We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Madeleine Blakely a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Madeleine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I never went to visual art school. I am entirely self taught, but I think going to music school gave me the tools I needed to teach myself visual arts.

In music school you learn how to break pieces down into their individual components, how to create a disciplined practice regimen, how to research and create depth in your craft, and resilience against rejection. All of these things have absolutely translated in my self education in visual art and illustration.

When I started really teaching myself four years ago, the first the I did was research. I found resources on how to draw, on how to run a business, on the tools needed. My ability to research and locate good resources was crucial to learning for me.

I was able to set up a practice/work schedule that works for me. The discipline from music school helped me to show up daily to practice and learn.

Most valuable is I think the ability to break down pieces into their component parts. I do not enjoy doing studies, so I try instead to use each of my pieces as a study. I do thumbnails, I create movement studies for the scene, and I try to learn something new every time. For some pieces I focus on texture, some I focus on color theory and sometimes I just focus on finishing.

Resilience against rejection and failure is also key. It’s so important to keep showing up, even if you feel like you aren’t moving the needle. The first step to being good at something is being bad at it. And the only way to get better is failure. My process of learning my craft has been one of trial and error. And I always learn more from the errors than I do the successes.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a 30 year old self-taught artist from the Southern United States. I have lived in Arkansas, Mississippi, and now live in Memphis, TN. I have a husband of six years, an incredible stepdaughter who also loves art, and a big orange cat named Enkidu (named after the wild man turned best friend of Gilgamesh in the Epic of Gilgamesh). I have drawn my whole life, starting very young, but I didn’t start pursuing an career as a visual artist until about 4 years ago, after some soul searching and an undergraduate degree in Voice Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi. I found in a degree in music that the part of music I loved was not performing, or rehearsals, or even the music necessarily, but rather I loved sitting alone in a practice room and breaking things apart and putting them back together. I have brought that love of process to my art. In illustrating I have picked a career where 90% of what I do is sit alone in a room and create.

I work in primarily in colored pencils. I like to think about them like oil paints, but with more control. I utilize layers and layers of pigment to bring out vibrant, solid colors in my illustrations. I love the textures I can create with pencils, and the precision that the tool gives me. In addition to more standard children’s illustrations, I create themed letters and alphabets. My first fully illustrated themed alphabet I am completing this year. The “Monstrous Alphabet” is made up of 26 individually illustrated letters, plus several symbols, Each letter has it’s own color palette and monster associated with it. They are all unique and all connected by the “monstrous” theme. I like to use all of the works I make as learning opportunities. I think of them as etudes. With the “Monstrous Alphabet” my goal was to create an alphabet through which i could practice textures and try new color palettes. I offer prints of the alphabet and other illustrations via my shop on my website madeleineillustrated.com. In March I will also start offering custom names with the “Monstrous Alphabet”, posters of the alphabet, and stickers, as well as prints of my other illustrations. I also create entirely custom colored pencil letters.

I am very much at the start of my career, and I’m so excited to see where it takes me. My first published book with an author will be coming out this year -“The Little Boy Who Followed the Light” by J. R. Evans- and I’m so excited to have the project under my belt. I have learned so much from working with this incredible author and collaborator. And I’m so excited to illustrate more books in the future. I am passionate about helping to bring stories to life with magical and mythical elements, and stories about unconventional families and stories, and the more difficult parts of life.

More than anything I want to continue to create art for peoples homes. I love creating art that families can connect to and have on their shelves in book form and walls. I want to create art that children are excited to have in their rooms and feel connected to. I love making custom letters that I know can be special to someone for their entire lives and that can be passed down. I create coloring pages of each of my letters and illustrations because I want my audience to be actively engaged in my work. I always make sure that with every print sale, or custom letter or illustration I send a coloring page with it. I hope that this engages especially my younger audience and makes them feel like part of the creative process.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

For me, the biggest lesson I had to unlearn was wrapping up my entire identity in my art. I feel that in both the art and music world there is a lot of messaging saying that your creative life should be your WHOLE life. That your value lies in what you create.

I have not found this to be true. While I love creating, and it is definitely part of who I am, it was not until I decided that it wouldn’t be my whole identity that I really started making creative progress. Our lives outside of what we create and our careers are meant to support each other, not weed each other out. I get so much inspiration from the life I live and my art is better for taking time off and having value in myself outside of it, not worse.

Work life balance is so important. Especially in the creative industries.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I have three books that I always come back to:

Nicolaides “The Natural Way to Draw”
Whenever I am feeling stale, the exercises in this book always bring me back to the basics in an incredibly refreshing way. I can always use the exercises in this book towards whatever illustration I am creating.

“What they didn’t teach you in art School” by Will Terry
This is an exceptional book for aspiring illustrators. It has EVERYTHING, including but not limited to, how to reach out to clients, contracts, pricing, how to find and agent, and how to make art you love. It’s an incredibly put together book, and I would have been lost without it.

“Picture This; How Pictures Work” by Molly Bang.
This book is so simple and so effective. It teaches composition so effectively and it’s such a quick read.

Finally the Neil Gaiman “Make Good Art” speech is in so many ways my guiding star. Whenever I am at a loss for what to do next, I think about what brings me closer to making good art and I follow that. This speech reminds me that art is a process and a journey and the final destination is just more creating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.madeleineillustrated.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeleineillustrated/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madeleineillustrated
• Other: https://www.threads.net/@madeleineillustrated