BYU Illustration students have had a successful semester. This winter, eleven pieces of artwork by eight BYU students were accepted into the Society of Illustrators 2013 Student Scholarship Competition. Of the pieces that were accepted, Hana Soljee Lee’s piece Jinxed (gel pens, digital) also received the $500 Norman Rockwell Museum scholarship.
For the Society of Illustrators Competition, professors from all over the nation submit more than 7,000 entries from their college-level students. From the submitted pieces, about 250 to 270 pieces are selected to be presented in a final exhibition in New York at the Museum of American Illustration. From this exhibition, about 25 artists are selected to receive scholarships. Lee was one of the 25 students to receive a scholarship. The competition is highly competitive and receiving a scholarship is a great honor. Lee was surprised and delighted to receive the scholarship. She explains that students routinely submit pieces into competitions and that she was not expecting that this particular piece would gain any recognition.
'Most illustration students regularly participate in various competitions because it is one of the best ways to get the most exposure in the market and a potential opportunity to get work,' says Lee. 'Our illustration faculty is very supportive and encourages students to participate in as many as we can. You hope to get in every time you submit your stuff, but you never have your hopes too high or rely on competitions too heavily because getting into competitions does not really prove your skills as an illustrator.'
Illustration students regularly prepare for multiple competitions at a time. In fact the inspiration for Hana Soljee Lee's piece entitled Jinxed was originally came while preparing for another competition that asked for illustrations about magical objects.
'I chose to illustrate a calabash bottle that holds demons and a jinx. I have an Asian cultural background, so I was familiar with the myths of a calabash bottle that holds crazy things in it,' says Lee. 'I also enjoy drawing little monsters, so the idea itself was not very unique but something that was natural to me.'
The piece was first drawn out in gel pens and then later transferred into a digital format.
'I like to use a rainbow of colors in my illustrations. Gel pens have a variety of unique, pretty colors and are easy to draw with,' says Lee. 'The drawbacks of gel pens are the unnecessarily expensive cost, the tendency to dry out fast and easily, and the trouble in getting the colors to translate well digitally or in print. I have stopped using gel pens because of the poor color translation. I use photoshop to get my colors correct now.'
The scholarship award will be presented to Hana Lee at the Opening Reception of the final exhibition on May 17, 2013. Visit the BYU Illustration website to view the eleven pieces of artwork that were accepted into the final exhibition.