Daniel Ortiz, a senior illustration major from Aurora has won a $1,000 Drinkling Moving Image Award and been accepted into the 2020 Society of Illustrators Student Competition.
Kimberly Masters, professor of illustration at NIU said that Ortiz is one of only 23 to win an illustration award of any size. “This competition is very competitive,” she said. “There were 2,278 students that entered form 74 schools. Typically the accepted work hangs in the Museum of Illustration in New York City, but this year due to COVID-19 the exhibition will be completely online.”
Ortiz’s work, titled “Life Sentence,” was created before the pandemic, and carries added poignance now.
“The piece was based on an article assignment I had for my advanced illustration class,” Ortiz said. “The article was about the unjust and harsh life sentences that Inmates are still facing today from minor drug possessions laws enacted during the Reagan administration’s harsh no tolerance of narcotics. Even though the laws today are somewhat more relaxed, the laws keeping inmates imprisoned for life sentences have not moved an inch. From the beginning I knew that I wanted to make a gif to further illustrate the severity of time, time which inmates facing these minor charges shouldn’t morally be held in anymore, as well as the time its taking the Department of Justice to make a changes in our laws.”
Ortiz said “Life Sentence” began as a sketch.
“While on the faze I was having trouble with the foreshortening aspect of the figure, so I took reference photos to capture key frame images of subtle movements in the arm as it foreshortens. Following all the hand drawn key frames I put scanned the drawings into Photoshop and began the arduous task of drawing the in-betweens frames, to replicate fluid movement. After all this was done I edited the raw animation in Premiere to make a fluid loop of the time as it progressed.”
Ortiz transferred to the NIU School of Art and Design from Waubonsee Community College and is a graduate of East Aurora High School. He says his goal is to become a freelance advertisement illustrator and dabble in article illustration.
“But my dream is to be a self-sufficient artist and own a brick and mortar shop,” he said. “So I can further promote or sell art in my hometown.”
The Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition online exhibition will debut May 5 and run through June 13.
Every year since 1981 the Society has held the Student Scholarship Competition. Over three hundred works are chosen from more than 8,700 entries submitted by professors of college-level students nationwide. In a competition which can kick start a career, students bring their most sophisticated, well-crafted and original work to be tested. A jury of professional peers, including illustrators and art directors, selects the most outstanding works created throughout the year. Pieces are accepted based on the quality of technique, concept and skill of medium used.
From the society’s endowment, generous contributions from private and corporate donors, and proceeds from an annual auction of member-donated artworks, scholarship awards are granted to about 25 students whose work is deemed the best of the best.
