volume one december 2017

MEGAZINE
welcome to
megazine
volume one
Portfolio websites are expensive. Portfolios in general are
so professional and so boring for what’s supposed to be cre-
ative and fun.

So I wanted to create a platform where I could showcase my

art under my own rules. I wanted something to show to my
friends, not companies.

MEGAZINE (get it?) will be a yearly magazine that comes

out every December. It’s basically a collection of all the
year’s work that gets wrapped up with a nice bow.

I figured with all the experimenting I’ve been doing this

past year, this new project would be a nice fit. Inside you’ll
find traditional art, photo edits, digital art, and stuff about
Never Go It Alone Productions. Then we’ll get all sappy
with a whole section dedicated to thank-you’s.

So go ahead and flip through, and I’ll talk with you again
towards the end of the magazine.

Never Go It Alone,

Billy Galant

2
Traditional art 4

photo edits 18

digital art 30

NGIA productions 44

thank you 60

in closing 76

3
4
traditional a
 “Loveheal” | Acrylic on canvas | 9x12

Paintings, marker drawings, ink drawings, and

art
some mixed media. This year was my first
time using mixed media and making large scale
pieces. We also explored themes that are a bit
darker than usual.
5
 turnstile you can only let so many
bad people into your life.
so be mindful of your
visitor count.

“Turnstile” | Copic pens on Strathmore paper | 18x24

6
7
 OMIGOSH!
OMIGOSH!
OMIGOSH!
OMIGOSH!
OMIGOSH!
OMIGOSH!
OMIGOSH!
OMIGOSH!
What? Shut up! No way! She did NOT. OMG.
I cannot even right now. Get out! Really?
How? You’re kidding. Please tell me you’re
joking. You’re lying, right? Stop! You are
so unreal right now it’s not even funny.

“Omigosh!” | Copic markers on Canson paper | 9x12

8
F E T I S H
“Fetish” | Copic markers on Canson paper | 9x12
“For You” | Copic markers on Canson paper | 9x12

for you 11
12
 fair
weather
friend
WHEN YOU’RE NO
LONGER GOOD,
THEY’RE GONE.

“Fair Weather Friend” | Copic pens on Canson paper | 9x12

13
season finale
“Season Finale” | Mixed media on Strathmore paper | 48x72

14
 speechkeeper

15
“Speechkeeper” | Mixed media on on canvas | 9x12
 “Wrecked” | Copic markers on Canson paper| 9x12
“Infinity Bedroom” | Copic markers on Canson paper| 9x12

“Rebelle Within” | Copic markers on Canson paper| 9x12 17

 photo edits
18
“A/V” | Feat. Ellie Hahn

A new medium for this year. Learned a lot more

about photography and had a lot of room to
experiment with these.
19
 the
head
and
the
hurt

“The Head and the Hurt” | Feat. Ashni Gandhi

20
#
 city limits
“City Limits” | Feat. Aya Bridgeland
22
 “The Intersection You Never Quite Left” | Feat. Cory Van Duyne

the intersection
you never quite lefT
24
“Prerogative” | Feat. Mother Nature
 25
“Unarmed Farmers” | Feat. Mother Nature
26
#
 Ain’t It Grand? (yes. the answer is yes.)

“Ain’t It Grand?” | Feat. Ashni Gandhi

27
 “Molotov At Your Feet” | Feat. Casey Van Duyne

“Sunset Highway” | Feat. Ellie Hahn

“Asset Foreiture” | Feat. Emma Sielaff

29
 digital art
30
#
“In Case You Were Wondering, The Answer is Yes”

Illustrator works (mostly Daily Illini graphics) and

some pixel stuff. Unfortunately lacking in the
“Forever Kids” department.

31
#
 V A C A

32
 “VACANCY”

A N C Y

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34
4,499
In storms,
I cry.
In deserts,
My throat stays dry.
In rapids,
I drown.
In blizzards,
My knees fall to the ground.

But I carry on,

For now is my time.

And I do it all for you,

My 4,499.

“4,499”
35
 Pizza FM Illustration | The Daily Illini
May The Fourth Illustration | The Daily Illini

36
 Alone Time Illustration| The Daily Illini Harry Styles Illustration| The Daily Illini

37
38
“Supermarket Funride”
Forever Dogs April Fool’s Joke

Left Page (top to bottom, left to right):

Trevor and Afreen’s Anniversary; Hanna’s
Birthday; Lily and Hannah’s Anniversary;
Dez and Tia’s Anniversary
39
 “Kids on the Beach”
40
41
42
“Year One Out Of Forever”
43
 NGIA PRODUCTION
44
#
NS Tried doing some more serious video work over
the summer. Here’s some behind-the-scenes
stuff on the animation and the two vlogs.
45
#
 worthwhile

“Worthwhile” was my first attempt at full-length animation.

Roughly 336 individual frames were made, and the animation
plays at 10 frames per second. The entire thing was animated
with Windows Movie Maker (yes, this was a pain).

The picture of Livia (right page) was taken in downtown Chi-

cago. The animation of the actual vines was done by creating
a to-scale foam replica of Livia’s torso, adding blue tape for
a blue screen effect, and then wrapping the vines around it.
The vines had a fan blowing on them the whole time, which
caused the random movement. The lighting was changed
manually every 3 frames by repositioning a lamp.

Overall, I was impressed that I managed to finish the project

to completion, but it could have used more variation.

Many thanks to Livia Sanders for being the main star and Else
for creating the song, Ambre, that plays in the animation.

If you have not yet watched “Worthwhile”, you can see it (and
other videos) at www.youtube.com/megamegatruck

46
 Source Image for “Worthwile”

47
48
 Source Images for Base Animation

49
 Various Frames
50
51
 vlog one ASHNI AND Billy
hit up strawberry
fest 2k17
First vlogging experience, and what better co-star to have
than my good pal Ashni Gandhi! So basically all we knew was
that we were going to go to Strawberry Fest in Long Grove,
Illinois, and that I was going to try vlogging for the first time.

I used Windows Movie Maker for the video editing, and Da-
Vinci Resolve for color grading.

Overall I actually really like how this vlog turned out, and it’s
one of my favorite things I’ve done this year.

There’s a few decent clips that were cut from the final vlog
though. There’s one where Ashni recounts the story of spill-
ing a samosa over herself (sorry, Ashni) and another that was
filmed right when we were about to leave, where Ashni and I
both say “friends forever”. That second clip is pretty near and
dear to me.

Thanks again to Ashni for joining me, and to Tyler Bates and
Tree Adams for composing the Californication theme song,
which plays in the video.

If you have not yet watched this vlog, you can see it (and other videos)
at www.youtube.com/megamegatruck

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 53
Instagram Promo For The Vlog
54
 55
Not Pictured: Strawberries
 vlog two
the bruvs visit
starved rock
The trip to Starved Rock was the day right after Strawberry
Fest, which made for a pretty entertaining weekend.

This time I was joined by my pals Austin Heinemann, Jona-

than Planman, Peter Niemiec, Sashaank Prathap, and my twin
brother Mark.

This vlog was also made using Windows Movie Maker and
DaVinci Resolve. I’d like to take this moment to both address
the concern of the vlog being “too green”, and address the
masterful video editing at the 0:29 mark where Austin’s clap
syncs up perfectly with the music. I’d like to think that the
good outweighs the bad here.

Thanks again to Austin, Jon, Peter, Sashaank and Mark for

joining me, and to Markus Captain Kaarlonen for composing
the “Space Debris (Spacesynth Remix), which plays in the
video.

If you have not yet watched this vlog, you can see it (and other videos)
at www.youtube.com/megamegatruck

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 57
Instagram Promo For The Vlog
58
 59
Bruv Things
 Thank you
60
Because none of this would be possible without
my friends, it’s time to drop the thank you’s. Get
ready for some grade-A sap.
61
 The stars
of Megazine
Before we go any deeper, let’s take
a moment to thank those that we’ve
seen so far.

62
In order of appearance:
Ellie Hahn*
Ashni Gandhi*
Aya Bridgeland
Cory Van Duyne*
Casey Van Duyne*
Emma Sielaff*
Trevor Sayre*
Afreen Di Khan
Hanna Cannell*
Lily Katz*
Hannah Auten*
Tia Mangahas
Dez Smith
Livia Sanders*
Austin Heinemann*
Jonathan Planman*
Sashaank Prathap*
Peter Niemiec*
Mark Galant

*denotes someone that will receive a bigger thank-you shortly

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 Ashni
Gandhi
Ashni, it’s so crazy to think that I’ve only met you this year
and already I feel like we’ve become best friends. I know I
told you this before, but you’ve really helped me a lot this
past summer.

You inspired me to make some amazing photo edits, try

my hand at vlogging, and create matching travel mugs. I’m
grateful that you’ve made such an impact on my life and the
lives of others.

I know you’ve been having an amazing time in Spain, and

I’m so proud of everything you’ve accomplished so far. I
can’t wait until I’m able to see you again and we can build
up a stockade of French crullers (which are probably my
favorite donut now, too).

Right Page (top to bottom, left to right): Unreleased Photo

Edit “Overnight”, Unreleased Photo Edit “The Head and the
Huh”, Shoulda Gotten Oberweis
64
65
 Youmatter
studios
Jewel Ifeguni, Estelle Forson, Johan Mufata, Jeff Miller, Apurva
Chakravorty, Katie Mimnaugh, and more
The most dedicated group of people I have seen all year.You
may have heard of this startup team before, but we went back
to the drawing board and rose like a pheonix from the entre-
preneurial ashes.

Like all business ventures, there has been some back-and-

forth and some arguing. But at the end of the day, it’s all
worth it to see the joy and the smiles on our faces when we
hit our “eureka” moments.

A very special shout out to our mentor Jeff Miller, who has
helped steer this ship in the right direction multiple times,
with a very unique brand of humor to ease our pains.

While we’re not quite at liberty to give the full details on

what we’re working on just yet, know that this team is going
to do something big. We’re all so proud of what we accom-
plished so far, and we cannot wait to share it with you all.

Visit our website at www.youmatterstudios.com

Follow the grams: @jewelzofthenile, @groovaruva, @thelastforson
Subscribe to Jewel’sYouTube channel by searching “thejewelstar”

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67
 The daily
illini
Michelle Tam, Cindy Om, Bercham Kamber, Hannah Auten, Lily Katz,
Sabrina Zhang, Brian Bauer, Courtney Boyer, Jessica Jutzi, Jacob
Singleton, Matt Silich, Annabeth Carlson, Lillian Barkley, Hayley
Nagelberg, Shankari Sureshbabu, and a whole lot more
I have learned so much and met so many great people thanks
to the Daily Illini. I know a lot more about Illustrator, InDe-
sign, designing pages, and making graphics. Without the skills
I’ve learned from this great company, I wouldn’t have been
able to make MEGAZINE (or some of the content in it).

Even though our goal is to make a (award-winning) cam-

pus newspaper, in the process we’ve created a large family.
Amidst deadlines and Adobe programs crashing, we always
find a way to come out on top and just have fun with it.

Of course I need to give special attention to my fellow de-

signers, the very people that make the print version of the
paper possible. Some of them go through tremendous lengths
just to get everything done on time, and it’s a dedication that
you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

Read the paper online at www.dailyillini.com

Follow us Instagram @thedailyillini
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thedailyillini
Follow us on Twitter @thedailyillini

68
Buzz
mAGazine
Elani Kaufman, Jessica Peterson, Nessa Steinberg, Jamie Hahn, Kayla
Brown, Nailene Gonzalez, Zoe Stein, Ben Tschetter, San Kim, Keenan
Schmidt, Nick Arger, Lizzie Jedrasek, and more
Even though I don’t work for Buzz anymore, I can’t say that
it wasn’t a good a good time. It allowed me a lot of first time
experiences- getting early album copies, doing interviews,
and of course getting festival photography.

I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for the loving and car-

ing people on the Buzz team. Elani encouraging me to see
Rocky Horror for the first time, Nessa (and Elani) indulging
my Chromeo obsession, being able to introduce San to many
parts of American culture, and making countless jokes about
waffles and Zootopia with Jamie.

I’ve still been keeping tabs with the magazine and I’m glad
that it’s doing well and stronger than before. Getting back in
print and getting near-daily content are two very big goals
that the entire team should be proud achieving. I wish only
the very best for them all in the future.

Read the magazine online at www.readbuzz.com

Like Buzz on Facebook at www.facebook.com/buzzmagcu

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 8 to
create
Ramya Jaishankar, Bella Pon, Ellie Hahn, Emma Sielaff, Anna Korol,
Archana Upadhyay, Pragya Maheshwari, Hannah Jihyun Kim,
Muaauya Elhag, Chrissy Pisarczyk, Aki Akhauri, CarolineWuerl,
Colleen Romano, ElliWills, Jenny Liu, Kaixin XIe, Kiran D’Souza,
Krystal Levitske, Maria Flach, Megan Galbreath, Naambia Mitch,
Natalie Bready, Nevers Em, Qiuhui Cai, ZhiyanWang

And to the artists: Shannon Tomanovich, Neutorik (Al Creamean),

Nicole Brunel, Maya Bauer, Kathleen Durkin, Ghi Fremaux, Hong
Chun Zhang, Jason Michael Bentley
The day of the 2017 8 to Create show was definitely one of
my favorite days of this year. We have an incredible team that
all want to make this show bigger and better every year, and
we sure didn’t disappoint.

Even though the amount of work we had to put in seemed

stressful at times, the event made up for it ten times over. The
art community in Champaign-Urbana is so loving and wel-
coming in general that it should come as no surprise that we
had a fantastic environment for the show.

It goes without saying that we couldn’t have done this show

without our artists- all of them were absolutely class acts.
They were incredibly understanding of our situation and sup-
ported us in any way they could to make this show great. The
pieces they made were spectacular as well.

Now we have a new team that has truly hit the ground run-
ning, and I have no doubt that the 2018 show will be our best
show yet.

Be sure to follow us on Instagram @8toCreate

Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/8toCREATE
Visit our website at publish.illinois.edu/8tocreate

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71
 The
collective
Emma Sielaff, Casey Van Duyne, Cory Van Duyne, Heather
Schwartz, Chantal Vaca, Adriana Vaca, Kevin Zavala, Amari Celen-
ia, Aashna Patra, Genesis Hinojosa and more

CC: Soultra, Fourth Street Records

If it wasn’t for The Collective, I wouldn’t have gotten the idea
to make MEGAZINE. Even though this club has only started
this fall semester, it’s already made an incredible amount of
progress. We’ve had our first art gallery, our first fundraiser, a
few socials, and we’re on track to release our first issue.

This is a passion project through and through. We’re able to

represent and account for so many different perspectives.
I’ve always known that art brings people together, but this is
a whole new level. There’s a lot of room for this club to ex-
pand, and I can’t wait to see when that happens.

Follow us on Instagram at @thecollectivemagazine

Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thecollectivemag
Send your art to submissions@thecollectivemag.net

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Squadron
Peter Niemiec, Sashaank Prathap, Ethan Honegger, Austin Heine-
mann, Jonathan Planman, Anthony Donofrio, Jack Feldman
It always helps to have some bruvs on deck when heading
back home over breaks. Some of these guys have stuck around
since elementary school. If I want to take a trip to Starved
Rock, go on a donut run, or just kick back and play some vid-
eo games, I don’t have to look much further.

There’s not much else to it than that. We’ve been kicking it

for quite some time and I look forward to the years to come.

Therapalz
Fiona Kalensky and Isak Massman
For two people that are on the verge of changing the world,
they’re pretty humble. Therapalz is a startup that makes ro-
botic stuffed animals to help treat those with alzheimer’s,
autism, and more.

Everytime I hear a new development with this company, I

can’t help but smile. Big things are coming from them soon,
and I highly recommend keeping them on your radar.

Check them out at www.therapalz.com

Like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/therapalz

Big brother
and big sister
Sarah Austin and Anthony Cusimano
Two of my absolute favorite people on this planet. Hopefully,
I finally get to visit them soon, which means that I’ll save my
extended gushing for a later date. Just know that these peo-
ple have changed my life for the better, and that they’ve been
there for me when I needed them the most.

Check out theirYouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/kitetales

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 connor
sterling
If you’re in the market for a funny boy, Connor is that boy.
There have been so random conversations we had, mainly
about weird spellings of words, like the word weird itself.
ART 310 and ADV 460 would not be anywhere near as inter-
esting if it wasn’t for the constant color commentary.

Connor is also a member of Spicy Clamato improv, where the

hilarity continues. He’s got a whole bunch of quick punch-
lines and odd characters in his arsenal. Be sure to catch his
“bowling alley” character that doesn’t even make sense when
he talks.

Check out SC on Facebook at www.facebook.com/spicyclamatoimprov

Be sure to also tune into Connor’sWPGU show,“That Reminds Me”,
and follow them on Twitter at @That_Reminds.

Danny Kim
Without Danny, ART 310 would probably be unbearable. The
amount of jokes cracked between us both in that class is abso-
lutely insane. I love that class now.

trevor sayre
Trevor is a much different person than I remember from
school- and that’s an amazing thing. He’s probably one of the
biggest supporters of my art and it’s refreshing to have a fel-
low man that appreciates the pink, purple, and blue. I haven’t
kept up with you as much as I should, but I hope nothing but
the best for you.

thomas sanchez
Like most things in life, you don’t know what you got until
it’s gone. Thomas was a fantastic roommate for the last school
year, and he was especially comforting during a particularly
difficult time. We should probably catch up soon.

74
Hanna cannell
My life is going pretty well, but then there’s also Hanna’s
life. That’s not to say that I want to live Hanna’s life. I’m just
saying that there’s my life and then there’s Hanna’s life. I’m
jealous of Hanna.

See for yourself on her Insta: @hannacannell

livia sanders
In true “advertising big-shot” fashion, I’m also pretty jealous
of Livia’s life. The big difference is that Livia is still on campus
so I’m not crying just yet. Please teach me your advertising
ways, Livia!

collin covert
For the record, rappers and musicians around my age are a
dime-a-dozen. Collin (Cono) has something different though.
It’s very clear that he doesn’t treat music just as a side project:
it’s his passion. Constantly looking forward to whatever he
drops next.

Check him out on Soundcloud at www.soundcloud.com/cono412

mecca muhammad
Mecca and I have had a few times this year where we just got
mutually mad at stuff. That may not sound too productive,
but it was oddly sobering. Also she’s caught the travel bug
lately or something so now I’m jealous of her too.

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 ...and thank you.
You. Yes, you. Whoever you may be. Thank
you for flipping through this zine, or just skip-
ping to the end for the good part (if you’re
part of the latter, I recommend you go back
and check it all out- I think you’d enjoy it).

2017 was a year of ups and downs for me.

It wasn’t particularly easy. Maybe it wasn’t
too easy for you either. But it’s imperative
that you don’t give up. We are all destined for
greatness, perhaps something far greater than
what we could ever imagine.

And I know it might be weird to read this after

a zine that’s 100% my own, but: I don’t live life
for myself. I do it for you. I need you. I don’t
want to imagine what my life would be like
without you.

We need to do things out of love, because this

life doesn’t have room for hate. We need to
stand up to injustices- when we are comfort-
able and safe enough to do so. We need to let
the outsiders in. We need to stick together.
76
If you’ve had problems with me this year, I’d
like to take this time to apologize. I love you
so much and I can’t really bear the burden of
having upset you. Maybe you don’t even read
this, but even a shot in the dark is better than
no shot at all.

As we wrap up this year and head into the

next, let us all strive to do better and be better
people. Learn from mistakes. Communicate.
Be transparent. And love, love, love, love, and
love some more.

I’m going to sign off here with something that

I’ve said countless times before. With every
passing day, this rings truer and truer. I hope it
will ring true with you as well:

Never Go It Alone.

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MEGAZINE will
return in 2018.
never go it alone.