Independence: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Kyra Palmbush (2018)

My English Flash Fiction takes place in a store, with the main characters being a little boy and his mother. The two enter the store together, the mother proceeding to the beauty aisle with the little boy following. Across the way, the boy spots the toy section and when the mother isn’t looking, he wanders away and becomes enchanted by a teddy bear he finds. In the toy section, he realizes that he has lost his mother and goes on a journey to find her with his teddy bear as his sole companion. He travels into many different sections of the store such as the furniture, pillow, and food section. In the midst of his adventure he suddenly remembers where his mother is and accidentally leaves his teddy bear behind. The little boy and his mother finally reunite at the end of the story, and on their way out of the store, the boy passes the teddy bear. Instead of running to retrieve it, the little boy realizes that he does not need the toy to feel confident and safe.

I chose to make an animal that resembled my main character, the little boy, in my Flash Fiction. The traits I chose to emphasize for my characters animal characteristics were his innocence (lamb head), curiosity (monkey tail), shyness (butterfly wings), and youth (deer body). All of these unique animal traits came together to form my final creature and demonstrate the complexity of my character. For my background, I chose to use linear perspective to make a grocery aisle. Because my flash fiction takes place in a store, a grocery aisle was the perfect demonstration of linear perspective in a store setting. Since this was my first real time using illustrator, there were many bumps and obstacles to overcome. I restarted both my background and animal at least two times because I was not satisfied with my initial outline. After spending more time on illustrator I began to gain more of an understanding of how the program works and how to create the best product possible. I am satisfied with my animal and background although I know I still have a lot to improve upon and learn further. I am very excited to continue learning how to use the program and to create more unique creatures.