the da-da content approach

{Francis Picabia: Dada Movement, Via MoMA}

Modern art mythology contains a story of a group of artists looking for a name for their movement, in which absurdity and irreverent thought experiments were the order of the day. One member opened a dictionary and blindly pointed (some even say he stabbed it with a knife) at the word "Da-da" -- a French word for hobby horse. Thus was born Dadaism, a term Wikipedia claims would not even have been embraced by its practitioners. Alas. In this spirit of chance and play, I asked my sons to each give me three words, and then found articles that related to them. Find, below, your assignments for two spot illustrations. I'll send you, by email, your assigned number.
1 BEE

2 SANDWICH

3 BASKETBALL

4 BUZZ

5 MOON

6 BUILDING

Process, process, process.

Take a look at this detailed account of the process of illustrating for a big, high profile job by John Hendrix.

glueless collage

What?! No Mod Podge? Digital collage can be seamless or purposefully clunky, depending on your approach. Take note of these illustrators to see a quick sampling:

Elke Ehninger (image above)
Julie Blackmon
Marci Roth
Raoul Weiller
Marty Blake
Hanoch Piven
Ellen Weinstein
W.C. Burgard

Public Domain Images

welcome, class of sometime-soon

{Shroud of MJ-- Robert Hunt}
Ode to Illustration by Steven Heller.