Capilano Courier gives IDEA students the opportunity to hone their craft and showcase their art
James Neufeld
The Capilano Courier, Capilano University’s newspaper, has a longstanding tradition of working with students and alumni including IDEA School of Design students who get paid for spot illustrations and covers.
Alison Johnstone (IDEA21) recently illustrated for Naked and Not Afraid: Woman is a Word in the October 24, 2018 issue written by columnist Scarlett Vanderwoodsen.
by Alison Johnstone (IDEA21)
First I receive an e-mail from Cynthia Tran Vo (IDEA19), Art Director at Capilano Courier and fourth year IDEA student, who provides me with a description of dimensions, what column it is for, and what the story is about.
Sometimes I get the full story but sometimes it hasn’t yet been finished by the writer. Once I’ve got a description of the story in my head I start writing down words that relate to the subject. For example, I received a story about burlesque dancing so I started with words like “flashy”, “sultry”, and “feminine”.
I then started sketching out ideas. I started with a feather headpiece, then transitioned to female figures (shown below).
My final piece (shown above) consisted of a woman wearing a bikini-like outfit holding large burlesque feathers.
Overall I have a blast working on these spot illustrations.