrica.

I read various African novels and recognized multiple themes that were discussed frequently throughout each novel. …

Pictorial And Spiritual Spaces A Personal Journey Through Painting And Meditation, Brendon Palmer-Angell

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The way that an artist works is directly affected by the way that they perceive and interact with their surroundings. My work over the past year has dealt with the way that I perceive different universal aspects of human experience such as death, separation and personal motivation. The work itself consists of large representational figurative paintings executed in acrylic, oil and various drawing mediums on canvas, linen, or illustration board. Each piece is preceded by a number of preparatory drawings in which space, characters, and narrative evolve.

The way that I approach subject matter and the execution of paintings has …

A Promenade Through Paris, Kelley Voegelin

Honors Capstone Projects - All

I have written and illustrated a short story that takes place during one day in Paris, France. The story is drawn from my own experience living in another culture. I have created a main character that brings the reader through the story. Along the way the reader visits wonderful places in the city of Paris and learns snippets about Parisian culture and lifestyle.

The text and artwork themselves appear in a book that I have made by hand. I began by inventing a unique paper of a cotton base, lilies, cattails, and other starchy plants. At the end of the …

Good Society, Lindsay Dedario

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My senior honors thesis is an illustrated book which renders various snapshots of people and events encountered while I was living and volunteering in Ecuador during the summer of 2004. Each snapshot brings to life some aspect of the human condition which transcends the boundaries of culture, qualities which are intrinsic to humanity despite our vast surface value differences.

I used a fairly tight, lyrical voice combined with a borderline journalistic approach to textually communicate each snapshot. This is not intended to over romanticize the piece or to ignore the fact that this society had problems like all others. Rather, …