Abigail and Viktor

Final Illustrated Book project! Meet Abigail Strudel!

In class we were given three words to create a character around. I was given "conniving," "ruffles," and "circus."
Abigail is the daughter of circus folk in a grand vintage-style circus that constantly tours the US. Unlike the many people who dream of running away to the circus, however, Abigail is always dreaming up schemes to get herself out and hopes to one day have a "real job" as a lawyer or a senator and work her way up the political ladder to become president and then hopefully take over the world.

A next part of the assignment was to show our character interacting with a character designed by one of our classmates. This is Viktor, designed by my friend and super-talented classmate, Cailin. You can see her version here. I made him into a kind of gorrilla/bear thing to suit my cicus-y purposes.

Here are Abigail and Viktor outside the circus!

(Photo from public domain, found in New York Library Digital Gallery, which is AMAZING)

These pieces were collaged using both handed-painted (in gouache) and found papers. To me the natural progression from the flat works I've been doing lately is to experiment with collage. It's fun!