Mary Jane Begin

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As an award-winning illustrator and author of children’s picture books, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and professor in the Illustration Department at RISD…Mary Jane feels INCREDIBLY lucky; she gets to do all the things that she loves to do. But in truth: luck + hard work + passion were and are the main ingredients for where she’s at now. It’s one of the reasons that she became the Internship + Professional Development Advisor for her department; she sees it as a way to help students get a running start into the professional realm, to open a doorway and give guidance into an unknown world. As an illustrator, she’s been able to explore painting and color with clients like Hasbro. Her latest books, My Little Pony, Under the Sparkling Sea and MLP, The Dragons on Dazzle Island were a collaboration between Hasbro and Little Brown and Company. She’s worked with Celestial Seasonings, Mead Johnson and Disney, and has received awards from the Society of Illustrators, multiple Awards of Excellence from Communications Arts, the Irma Simonton Black Award, and the Critici Erba Prize at the Bologna Book Fair. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the country with one- woman shows at Books of Wonder Gallery in New York and Beverly Hills, at the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, the RISD Museum, Society of Illustrators (NY), The DeCordova Museum, and Storyopolis in LA.

2,000+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

Mary Jane Begin

Classes

Getting Started with Colored and Graphite Pencils

Getting Started with Pastels

Getting Started with Pen, Ink & Markers

Getting Started with Charcoal & Chalks

Getting Started with Oil Paints

Getting Started with Acrylic Paints

Getting Started with Watercolor & Gouache Paints

Developing Characters, Environments, and Story Boards

Exploring Color and Composition

Color Fundamentals

Illustrating Characters and the Stories They Tell