translating mosquitoes

The environmental design studio I am team-teaching this semester began with a project entitled "Found in Translation". One of the goals of the project was to have students read a story (in their case, a Grimm's fairytale) and "translate" it into both two-dimensional graphics and three-dimensional artifacts and spaces.

Serendipitously, this project mirrored what I was doing outside the classroom: working on an illustration for UNCG's Alumni Magazine, reading and drawing from/on Mosquitoes, a beautiful short story of Elizabeth Hudson.

Like my students, I created a series of thumbnail sketches exploring a variety of ideas before deciding on a final design. These sketches represent my initial ideas as I read the story for the first time. Elizabeth's story is chocked full of vivid imagery, which made this step really easy.

After receiving feedback from the art director and reading the story a few more times I went on to create more developed thumbnails exploring color. In all, it was important to me that I capture the intensity of summer heat.





The end result, while based primarily off one thumbnail, combines ideas explored in all. I would never have been able to get to this result without the process that led to it.

I'm going to go ahead and say it...this work makes me happy. I hope you enjoy it too. Visit this link to read the wonderful story that inspired it.