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Before Syracuse University, Bernard Lee only knew illustration as the art on books covers. After taking courses at SU, he learned it ranged from editorial illustration for newspapers to advertising and movie posters.

“Once I realized that those were things that people did with artwork, that really started to take my interest,” Lee said. “Then in college, I learned that it was a matter of communicating visually.”

The award-winning freelance illustrator will speak virtually on April 8 as one of the speakers for SU’s Visiting Artist Lecture series. The SU alumnus creates illustrations for publishing, editorial and entertainment industries and his work has earned prestigious art awards.

As a freelance illustrator, Lee creates 20 to 30 pieces a year. Lee produces oil paintings and enjoys using bright colors. The subject matter of his pieces generally are historical folklore, fantasy or historical events, and some of his clients include Vice Magazine, The New York Times and Variety Magazine.

Growing up in Southern California, Lee became interested in art from drawing objects such as cups and fruit during his free time. He applied to art schools after recognizing his talent and realizing liberal arts subjects did not academically inspire him.

Lee also creates oil paintings like “The Healing Pond.”Courtesy of Bernard Lee

But it wasn’t until he came to SU that he started to view art as a potential profession.

Lee’s mindset about the profession changed during his freshman year when he took a “Drawing for Illustration” course with professor Richard Williams. The course challenged his technical ability when it came to drawing and taught him the real purpose of illustration.

Williams also served as a role model for Lee during his freshman year and provided Lee with a level of criticism of his work that motivated him to improve as an artist.

“It’s very common with art students where it’s very easy to be the best artist in the room. A lot of people tend to kind of rest on that, and not really be motivated to improve. And then this person really came in and pushed me really hard to try different things. And I started to really understand it and enter the process of getting better,” Lee said.

Lee also took illustration courses from former SU professor Roger De Muth during his senior year. De Muth said Lee’s clients and portfolio prove he’s become successful in the art industry, which requires persistence since there are limited job opportunities.

“He was a talented kid, but that’s only part of the equation. It’s the drive, it’s the persistence, it’s not getting discouraged when a job falls through,” he said. “He certainly jumped over the barriers and fought his way to continue doing the best work he could.”

After post-graduation freelance work and an internship in New York City, Lee worked as an art director for the magazine Scientific American for over five years. He was partially responsible for hiring illustrators and working with them to create images to accompany stories in the magazine. It was there he learned how an illustrator should present themselves in the workforce and what types of behaviors to emulate.

Michael Mrak, an SU alumnus and Lee’s former boss at Scientific American, would also hire Lee to do illustrations. He asked Lee to do an illustration of an ecosystem on the seafloor for the magazine, which now hangs in his son’s room as his favorite painting. He said Lee is a hard worker and enjoyed working as an art director while also designing illustrations on the side.

“Chinese Chess” is one of Lee’s drawings. The freelance illustrator makes approximately 20 to 30 pieces a year. Courtesy of Bernard Lee

“I felt like he was very personable. He knew what he was doing. He was smart. And he communicated well, so I appreciated the fact that he could step into that role pretty easily without too much challenge,” he said.

After a few illustration jobs at Scientific American, Lee left the magazine and started his own illustration business because his position as an art director was not as challenging as he wanted it to be.

“Not to say that art direction isn’t doesn’t provide its own challenges, but I just felt like illustration was going to be the greater challenge,” he said.

Lee likes using illustration to learn more about history and reads many books about history for inspiration for his designs. He said style isn’t as relevant as the message of the piece because the message component is what makes the work personal to the artist.

As a professor at Fullerton College since 2018, Lee stresses to his students that artists’ messages come from their lived experiences, opinions and interests.

“You can take two people who paint very similarly. But they have different opinions, they have different life experiences, interests and whatnot,” he said. “And so their work might look similar on a surface level, but what they’re painting about and the stories and ideas they’re communicating can be completely different.”

His favorite part about teaching is when students overcome misconceptions about drawing and painting, and start to fully understand the practices after he breaks them down into simpler steps.

Lee’s goal as an artist for viewers to understand as much as possible what he tries to communicate. He said he doesn’t expect viewers to understand all the ideas in his piece because artwork has many layers that only the artist knows about.

“That’s why every piece has a personal component to it, because there are ideas in each piece. I would be shocked if somebody said they understood it completely. Because it is very personal,” he said. “But if they could get even 50% of what I’m trying to communicate then I think that’s successful.”

Published on April 6, 2021 at 11:10 pm

Contact Abby: akweiss@syr.edu | @abbyweiss_21