Daydreaming (2017)
Returning to acrylic
When I worked on the story, “Arrow of Defiance,” I opted to use this new-to-me hybrid style, wherein I worked from a black and white painting, and then colored it digitally. I would go on a few years later to adapt this method when illustrating, “The Spider Who Saved Christmas,” so, for better or worse, without that project, that one would have been very different.
For Arrow, which was a smaller-budget project, trying to think of these ways to economize was the mother of invention. The paintings were mostly smaller, but I did choose the opening illustration as one where I would stretch out a bit. Here the protagonist is daydreaming instead of gathering with her older relative—the details escape me, they were gathering some roots or tubers or something. She is daydreaming about being a hunter, not a gatherer, which forms the main conflict of the short story.
This was going to be the establishing shot, with the most environment of all the pieces.
