The word for Illustration Friday this week is Journey, which I love because it fits perfectly with a piece that I have been meaning to get posted for the last few months. The illustration is of Heidi, from the classic book by Johanna Spyri. I entered a contest last December for the Tomie dePaola Award, and in the guidelines were the first few paragraphs of the book, detailing Heidi's journey with her aunt to the top of a mountain where she would live with her grandfather. After a few weeks of sketching several ways this scene could be illustrated I decided that Heidi must have felt scared and also in awe, so I chose not to do a close-up shot but instead wanted to make her feel small in her wide open and large, completely new environment. I didn't win the contest, but it was a wonderful challenge that I put a lot of thought into, and it's a great addition to my portfolio.
Please click on the full illustration if you would like to see it larger/better detail.
