Acting Up: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Lora Maslenitsyna (2013)

I struggled to find symbolism that I would have most agreed with for my Narrative Illustration. I eventually decided to represent my character as a butterfly emerging from her cocoon. The cocoon was the image and the wall that she put up for herself that was forged with her self-doubt. I have her wings partially emerging from this cocoon because she is learning to shed her doubt and fear. Her wings are made up of words that represent how she has learned to accept herself. To create my illustration, I traced a photograph of a butterfly leaving a cocoon with the pen tool and then filled the different parts with their specific colors. I used a gradient on the background and on the butterfly wing to accentuate their place in my image and to add dimension to them. For the typography, I downloaded a calligraphic font for the cocoon and a font for the butterfly wing that would make it look more patterned. I decreased the opacity on the text to give the cocoon more texture and to further blend the colors.