The Begining

The Consequences

These are some side characters from my Joseph project that didn’t make the final. These two illustrations explore the reason why Joseph ran away from home without explicitly explaining it. There was a lot of un-necessary violence in his original community, the first incident he can remeber is his sister in law (named Isa; left) getting murdered in the river near their home. This incident led to him and his siblings not being allowed near the river without parental supervision. That’s why in the image in the right, as Joseph and his sister are playing around, their eldest brother (Forsythia) keeps his eyes on the river instead of the children in his lap.

I hadn’t intended for these two to be a set but their stories are so intertwided that it felt wrong to not have them next to each other. For the left one, I knew that I wanted to draw Isa falling to the bottom of the river but had no iea what that would look like. I searched for forever to fine a referance photo that resonated with me. I wanted this piece to be dark, and to evoke an eerie or ominous feeling in the viewer. For the right one, I knew the colors needed to be bright and inviting. I wanted to convey that nothing was wrong, except in Forsythia’s face. I placed the dark tree behind him because it makes his face the focal point, and the color evokes an added feeling on dread or unease. I wanted whatever he’s looking at to be unclear and left up to the viewer to decide. Maybe he’s seen something the children haven’t yet, maybe he’s just generally anxious about nothing, maybe he’s just overprotective, it’s up to the viewer.

(reference)