The Great Journey is a five-illustration story without words: it narrates the first winter of a young arctic fox and is a small tale of growth and discovery.
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Initially, I wanted to use a very materic paint in order to represent the snow, and add a sense of depth by using tracing paper.
I first thought of oil paint, but I didn’t have enough time to let different layers dry. I tried to add collage, oil pastels, pencils to the mix, but it just didn’t work out. I realized that in order to achieve what I had in mind I should have practiced those techniques a lot more.
So, a bit discouraged, I turned to watercolors.
But even then, the result didn’t satisfy me. Since I had used a paper made for acrylic paint, the watercolors didn’t even actually look like watercolors. But most of all, it didn’t feel like snow.
The deadline was approaching and I was late: I decided to correct them digitally, using Krita).
I overlapped photographs and scans in order to keep the light shades but get a good definition. I then ended up painting the illustrations again almost from scratch.
In the end I think the stratification of mistakes and good ideas gave this project a quite unique feel.
I was happy I managed to pull this out in time, and I hope you like it!