In this personal project, I have illustrated the Matinta Pereira's tale. She is a folkloric Brazilian character, from the north of the country. She is a witch who transforms herself into an owl during the night.
The "rasga mortalha" owl has a very frightening scream, which terrifies people over night and do not let them sleep.
In order to escape from the witch's curse, you have to promise her something of value.
On the next day, she visits the victims as an old poor woman, in order to get the promised goods and test the pure heart of the residents.
If one fails to give what was promised, strange and bad things will happen to the victims, such as monetary losses, diseases or even deaths. So, always help the poor travelers and beware of the witches' curse.
The first studies of this project focused on Matinta Pereira character and her owl transformation. I was in search of the right forms, colors, aesthetic and psychological tone for the tale.
Then, I have chosen the main scenes of the story sequence and developed some ideas for each one of them in simple black and white thumbnails.
The first version of the sequence was developed in black and white, because the project came up during a meeting of illustrators organized by Ravi Novaes with the subject "fantastic creatures". It was agreed that all the illustrations should be first published in that way.
For the picture-book version, I have adapted the format of each pictures into a double book page.
Then, I worked on color studies for the full-color illustrations.
I am very thankful for Ravi Novaes, Luciano Komorizono and Ricardo Riamonde for the feedback and support of this project!
I hope you have enjoyed it!
