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Narrative Character: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Amruta Bhavsar (2018)

My flash fiction is about a girl named Mykie who ends up in prison and reminisces on the decisions that led her to that point and the consequences she has to deal with as a result once her only distraction is gone. It starts off with her staring at a watch, which leads into explanation of the mundane ways in which she spends her time in her solitary cell. A guard brings her a tray of food and in that time, her watch stops. Angrily, she throws it into the tray and counts herself to sleep on her bed. When she wakes up, she looks for her watch, but the tray is gone. Without the ticking watch to distract her, her thoughts shift back to the reasons why she ended up in prison and really thinks about the consequences, including how she won’t be able to see her daughter for a long time.

To create this illustration, I first listed three traits that my character possessed (defensive, denying, and absent) and three animals to represent those traits (squid, opossum, and snake, respectively). I then drew an initial sketch to figure out what I wanted the position and posture of my character to have and the way I wanted the background to look. Afterwards, I took pictures of my friend in positions I wanted my character to be in to model it after. I traced photos of animals in order to draw them and then filled them in with my own colors in Adobe Illustrator and I am fairly satisfied with this. I wish I hadn’t spent so much time on the squid’s tentacles because parts of it are covered up anyways, but otherwise I think I did a fairly good job.
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