Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Friendship in Haste: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Christian Lanni (2018)

My flash fiction follows the path of an android in a desolate future, walking through a forest, seemingly with a journey already underway. Eventually, the main character chooses to set camp for the night due to seeing human footprints, and fearing what may come. As the night progresses, the main character encounters a child, abandoned by their tribe in the night. After much deliberation, the android chooses to bring the child along with their journey.

My initial sketches were very different than what the final illustration amounted to. I had originally planned to have my character, a combination of a red panda, a horned ram, and a butterfly, be on a cliff climbing a mountain. However, I ran into difficulties with using linear perspective, which was a requirement for the project. Because my initial sketches would be on a cliff face, I was not aware of how to accurately illustrate said angle. I changed my thought process and chose to illustrate a different section of my flash fiction, a scene where the main character is walking through a forest path. This way, I would still have linear perspective, but I would have less trouble accurately drawing the angle correctly. Moving back to my character design, I chose to combine the red panda, the horned ram, and the butterfly, because all three of these animals are either migratory, stoic, or solitary animals, and these animals also work well with my background I chose to illustrate, a forest scene, as each of these animals may pass through a forest in their lifespan. While I am content with my final production, in future illustrations, I would focus more on detailing the scenery, and allow more balance between each animal, in turn making it more of a balanced hybrid.
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