Illustration Commons^™

Superficial: An Exploration Of Decoration, Fashion, Taste, Camp, And Trends, Jillian Ohl

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Since the rise of consumer culture in the late 19th century, Americans have had a complicated relationship with decorative objects, the idea of taste, and the cycle of trends within our classist society. This essay examines some of the decorative objects in my childhood home such as patterned wallpaper and an antique chair as well as a contemporary brand name mascara. While these objects do not have major functional properties, their decoration and superficiality bring me joy. To better understand my appreciation of decoration and aesthetics, I assess how an object or fashion is considered in good or bad taste. …

Meet Me In The Middle Ages: Engaging With Fantasy, Reality, And Collaborative World-Building, Amanda Greene

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This critical essay accompanies and describes my thesis project, Medievalia Miscellany, a magazine for middle-grade readers which explores the world of medieval fantasy through art, comics, stories, and activities. Throughout the essay, I use my own term “archaeological upcycling” to discuss and explore a variety of relationships between ideas of parts and a whole. I then use it to characterize the way stories are created out of many different parts and how these parts help a reader to relate to both the world of the story and the world in which they live. I describe the genre of medieval fantasy …

Necessary Myths, Jessica Ramsey

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

My thesis essay was inspired by my search for a belief system that could transform despair over what will be lost through climate change into valuing what we still have. In researching the earliest iterations of belief structures, I came across the Maros-Pangkep cave paintings. These paintings are the oldest known works of art, and by my interpretation the first evidence of religious life. They are a series of representational paintings which tell a story, and I was inspired to emulate this methodology in my own exploration of belief.

My essay investigates the relationship between images and religion. Through W.J.T …

The North Mississippi Field Guide For Young Explorers, Olivia Wymore

Honors Theses

The North Mississippi Field Guide for Young Explorers is an interactive field guide to some of North Mississippi’s wildlife designed for a younger audience, ages six to twelve. The creation of this field guide is a culmination of my inspirations and interests as a child and my involvement and passions as a student at the University of Mississippi. Multiple times during my college experience I have had the fortunate opportunity to work with the local Montessori school, Magnolia Montessori School, by volunteering for various events and leading educational activities. After working with this school and learning about their teaching methods …

Ipseity Vol. 1: An Artful Exploration Of Identity Formation In Emerging Adulthood, Lauren Alexis Taylor

Honors Theses

Ipseity is a multi-edition coffee-table style book that integrates digital and print design and incorporates handmade elements and processes such as die-cuts, letterpress printing, gold foiling, hand-sewn bindings, and embroidery. Its design is rooted in minimalism, yet the handmade aspects, eye-catching color palette, and bold illustrations make reading Ipseity a visual and tactile experience. The design utilizes typography and flat-color illustrations in a consistent layout, with a strong emphasis on the handmade elements and craftsmanship throughout the book. It is not only a publication to read and ponder, but it is an artful object with a physical presence to be …

Methods In Costume And Projection Design For Theatre, Jessica Wallace

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A report detailing multiple practices for theatre design in costumes and projection. It is focused on playscript analysis, the design process, and the final build of the design for production.

Instinct, Eric Sanders

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

There is a convergence point of my interests that I explore in this body of work. As a service member and wildlife enthusiast, I pursue not only an outlet for my own creative expression and illustrative ambitions, but a platform to support creative advocacy for military service members and their families. With the principles of relational aesthetics and art as social practice supporting illustrative and design-centric work, I have found that convergence. This dream continues to manifest in Noble Instinct Artworks, a creative-based company I founded that incorporates the fine art methodology, business practices, and artistic collaboration with outreach potential …

Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills

Masters Theses

Can acts of making carry the memories of our embeddedness within the world? This thesis explores how making things can nurture a sense of kinship that cuts across the organic and inorganic, erasing the distinction between living and dead, material and spiritual. Through handwork such as art-making, sewing, knitting, cooking, woodworking, and beyond, the burden of remembering and of archiving is shared across human and non-human bodies, cultivated through practices of making, and through the materials themselves. By recounting the stories of my family’s experience as Jewish immigrants in the United States, I aim to reveal how their domestic practices …

Uniquely Korea: Retaining Visual Authenticity In Cultural Presentations, Deanna M. Cannon

Masters Theses

As educators and creators seek to introduce students to cultures from around the world to increase cultural awareness, visual media has also become a powerful tool to disseminate the visual culture of a people. When media misrepresents a culture, the introduction to the culture can be flawed and create more problems. How then can media creators ensure that their representations are accurate? This project proposes that careful research balanced with an observation of the culture’s visual presentations can help guide cultural representations toward authenticity. This research specifically explores the problem of misrepresenting traditional Korean culture in American media. The generalization …

Solutions Human Centered Approach To Conservation, Illustration Department, History, Philosophy, + The Social Sciences Department

Illustration Course Work & Materials

"These essays were were written and illustrated by students at the Rhode Island school of Design in February, 2021. Their perspectives are entirely personal and reflect their efforts within a 5.5-week fused studio/seminar course that was centered on the Sixth Mass Extinction and how biodiversity is changing because of humans. Discovering that science communication is more than delivering just the facts, students were invited to research a topic of personal interest that is relevant to human impacts on biodiversity. Through analysis of data and other scientific information, each sought to synthesize their research and opinions on their topic through a …

Cleo’S Crown: An Original Illustrated Children’S Book, Rachael Mion

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As children, our imagination is extremely vast and unpredictable, and the

books we read influence how we view the world. As we grow, many people slowly

lose the ability to get lost in their imagination. With Cleo’s Crown, I wanted to bring

back some of the magic that inspired me as a child, and the art is heavily influenced

by physical representations of magic and creativity. This project was created to spark

others imagination and remind them of their childhood. Even after the book and my

exhibition is completed, I am determined to share and hopefully publish Cleo’s

Crown. I …

Introduction To Illustration, Nathan P. Sensel

Open Educational Resources

Illustration is a visual interpretation of the world around us and is meant to communicate ideas in a clear and creative manner. The illustrator uses many different tools to convey their perspective, including painting and drawing, photography, digital media, printmaking and more.

This course is an introduction to the analog, non-digital, handmade 2-dimensional techniques and materials that illustrators use and the messages they are attempting to convey. Throughout the course, you will be asked to describe and analyze different techniques and apply them to your own work. As with any other skill, warming up, exercising and practicing are essential components …

Character Development And Refiguration Of Narrative, Vladan Djordjevic

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Character development is the process of creating believable fictional characters by giving them depth and compelling visual characteristics, which reveal a narrative framework behind formal solutions. Character development is the creation of effective communication. It gives essential information about character progression and the thought process behind a character’s evolution over time in the practice of visual development. This approach is a procedure of creating visual forms that convey clear messages, very often intangible ones. Their meaning is constructed through the use of different iconographic and narrative structures that, when presented within the same context, give thought-provoking and unusual formal solutions. …

Noah Fidlin Senior Art Portfolio, Noah J. Fidlin

Senior Art Portfolios

An art, photography and design magazine that combines analog and digital media.

Maddie Lebrun- Senior Art Portfolio, Madeline Lebrun

Senior Art Portfolios

A pair of hand-painted alphabets, compiled into an illustrated book to promote sustainability and environmental stewardship.

Light In The Dark, Nichole Schiff

The Messenger

Cover illustration for the Spring 2020 issue of The Messenger.

Draw Down Books, Draw Down Books, Kathleen Sleboda, Christopher Sleboda, Zak Jensen, Nejc Prah, Daniel Eatock, Maziyar Pahlevan, Benoit Bodhuin, Bráulio Amado, Jost Hochuli, Ian Lynam

UNBOUND 2020 Archive (Virtual)

Draw Down Books exhibitors. Draw Down is an independent publisher located in the northeastern corner of the United States. Created in 2012, Draw Down publishes small books about graphic design, typography, illustration, photography, art, and architecture.

Noah’S Ark And Burning Sodom: Woodcuts In The Psu Codex Fasciculus Temporum, Amber L. Shrewsbury

Fasciculus Temporum

Early printed books were illustrated by means of woodcut block illustrations. These illustrations frequently depicted well-known biblical events or stories and cities, and the woodcuts were frequently reused, sometimes within the same edition.

The focus of this paper is two woodcut illustrations in PSU’s 1490 edition of Werner Rolewinck’s Fasciculus temporum: Noah’s Ark and the destruction of Sodom. Comparisons are made between these two illustrations and relevant woodcuts in other editions of the Fasciculus temporum, as well as those found in a 1493 edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel.

Tu Amoris Ignem, Casey Murano

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Lost In Time And Space, Nichole Schiff

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Aesthetics Of Anxiety, Sade' S. Culliver

Honors College Theses

My research gives an in-depth explanation of what anxiety is, and a general idea of what it is like to deal with the condition. This research includes an illustrated clothing line consisting of fifteen looks that visually summarize the information about anxiety. Each element of these looks was based on research about anxiety, design techniques, and color theory. Of the fifteen looks, one was physically constructed and 2 were prepped for construction. The purpose of this research is to help people without the condition get a better general understanding of it, as well as help people with the condition feel …

Tori Hong Interview, Eliza Lemus

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Tori Hong is a self-taught visual artist exploring homelands and homecomings. In order to create meaning out of the often ambiguous, disruptive, and generative spaces they occupy, Hong creates narrative-driven illustrations, portraits, and zines. The people Hong centers in their work are LGBTQ Asian Americans and people with marginalized identities. Hong is based in Minneapolis, MN.

Middle Waters: A Visual Historical Fiction Of The Osage Nation, Tori H. Forster

Honors Projects

The following project is in two parts: A series of concept art and illustration pieces surrounding the history of the Osage Nation, and a research paper detailing that history and exploring the process of creating the aforementioned visual pieces. The artworks are designed around an original story set during the 1920s on the Osage reservation, and explore past history of the Osage people as a part of that. The paper also discusses the author’s personal response to the research, and explores themes of ignorance and social justice as the project draws to a close.

A Journey Into My Mind, Shen Chen Hsieh

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

During my time as a student in the MFA in Visual Study Program, I have been interested in creating imagery that expresses my inner world that is based on my emotional experience. I believe my identity is influenced by my multi-cultural background, relationships, daily moments and my own introverted personality. I continue to experiment with various mediums and visual styles to communicate these feelings. Drawing, silk-screen printing, mixed media, and three-dimensional sculpture are the main mediums in my artwork. Exploring diverse mediums provides me opportunities to develop my self exploration in my images. I seek to express and understand the …

Animal Heads: Exploring Christian Themed Solutions And Mental Health Through Comics, Mariannette Oyola-Perez

Masters Theses

The second leading cause of death for the ages of 10-24 is suicide, a statistic that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows has steadily risen since 1999. Although it is seldom spoken about in mental health circles, an enmity seems to exist between Christianity and modern psychology in regards to mental illness and how it should be treated; this enmity could be preventing helpful Christian-based principles from being shared with the at-risk population while simultaneously excluding Christians from a conversation they need to be a part of.

Interestingly, further research shows that the at-risk demographic overlaps significantly with …

Painting A Biblical Worldview In Children, Brook Blackwell

Senior Honors Theses

Children are impressionable beings shaped by the changing world around them; this has become increasingly more true as the years progress and the impact and prevalence of media rises. Television shows, movies, music and books, no matter how insignificant they may seem, can play a tremendous part in the growth of children’s worldviews. It is important for authors and artists to delve deep into the impact of media on the growth and development of children in today’s media-rich world. In doing so, they should hope to find the best way to implement a Christian worldview into the media a child …

Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story By Stuart R. Kaplan With Mary K. Greer, Elizabeth Foley O'Connor, And Melinda Boyd Parsons, Emily E. Auger

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Framing Questions And Modes Of Inquiry In Illustration Process And Critique, Robert Brinkerhoff

Faculty & Librarian Work

Every creative act begins with a question—whether consciously or unconsciously formed—and illustrators may enhance their approaches to visual problems by framing a line of critical inquiry that invigorates conceptualization. While inventories and lists of questions are suitable ways to begin, there exist many different modes of questioning—verbal and non-verbal, manual and cognitive, linear and discursive, intuitive and rational, integrative and deconstructive. This chapter explores diverse methods for inquiry in problem definition and resolution, describing a variety of models and incorporating observations by professional artist-educators to expose different strategies for illustrators.

Face Me., Audrey M. Colanero

Honors Thesis

"face me.", 2019 Digital Illustrations on Vinyl Print, Industrial Materials

"face me." is an expression of the people who have helped me get where I am today using portraits. Each face we see makes an impact on our lives in some way. Which face are we showing to the people we encounter, and what impact are we choosing to make?

Through Children's Eyes: Teaching Inclusivity And Understanding Of Communication Disorders With Children's Books, Rachel Peavler

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

“Through Children’s Eyes” is a series of children’s books that focus on describing different aspects of four different communication disorders. The topics covered in the books include augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), dementia, and dysfluency. The illustrations were drawn and colored by hand, and the text and background were added digitally. The goal of this project was to create materials to effectively inform and instruct children about the nature of various cognitive, speech, and developmental differences to foster greater understanding of and tolerance towards people with communication differences.