Projection: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Benjamin Cornell (2018)

The tale described by my flash fiction is that of a highschool boy with a lack of real self-confidence, but an abundance of fake self-assuredness. With a fake, but cocky grin and overly loud old school rock music; it is clear that in the beginning of the story he is compensating for a clear lack of belief in himself. As the story progresses, stereotypical bullies are introduced and inadvertently allow the boy to find himself through learning that he has control over himself that he never previously realized. When his music is taken from him, his newfound confidence is momentarily paused, only to be replaced with the realization that he truly can rely on himself. The piece I have created is a representation of the boy’s initial psychological state.

This piece was made across a many step process that begins with basic sketches and finishes with picking a particular color palette. The sketches were simple with the sole purpose of finding direction and experimenting with poses and composition of the many creatures we were about to mash together. Shortly after this, we took photos of backgrounds in order to gain a better comprehension for the framing of our creature on the illustrated background. Then it was time to produce the final piece. This involved tracing certain images, for me only the silhouette of a suit and head, and create the basic shape of our creature. Then I added details, shadows, highlights, and other additions to the creature using intuition, reference images, and certain bits of art theory. The resulting creature is a combination of victimized creatures (deer, mouse, and even plant!) and those which indicate the facade of confidence (eagles beak and fancy attire). After the creature was done, (but colorless) it was time to draw the background. For this we began with a simple linear perspective that would give the world depth, form, and believability. I wished to force the viewer to watch my creature through a window, as if they were gaining an insight into the privacy of his psyche that he does not wish others to see. Furthermore, I added a canvas behind him which depicted a crude sketch of the creature. This was to show how his personal view of himself and what he is trying so hard to make sure no one sees in him. A crude, not perfect, representation of him. Yet, although flawed, is the most pure representation of the essence of who he is. This bizarre scene was intentionally placed on a beautiful, dream-like landscape in order to portray the comfort his music provides and the early reliance on it. After the lines and shapes were there, the final step was colors. I chose very earthy, yet contrastingly vibrant colors out of the Pantone color book. The purple suit furthers his sense of self-importance as if he is royalty, whilst the bright green leaves flash his true softness. If one statement were to encapsulate the piece it would be; the appearance of a child is shown in contrast with the image he wishes to not project.