Teaching – RUSSELL NELSON

Images from class

About nine years ago as I was settling in as chair for the art department, I realized I wasn’t getting much done creatively. Other than a few freelance book cover designs, I was not producing at a level I wanted. My gouache technique was too time intensive for the time I had available. Fortunately, muchContinue reading “Images from class”

Design article

I came across a good article on design in Wired magazine. Here’s the link. Putting it on my website/blog for future class reference.

Demo Birds

In the last few years, I have been using birds as subject matter for quick watercolor demonstrations in the illustration class I teach. The illustrations are typically around 8 x 10 inches in size and completed in a two-hour class period. I always appreciated watching someone work on and complete artwork. I try to showContinue reading “Demo Birds”

Big lives

This illustration was a technique demo for my illustration class. I like doing faces for this technique. It typically yields positive results for the students. I found and chose an image of Del Corning, a distant great uncle. I liked his moustache and the photo had strong lighting which helps in this illustration technique. My paternalContinue reading “Big lives”

The Delphi Chronicles

The Delphi Chronicles is a faux pulp fiction cover based on an actual close encounter incident that took place in Delphos, Kansas in the early 1970’s. This was prior to the Spielberg movie being released. Good story, Google it. I even saw it featured once on a History channel show about UFO encounters. I createdContinue reading “The Delphi Chronicles”

Finger story

These two digital illustrations were inspired by student speculation as to how I lost my ring finger. There were multiple stories circulating around the art department. My favorite Involved a paper cutter and another student. Also at the time, several students were attempting to develop their skills in graphic novel artwork and I thought thisContinue reading “Finger story”