By Ezra Salkin
From May 5-29, the Society of Illustrators (SOI) 2010 Student Competition exhibition will be on display at the Museum of American Illustrators in New York City. Of SCAD’s 199 entries, seven made the cut. The students chosen are among the top in the country and have been chosen 6,200 entries from 80 schools.
From SCAD Savannah, the award-winning students are Erik Riley, Sam Connelly, Darion McCoy and Sam Spratt. Students chosen from SCAD Atlanta are Grant Hanna, Renee Rivas and Katrin Weihle.
How would you describe or define your style? What motivates you?
Sam Spratt: My style? I’m not sure I have one of those yet but my constants are a painted rendering of the form and a profound love of the details. Outside of some pretty amazing friends and family that have pushed me along, I would say the empowerment is what motivates me. The idea of having the potential to create literally anything definitely gives it all sense of purpose.
Erik Riley: I would describe my style as being dominated by an expressive line. Everything starts with a drawing and I always try to finish it as a drawing. It is very important to me to maintain a certain quality of line, which I’m still trying to perfect. I can’t paint, so even though colors are very important to me I want the drawing to communicate first. Limited color palettes always look best and there’s something that says timeless to me about aged paper. Elements of collage always find their way into my work, and I love the graphic quality of found images or materials like old postage stamps. Which are not really seen in the SOI works. I am motivated by the thought of using my creativity as a means to support myself. I enjoy personal success.
Who are your influences, either contemporary illustrators or past ones as well classical artists?
Spratt: Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Sebastian Kruger, Malcolm Liepke, Rembrandt and so many more.
Riley: I am old school but Egon Schiele, George Grosz, Ben Shan, Toulouse-Lautrec, Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Gorey, Maurice Sendak, Henry Darger. Ralph Steadman changed my life.
What specifically inspired your award-winning submission?
Spratt: The first oil portrait I ever did was of Ian McKellen and I did it near the end of my freshman year. Into my senior year I decided to see if I could use my college-found skill set to revisit my beginnings, so to speak.
Riley: I wanted to impress a girl in my class. We are now engaged.
Will you be attending the show in New York? Is this the first honor of this sort you’ve achieved?
Spratt: I fully plan on it and this honor was definitely a big deal for me. One of the nicest things about it was it got me out there just a little bit. The day after my piece got accepted I got featured in Lines and Colors [an illustration blog] and then 3×3 Magazine contacted me to give me a gallery on their site. It feels like a turning point.
Riley: Unfortunately, no, I cannot attend the show in New York as I do not have the means. Although it’s not quite as high of an honor, days before finding out about the SOI competition I won four SCADDY awards for several drawings I had recently completed. It was a good week.
What are your plans after school?
Spratt: Move to New York, set up shop, and do literally everything I can to make it happen. There are an awful lot of magazine covers and gallery walls begging to be filled and I plan on doing just that.
Riley: After I finish school, I plan on marrying my fiancée who motivates me and inspires me daily through her artwork and person. Then I plan on seeing how long it takes annoying an art director until they hire you for your talent.
