Fenced: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Amanda Chan (2018)

My flash fiction story was based around a character named James who was very concerned with his looks. He found himself missing a glove one day and went out of his way to find it, only to discover that the glove was in the neighborhood witch’s backyard! He then snuck into her backyard garden and retrieved his glove. The witch caught him, and cursed him while he was walking back home.

I decided to trace a bee, sloth, and a frog to represent James. I felt like a bee represented James’s ability to flit from place to place within the story, as well as translating the garden themes. The sloth displayed how James is a little slow and how he’s a homebody, and the frog illuminates his agility when he jumps the fence to the witch’s backyard. To combine these elements from the animals I chose, I imported the photos that I wanted to use of the animals into Adobe Illustrator and laid them on top of each other. I then traced only the parts that I wanted to showcase with my creature, then filled them and added details. I chose the background and clothes that the character wears because I imagined James as a classy man who cares about his appearance. I included the fence to represent the fence that James had to hop over into the witch’s house, but put the “M’lady Inc” building over on the other side instead to show that he was trying to maintain and achieve getting his glove back.