Dream project continues..

This illustration is the second of a set of three I created in response to Tragaluz's IV International Award Competition at the end of 2017.

The brief required me to choose a page from a book I had always dreamed of illustrating. As a child I totally adored Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I couldn't decide which of the three books to illustrate, so I chose one page from each!

Here is my illustration for the second book, The Subtle Knife. I chose the scene where Will uses the Subtle Knife to close the window between two worlds and escape a monkey daemon.

I wanted the illustration to be striking in it's contrast between colours, to show the vast difference between the two characters and the two worlds. I chose blue for Will's world, to create a sense of calm and quiet, and used red for the daemon's world to reflect the danger there.

I really wanted to feature the daemon, as I absolutely loved the concept of having a daemon when I read the books. A daemon is an external part of us, like our soul, who travels through life with us as animal form. I was so disappointed not to have a daemon whenever I put the book down! Kind of like when you read Harry Potter and then remember you can't do magic...

Above: A couple of rough thumbnails of an alternative idea. I felt the wider image was better suited for providing the striking contrast

Like the first piece, I used both traditional and digital media, painting the scene in gauche before finishing in photoshop. I learned a lot from this piece and was really happy with how it came out.

Below you can read the page of the book I created this illustration from. You can also view my illustration for the Northern Lights https://steemit.com/art/@kristenbruce/a-dream-project And keep your eyes peeled for the third illustration, coming shortly!