OUT IN THE WOODS

December 6th, 2011 § 4 Comments

“Out in the woods it’s sad how grossly misunderstood we are.”

Click to view the piece a bit larger at my website.

“Out in the Woods” by Birds & Batteries is a pretty great song, and it was stuck in my head the other day… so I just ran with it and did a painting. And It came out pretty nice, I think! I love hand-lettering things, even when I’m not that great at it.

One of my former professors, Dugald Stermer, recently passed away. He was a masterful illustrator who gave both his art and his students immense amounts of care and patience. One of my fondest memories from my time at school is how Dugald and I would butt heads over the fact that I insisted on hand-lettering my work in his poster design class. He was of the opinion that that hand-lettering (and he was an expert at it) should be done only with the utmost attention to detail and precision, while I was a bit more… lackadaisical. I was over-the-moon thrilled the day I came in with a hand-lettered piece which he deemed “okay.”

I struggled in the two classes I took with Dugald, and he was one of my most honest critics. But that just made me trust him even more when he told me he thought that, with enough perseverance, I could make it as an illustrator.

I won’t pretend I knew much about him (for instance, his intense political activism), but for the short amount of time I knew him, he was one of my most staunch supporters, and dearest teachers. He will be missed, not just by me, but by the entire CCA Illustration community.

Dugald’s work can be seen here.