c. billadeau

I’m not dead yet!

I had planned on doing a series of these this summer, but due to various time-sucking commitments, this was the only one that came to pass. I re-discovered it again while sifting through papers and was reminded of what simple happiness it brings me to draw and paint tiny fancy houses.

So there will be more.

See, this is what happens when you date a designer. All you have to do is bat your eyes and BAM! pro-bono design work.

Can’t say that I didn’t have an assload of fun doing this, though. The only guideline I had in mind while making this was simply, “Make it fancy as fuck.”

And fancy it is. ‘Being classy’ is a skill you just can’t make up, you guys. It’s going on my resumé.

My graduation show is finally up! If you’re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, head over to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design this week to see all the senior work up on the walls (and on the floors, and hanging from the ceilings…). The commencement reception itself is May 7th, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm, so drop by! (Free food!)

It’s pretty amazing to walk through these walls and see my fellow illustration classmates’ works and how some of them have so drastically improved over the four years I’ve been familiar with their work. (And, of course, as soon as I think that, the overwhelming anxiety of the fact that I will be competeing with all of this talent crashes in. Ahhh!) If it’s any credit to my college and its design program, there’s kids here that I wasn’t sure if they would ever graduate who have fleshed out into full-blown illustrators after something awoke their talents and motivation here.

I think about how far my own work has come, due largely to the support of my classmates and my amazing professors. And I realize that I owe these people so much for everything that I am, that I can’t afford to fail them.

So, deep breath. And… go.

Additionally, here is the finished image from the last post:

Or, well, ‘finished’ for now. I intend to come back to it when I find some free time this summer. Got a little more monochromatic than I wanted it to.

A quick process check-in at three AM. Can you tell it’s finals week?

Seeing as I have about five hours to finish this before it goes to print, there’s going to be a quick turn-around as far as getting the final image up here.

As I’m graduating in exactly a week, I have been scrambling to get all the loose ends tied up. This is one of them–it’s the last image for my senior show. The problem is, I didn’t have any proper illustration courses this semester, which is a terrible idea in retrospect and I don’t recommend it for anyone majoring in illustration. I feel rusty and it’s taken far too much time because of that. And I’ve missed this dearly. I had to shove illustration aside to pick up miscellaneous credits to finish my illustration degree this semster, which, yes–it makes absolutely no sense.

A good friend of mine once told me, “Make time for the things you love.”
I’ve struggled to find time for what I love between all the nonsense work for filler courses I am not interested in–and I absolutely hate putting my life on the back burner for things like that.

Don’t get me wrong, I deeply treasure my time at MCAD and I would not be anywhere near where I am right now without everything I’ve experienced here. But boy am I ready to be done with jumping hoops for academia.

I’m not dead, I swear.

I am currently interning at a letterpress studio in Saint Paul–this one, to be specific–and it’s been a particularly fabulous experience so far. I’ve been struggling to adapt my work to the medium of letterpress (and the size of the press itself!), but I’m slowly getting the hang of it, I think. Here’s the final sketch of an illustration for a wedding invite that we’ll be working with in the next few weeks. Brian (the owner) approached me with the idea to make a map of Minnesota. I ended up drawing a bunch of animals and plant life and a couple of more specific things that were Minnesotan in flavor; I rolled out this sketch after messing around with the layout in Photoshop.

And while ‘_____ on a stick’ and ‘can of SPAM’ were some of the first things that came to mind, I had to stick with things that would read quickly, not to mention at a 5×7 size. Also, I am not sure how popular SPAM is with brides-to-be.

More posts to come–my workload is quickly picking up, as graduation is only two months away. TWO MONTHS AGGHHH. In the meantime, I’m trying to find more ‘filler’ topics to write about here in lieu of being able to show you guys anything and I hope to reboot the ‘today i was inspired‘ tumblr in the next week or so, because I keep forgetting how important it is to my work to constantly surround myself with talent and greatness.

Long time, no post!

I’ve technically been on a bit of a break for the holidays, which I decided to treat as, y’know, a break–spent a lot of it with friends and family and a very sweet boy. But I have announcements to make and a couple of pieces I somehow forgot to post for you, internet!

A) “Lost At Sea” will be featured on-line in Creative Quarterly 22.

B) Not zero, not just one, but FOUR of my pieces made it into Illustration West 49! “Lost At Sea” and “Midwestern Winter” will be heading out to Los Angeles to the legendary Gallery Nucleus for the exhibition coming up in a couple of weeks; the opening is on January 21st.
If you’re in town, please check it out! There is also a high chance I will be out there for the opening; I’d love to meet you guys!

C) A whole new piece of mine will be featured in a Minneapolis poster exhibition this spring. More details on this coming soon, once the show is officially announced next week.

And now for the art:

If you recall from some previous posts, I was working on a children’s book based on a Russian gypsy folktale. Here’s the fruits of that labor–a couple of final spreads.

Also, I guess I additionally forgot to mention that I updated my portfolio site; everything on there is up to date as of last week.

An image and excerpt from this children’s book I’m working on.

“INSIDE, Vaida knew his tribe had nothing to be afraid of.
It was not them who the night bird was after.
His family was gone; thoughts of VENGEANCE burned in his heart.
But the chieftain knew the shadow would return
unless he stopped the cycle from repeating
AGAIN AND AGAIN.”

Fashion illustration, in two flavors!
I had originally intended this to be a play off of the ever-popular Red Riding Hood folktale, but it ended up needing to be in lighter and cooler colors, so the red just wasn’t going to cut it this time.

Dress is based loosely off of a dress from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute (as found by the fabulous Defunct Fashion).

I’m in a children’s book class this semester; while the whole thing has been an adventure in of itself, writing and drafting out an entire 32-page book in a matter of a few weeks was a bit terrifying. I made it easier on myself by working with a pre-existing Romany folktale, but even then I had to rewrite and edit and format it–anyway, y’all get what I’m saying.

In any case, at least I am not illustrating all the spreads before the end of the semester!

Here’s the title page at about 80% completion; most of what’s left is tweaking details. Figure I would post something more interesting than the usual greyscale study–although I find myself becoming attached to my greyscales lately, moreso than the final colors. Problematic!

Ah, it’s that fateful time of year again.

I’m working on multiple projects right now, one of which is a series, so expect a few more of these updates this week!