Many of you guessed it would be a Red Riding Hood tale because of the red velvet fabric. This illustration is for my short story The Trial of Emily Scarlett. This three part short story is a trial transcript and features her testimony, his testimony and the verdict. It is based on the Brock Turner trial where "a young man with a promising future" got a very light sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. His own father said in his pleas for leniency that his son should not be punished so severely for "20 minutes of action." It is also based on my own high school experience where athletes were allowed to sexually harass girls and suffered no repercussions because "boys will be boys" and to take our complaints seriously would mean we might lose the championship.
I wanted the illustration to be very simple. I found this gorgeous Christmas fabric in Swansea. I loved the forest green backdrop and the gold trees. It was a perfect way to suggest a forest. I wanted to give the feeling of how small and powerless she felt as the wolf loomed over her. I purposely did not give her any features on her face for this reason. Victim blaming takes away your voice.
The lettering may be hard to read. Some of that is intentional. I wanted a gold fabric to coordinate with the gold trees. It doesn't photograph particularly well as it is shiny, but it also has the effect of distorting the words. What a victim of sexual assault was wearing is a blurred lines issue and I wanted the text to reflect this distorted way of thinking. No matter what a person is wearing they do not want to be sexually assaulted.
The next illustration is a quick one so should be done by Tuesday I hope. Stay tuned for a clue.
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