Red

Our latest assignment in Illustration was to take a fairy tale and change it in some way. For example, we could choose a specific scene and then change the era or one of the characters, ect. At first I was preoccupied with finding a really obscure and bizarre fairy. But I everything I liked was so specific that it didnt leave much room for interpretation. So I decided to go with a generic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood, and make a themed piece rather than illustrate a specific scene in the story. The whole point of this piece is implied danger. I modernized it and changed the wolf to a man. It's supposed to have a sexual predator type feel, the hoodie obviously representing Little Red, or what used to be her. 

My process was pretty sketchy with this one, unfortunately. I think that I had the most difficulty compositionally with this piece.  Originally, I wanted it to be horizontal, with Red in the background walking her bike down an alley, with the male figure in the foreground. But my professor and I agreed that doing something like this would be a lot stronger and I'm really glad that I changed it. Still, even when the composition was worked out I struggled a lot with execution. For some reason, I kind of got burnt out halfway through the week and I lost a lot of drive and emotion toward this piece. I kind of fell out of love with it halfway through, which is never a good thing. But somehow, I managed to get a little bit of that initial spark back while I was finishing it and working out the kinks. 

Anyways, despite the trouble it put me through (or that I put myself through, rather) I'm happy with the way this turned out. I only wish that I had attempted it in traditional oil, but I think I really brought it back from the depths of the disaster it could have been.