Unusual Gift

Now that it's July, I can post my Christmas-related stuff as a sort of Christmas in July thing (still, I shouldn't have been lazy and posted them half a year ago).

This was my final for illustration class last Fall. The assignment was to make an illustration that could be used as a "story starter" for a children's book and would go with the caption of "It was a Christmas unlike any other". The idea was to make the viewer look at the picture, think of the caption and be intrigued as to what kind of story could go with the image.

My idea was a girl who snuck downstairs to open her presents early in the morning (see the clock on the wall), and some force inside the box gives the mischievous girl bat-like wings (I chose bat because angel wings are too cliche, and raven wings are too dark and would have added another 40 hours just to render them in). I wanted the viewer to think "what will she do now that she has this unusual gift?".

Done in Graphite on cold press illustration board.