You can take a look at the entry on the website here. I’ve entered the WIA every year since graduating my BA in 2014 and this is the first time I’ve ever been longlisted, so I’m very chuffed! Thank you so much to Kevin for hiring me, Lisa for writing such a beautiful story, and my family for supporting me throughout my MA where my work changed and improved so much.

I was commissioned to illustrate this gorgeous short story by Lisa Blower. Our unnamed narrator returns to a coastal village where she lived when she was a child, in an attempt to reattain the inspiration for her writing. Symbols of tides, blue paint, and the sea recur throughout.

We went with the middle concept, as the movement in the waves related to the pace of the story. I wanted to capture the foreboding pull of the tide, whilst balancing it with the strength of the narrator.

Using colours inspired by risograph printing, I picked a bold bright blue and offset this with a saturated magenta. By layering them with different opacities using multiply layers, I achieved a good amount of depth with just these two colours.

Tools: Adobe Fresco, Kyle T. Webster brushes, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil