Aaron Becker was born in Baltimore and attended Pomona College in Claremont, CA as well as Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He worked for 10 years in the film industry under the direction of Lucasfilm VP Doug Chiang. In 2013 his first wordless picture book for children, JOURNEY, appeared on The New York Times bestsellers list for more than 20 weeks. The book went on to receive a Caldecott Honor and New York Times Best Illustrated award for the year and was followed by QUEST (2014) and RETURN (2016).
Becker has now created more than 10 books for children, including the popular and acclaimed You Are Light board book and The Tree and the River, which has been shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration. His work has regularly shown in the Society of Illustrators’ annual Original Art show and has appeared in exhibits at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the Portsmouth Historical Society and the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.
He currently lives in Amherst, MA with his wife and two daughters.
Each of us are walking, talking, living stories. From the time we wake up in the morning to tell ourselves what our day will be like to the moment we remember who we've been and who we want to be, we are telling ourselves the stories of our life. Storytelling is a fundamental human act that crosses cultures, ages, ethnicities and genders. Artists often think in pictures, so this course will explore the act of storytelling through the exploration of the visuals in concert with the creation of the words. This course will start with an exercise in multiple iteration of character ideas, story development from the visual, and an investigation of additional characters who provide the foundation for environments and a series of illustrations for a story concept. Ideation, composition, color, discussion of media, style, format, expression of narrative and materials will be reviewed through lecture, guest lecturers in the field, and discussion-both individual and group centered. The format of the course will explore research, mood boards, character development, facial expressions, turn arounds, character interactions, asset creation, thumbnails, color studies and finished illustrations. The focus of the course will be a deep dive into stories that resonate and reflect idiosyncratic and personal interests expressed in any medium that best suits the storytelling.
One commonality amongst all illustrators is the ability to draw. This course builds on principles of traditional drawing, color theory, composition, and with a focus on observational drawing using digital tablet devices. Students will expand on techniques learned at the introductory level to broaden their use of digital mark making tools. Weekly classroom exercise in the first two-thirds of the semester range from careful studies of objects and figures in space, to capturing landscape settings; with the last third engaged in exploring painting from imagination. More involved homework assignments will challenge students to adapt previously acquired drawing skills translated into the digital medium. The main computer application to be used in the course is Photoshop, with an introduction to Painter toward the end of the semester. The goal of the class is to give students a strong foundation in digital painting that can be adapted to their future professional Illustration practice.
This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration majors.
