Illustration as Inquiry: Studio-Based Learning and Real-World Collaboration

“I ask every student on the first day: How hard do you want to be pushed?”

Case Study

In her studio and art history classrooms at LaGuardia Community College, Professor Jessica Boehman brings a unique blend of professional expertise and pedagogical vision to life. As a practicing illustrator and art historian, Boehman approaches HIPs through the lens of real-world readiness, collaboration, and experiential learning. “These are not just ‘learn to draw’ classes. These are ‘learn how to work’ classes.” Her approach reflects a deep commitment to preparing students for success beyond the classroom, while also reimagining the possibilities of teaching and learning within the studio environment.

A longtime champion of ePortfolio, Boehman has built courses that integrate process documentation and digital presentation focused on a student’s evolving digital identity as an artist. In her illustration classes, many of which serve as ePortfolio deposit courses, students reflect on their creative process in blog-style entries, refine their artist statements, and develop professional portfolios they can share with clients. They also learn how to scan, color-correct, crop, and present their work with technical polish. “We would take the First Year Seminar portfolio I designed for Fine Arts and edit it down so that what they were left with was something they could show to the outside world.”

Before the pandemic, Boehman’s approach to ePortfolio was intensive and highly individualized. She devoted one-on-one time to helping students scan artwork, master Photoshop, and build outward-facing portfolios. But when teaching shifted online, she had to adapt. “I just couldn’t do it remotely. I don’t have a studio hour, and everything I used to do in person, helping them scan, teaching them to edit, had to be scaled back.” Despite these constraints, Boehman continued modeling best practices through class portfolios and a detailed class website, which provides students with structured, visually engaging materials: learning objectives, vocabulary, extra links, homework reminders, and recorded lectures.

Boehman’s use of collaborative assignments and real-world simulations brings HIPs into even sharper focus. In her Illustration and Graphic Narrative courses, she sets the tone by saying: “I’m not your teacher; I’m your editor.” This reframing of classroom roles encourages students to treat feedback seriously and recognize the professional standards of the field. “Illustrators are always working with an art editor, or an author, or an agent. I’m training them to work in a way that’s collaborative.” Students practice receiving and incorporating feedback from her as they would from future clients, learning how to balance creative voice with technical and editorial expectations.

One of the most innovative projects in Boehman’s portfolio is her collaboration with Professor Preethi Radhakrishnan and LaGuardia’s Urban Farm, La Florecita. In a botanical illustration project, students catalog crops grown on campus, creating professional-grade illustrations that can be used for seed packets and educational materials. The work is rooted in observation, research, and purpose. “The students didn’t even know the farm existed, but they got to go, observe real things, and work with real clients. It surprised me that many said this was their favorite assignment.” The project laid the foundation for an OER textbook Boehman is building with students, who serve as paid contributors and co-authors.

This OER effort exemplifies what Boehman calls “teaching through doing.” Students not only illustrate the textbook but provide feedback on its usability and clarity. “They’re the audience, so I want their input. They’re getting paid little, but they get to list this on their resumes and link to it as co-contributors to a published resource.”

For Boehman, these practices are more than pedagogy, they are a response to institutional and disciplinary gaps. “When I was in college, no one taught me this. My job is not to make them draw like me. It’s to help them draw like themselves, at their best.” Her studio classes are built on relationships and individualized feedback. She begins each semester by asking students, “How hard do you want to be pushed?” and adapts her coaching accordingly. “Even the students who say they can’t handle it, I push them too. Gently. I become the big person in their corner.”

While she finds this work deeply rewarding, Boehman is candid about the structural barriers she faces. “We don’t have the resources we need. When I started, we didn’t even have scanners or cameras. If we’re going to teach them, we should be able to teach them right.” She has secured small grants for essential tools, but much of the innovation in her classroom is driven by creativity and necessity. “I’ve applied to CUNY Arts and other grants and have been turned down. We just don’t have enough.”

Despite the challenges, Boehman remains committed to fostering spaces where students engage deeply, reflect authentically, and prepare meaningfully for the world beyond LaGuardia. “I want this education to be useful, and I want it to be exciting, for them and for me. Because when we’re excited about our work, they are too.”

Her work offers a model of HIPs not just as discrete strategies, but as an integrated, human-centered philosophy of teaching, one where students learn not only how to make art, but how to make a life with it.

Courses Targeting High Impact Practices

• HUA185: Illustration
• HUA215: Italian Renaissance Art
• HUA214 History of Illustration

Other High Impact Practices Used

• ePortfolios
• Diversity and Global Learning

About

Dr. Boehman is a professor of Art History and Fine Art at LaGuardia Community College. She teaches primarily art history courses, as that is her field of specialization, but is also a practicing illustrator, and as such teaches all of the illustration classes at LaGuardia, as well.