She was defiled. She was unclean.

Hello lovelies! It has taken me ages to complete this companion illustration for my upcoming  book Wounds: New Openings Into Old Stories but it is finally ready. I am so pleased with it.

I gave you a hint that it was a mythical creature that was associated with virgins. Well done for those who guessed vampire.

This comes from the story The Call of the Owl which deals with the importance placed on virginity, especially in religious and rural communities and the consequences of breaking with culteral traditions . I was influenced by the play The Crucible about the Salem witch trials as well as descriptions of honour killings that I read about in the news.

This story takes place in winter and so I wanted a snowy scene. I ended up using iridescent sequins for snowflakes which i later felt quite bad about due to the fact that they are made of plastic, but i consoled myself with the fact that I will never buy them again.  I used the same shiny red fabric for blood as I did for my illustration about the glass slippers.

I have 7 more to go and then every story in the book will have artwork to go with it. I do hope you can come to the book launch and see it in person.