“First Stage’s collaboration with MIAD to create one-of-a-kind illustrations for each of our plays is one we look forward to each year.” Jennifer V. Hubbartt, Marketing and Public Relations Director, First Stage
For the fifth consecutive year, advanced students of Associate Professor Christiane Grauert’s Illustration IV class collaborated with First Stage to illustrate its 2015 – 2016 Season of Plays brochure.
This year’s plays include stories with recognizable characters like Charlie Brown and Little Critter, and illustrating for recognizable characters can be difficult. Students were challenged to create something that was familiar and nostalgic but still retained their unique artistic flair.
When Catelin Tindall ’16 began illustrating for “Just a Little Critter Musical,” she understood that sampling original source material would be important to creating recognizable illustrations. Tindall used line qualities and colors taken directly from past Little Critter illustrations and adapted them to create something that was uniquely hers.
Illustrating for unrecognizable characters but recognizable stories like “Ella Enchanted,” can be equally difficult. Typically, audience members or readers of “Ella Enchanted” are young girls, but Jade Schmidtke ’16 wanted her illustration to appeal to young boys, too. Instead of focusing her illustration exclusively on Ella or the love story that develops, Schmidtke decided to draw a mischievous looking ogre in the background that invites the viewer into Ella’s enchanted world.
Additional images by MIAD students representing First Stage’s 2015 – 2016 season will be on view at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center throughout the 2015 – 2016 season.
Students whose works were selected for the interior are:
- Faille Bloom ’16 (Illustration) – Holes
- Sara Burch ’16 (Industrial Design) – Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach; The Snow
- Monica Holzer ’16 (Illustration) – Spookley the Square Pumpkin
- Jade Schmidtke ’16 (Illustration) – Ella Enchanted
- Kelsey Sobotka ’15 (Communication Design) – A Charlie Brown Christmas; All’s Well That Ends Well
- Catelin Tindall ’16 (Illustration) – Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse; Just a Little Critter Musical
- Joy Underdahl ’16 (Illustration) – Antigone
Click here to read more about MIAD’s Illustration program.
Click here to read more about the 2014 – 2015 First Stage Season of Plays brochure.
Top image: Catelin Tindall ’16, “Just a Little Critter Musical”
Bottom image: Jade Schmidtke ’16, “Ella Enchanted”
