Visiting Lecturer: Claudia Boldt & Loop Magazine

It's been a real pleasure having author and illustrator Claudia Boldt in the studio with us this week! Claudia talked about the children's books she has created with Tate Publishing and Random House among others, and was very kind to share some of her initial drafts and mock-up books with the students - always great to see the process leading to the final piece!

She also spoke about starting Loop Magazine, a really interesting publication for inquisitive children, with articles, games and playful 'how to' pages.  As one of the publishers, she set an exciting live brief for the second year students and it was great to see some initial ideas already forming on the day!

Bookmaking

The second year students have been cutting, stitching and glueing away during this more advanced bookmaking workshop. After having constructed pamphlets, concertina booklets and perfect bound books, they are now mastering the hard-back!

Talk by Robert Sae-Heng

UCA Illustration graduate Robert Sae-Heng spoke to the 3rd year illustrators about professional life after college and self-promotion. Robert's work can be found in many different formats, including books, magazines, murals, cards and wrapping paper.

His advice to current students:

Check more of Robert's amazing drawings at http://robertsae-heng.co.uk

Recent Graduate - Natalie Charles

Well done to last year's Illustration graduate Natalie Charles for being part of Screentest 2014 Festival!

Natalie's film has been selected for the 10th annual festival which takes place in the London South Bank University between the 21st and 23rd of March.

The narrative unravels in a North London townhouse, rented to immigrants that had difficulty finding housing.

Paris Trip 2013

At the end of November the Illustration course organised its annual trip to Paris and the fantastic Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse. There were three floors of amazing books from a wide range of publishers, small collectives and bigger publishers alike. Many of the illustrators and writers were there, a great opportunity to have a chat and get books signed. 

We had some pretty tasty dishes and walked into tiny shops full of amazing food packaging and tins.

On our third day we visited the Pompidou Centre, where a really inspiring drawing exhibition from the Florence and Daniel Guerlain collection was on.

...and finally had a brisk walk through the Paris markets!

Steven Appleby Talk

It's been a pleasure to have Steven Appleby in the studio for an amazing talk about his varied practice. We were very lucky to see some of  his original artwork for newspapers such as the Guardian and excerpts of animated films and series, as well as listen to a radio show for the BBC! 

He's been really kind to bring a wide selection of his published books but also some of his earlier projects which gave us an exciting peek into a very prolific illustrator's carreer.

The Moral theatre

Really varied and imaginative work from Year 1 who constructed 3d models to tell a story. 

The adaptations were based on a selection of fables and it was great to see the students tackling the idea of illustration in a three-dimentional context. We saw some good paper-engineering and model making and some pretty impressive dioramas. Well done everyone!