Featured Artists (14)

Illustration by Michael Fudge, Jr.

Testimonial from Michael R. Fudge, Jr.

"I've been working as a freelance illustrator for many years. Throughout the years, Strathmore is the brand I trust for quality and dependability.

I currently work as a comic book artist for a graphic novel at Heroes Fallen Studio.  Strathmore's sequential art boards in 200, 400 and 500 series have held their own over the many pages of my work. However, recently I discovered Strathmore 500 Series Illustration Board for Wet Media while working on my independent commissions and my illustration novel.  This 500 Series board is hands down the best I've ever used. The ink goes on smooth, black as night. Acrylics (watered down or thick) go across easily, displaying magnificent colors. Watercolor never looks so real.

Pigma Micron Pens don't buckle the surface, even after millions of fine strokes. But what tops it off is the color I achieve when using Copic Markers -- smooth vivid tones that look as if I used watercolor and airbrush. It is everything that I've been looking for in one surface. The Illustration Board for Wet Media is the only board I now use for my illustrated novel, commission projects and personal art. I doubt there is any other board out there that can do what this board can do. Just another reason why I will always use Strathmore..."

About Michael R. Fudge, Jr.:

Michael R Fudge, Jr. currently lives in the lost terrain of Kansas. After spending 14 years in the Marines and Army including multiple tours to Iraq, Michael now works as a freelance illustrator for Distorted Black Studio. His media ranges from pen & ink, watercolor, acrylic, marker, pencil and colored pencil. He is currently writing and illustrating a children's book which is to be released next year.

Thanks, Michael! Those of us at Strathmore Artist Papers appreciate your loyalty and kind words about our products!

Photo courtesy of SCAD. Left to right: Rovan Yu, Bridgette Blanton, Xavier Robles de Medina, professor John Rise, Chieh-Yu Lee and Caitlin Geels.

The artwork of SCAD foundation studies students was selected to be featured on the new covers of Strathmore 300 Series Fine Art Pads. Bridgette Blanton, Caitlin Geels, Chieh-Yu Lee, Xavier Robles de Medina and Rovan Yu artwork is displayed on more than 70 different Strathmore products. In addition, recent SCAD graduate Logan Childress is featured on Strathmore's new 300 Series Mixed Media pad.

Foundation studies professor John Rise led the group of SCAD students in the collaboration with Strathmore to create a variety of classic still life images representative of artwork created in foundation-level college art classes.

"The still life study is an essential and historical tradition for artists, making it the perfect subject to represent our 300 Series Fine Art Pads," said Strathmore Artist Papers^_TM marketing manager Sue List.  "And, it is likely that no artist is more familiar with still life art than a college art student. Each of the students exceeded our expectations in regards to responsiveness, professionalism and the quality of their submissions."

The new pad covers began shipping to fine art stores in May 2011. In addition to being featured on pad covers, the students' work will appear on Strathmore Artist Papers website and in variety of other marketing materials.

See their artwork and meet the artists

Journal Page from Instructor Linda Blinn

By Visual Journal Instructor Linda Blinn

Once you start a visual journal you will see the possibilities for individual journals that focus on one topic: for instance, a color journal. Any size of Strathmore Visual Journals with watercolor or mixed media paper provides a perfect format for mixing and testing colors and creating color combinations for future projects.

Other topics for journals include those that focus on the kitchen or the outdoors.

Kitchen Journal
A kitchen is often the most interactive area of a home and keeping a kitchen journal enables you to record the rituals of daily life. Capture life in small details: a sketch of a chair, a graphic label from a bottle of olive oil or a family recipe.

Nature Journal
This fosters quiet introspection as you slow down to observe the subtleties outside. Watercolor, sketching, leaf printing, pressing flowers and collecting stones, shells, pods and moss result in beautiful tactile pages.

Linda Blinn is an instructor for our 2011 Visual Journal Online Workshop Series.

Journal Page by Linda Blinn

By Visual Journal Instructor Linda Blinn

Eye-catching art can be created using letters, fonts and words, and since journals are all about the words, you might as well turn them into art!
 
For inspiration, select Google Images link in Google search engine and search for “letterforms.”  You will see fabulous samples of what graphic artists do with this concept.

For the collage above, I made a grid background with vintage ephemera and used four different techniques for the letters which were then attached to the background with gel medium. Top left: transparent acrylic on a dictionary page top right: gel painted with acrylics bottom left: tissue paper covered with gel medium to stiffen, then painted with acrylics bottom right: page from a books painted with acrylics.

Linda Blinn is an instructor for our 2011 Visual Journal Online Workshop Series.

Featured artist in our Summer 2010 Artist eNewsletter.

Henry Pernell Johnson was born and raised in Cordele, Georgia, 1967. His goal is to nurture and cultivate the unique qualities of each person through his art work. As a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, he says teaching keeps the roots of his artistic skills watered. His life was shaped by his mother and father, Diane Flood and Henry Johnson. It is the up bringing which inspires his remarkable work. Although Pernell has termed himself “ordinary,” his ability to make the ordinary special through his art is extraordinary.

Pernell is a graduate of Crisp High, Cordele, GA. After high school he pursued a career in Art at The Art Institute of Atlanta where he earned an AA, Florida State University, BS and The Savannah College of Art and Design where he earned his Master of Fine Arts. He concentrated in illustration and graphic design. Although many of his pieces are graphic and illustration, he does not limit himself with subject matter. Pernell chooses subject matter that moves him personally. He dwells in the emotional bonds between an illustrator and his subjects, while leaving the image open to interpretation by those who view it. Henry Pernell Johnson is a Professor of Foundation Studies at Savannah College of Art & Design.

“I’m Here", Charcoal on 400 Series Drawing Paper

Featured artist in our Winter 2009 Artist eNewsletter.

William Rose’s studio is located in Prairie Village, Kansas, where he has been actively creating artwork for about 8 years. He stumbled across his passion for drawing quite unintentionally and soon began accepting a flurry of offers for commissioned portraits. Practically overnight he went from a person who thought stick-figures would be the grand extent of his artistic expression, to a professional fine artist creating portraits and figurative artwork in multiple mediums and being accepted into prestigious juried shows and competitions. “I wish everyone could experience such an extraordinary surprise – it changed my entire perspective on life and sent me down a new creative path I continue to travel today.”

William enrolled in life drawing courses at the Kansas City Art Institute, and began to study drawing and painting primarily by pouring through art instruction and history books, countless magazines, and visiting museums across the country to view the masters. During this time, he was appointed to the art committee for a major international corporation’s new world headquarters, which exposed him to a vast realm of art media and processes, assembling a remarkable collection of artwork by regional artists. Recently, he won a prestigious cover competition and his work appeared on the cover of American Artist Magazine. This national exposure led to a request to produce all of the artwork for a new movie just filmed in Carmel and backed by the Eastwoods about an art prodigy who gets pulled into the world of international art forgery. “Up until this past year, creating artwork had been an evening/weekend activity, but now I’ve taken the creative leap through the open window and transitioned to a career as a full-time artist.”