For my Illustrator project, I wanted to highlight two of my passions: film and writing. As such, I decided to make it an homage to one of my favorite horror films, Brian de Palma’s 1976 movie Carrie. The movie follows the story of a deeply troubled teenage girl named Carrie White as she discovers her telekinetic powers. Though done in a very abstract way, Carrie explores themes that have appeared through my life, like dealing with parental relationships, the hardships of being a teenager and grappling with your own religion. The movie is an adaptation of Stephen King’s novella by the same name. Stephen King has never been one of my favored writers, so to have an adaptation of his work (and specifically a depiction of his character) resonate with me so much felt like something I’d want to pay homage to. For the project itself, I drew the titular Carrie in the most iconic moment from the movie that to me cements her as a pop culture icon. When people think of Carrie, they think of the Carrie at the school prom drenched in pigs’ blood. It’s an image that sticks with you and that’s why I wanted it for my project.
The image, though, was a bit of a challenge to draw. It had a lot of small details that needed to be seen, like the various blood splatters on her dress or arms. I, having very little prior experience with Illustrator, had to learn how to draw them. Being in film, we don’t use it often, if ever, so I didn’t have the experience with it that some of the design students, for example, had. I had to learn how to properly use things like the pen tool (or in my case the curvature pen tool) and the skills I learned from this project are going to be useful going forward. Since finishing this project, I’ve started using illustrator more often on my own for personal projects, which has been a fun experience so far.
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