The Unknown

The Unknown explores the relationship between reality and children’s imagination. 

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The Unknown is inspired by how COVID-19 has affected my daughter and all other kids in the world. We always focus on how it has affected adults, but in fact, it has also affected the kids a lot. For example, my daughter can no longer play in public places without worrying about COVID-19. Also, she doesn’t know how to get along with a large group of people because she had to avoid group activities to stop the spread of COVID-19. 

However, instead of actually adding Covid-related subject matters to it, I decided to create a series of illustrations to illustrate a little girl’s imagination of several magical and surreal events that happened at home. I am trying to show a life of a little girl who doesn’t know what’s happening in the outside world, and is eager to know what the outside world actually looks like.

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PROCESS

The one on the left is my initial draft for Scene 1. Later on, I decided to cut off the ceiling and zoomed in to reduce the empty and unnecessary spaces.

I added lots of toys on the floor to create a messy room, in order to show the girl had spent enough time playing in the room. And now, she starts to wonder what the outside world actually looks like.

I first created this Candyland illustration and this was where my inspiration for Scene 4 came from.

After finishing this draft, I thought it didn’t go well with other pieces in my project, in terms of composition and the absence of the little girl. Therefore, I changed the scene to the girl actually playing and running around in the Candyland.

I have learned a lot from this Candyland draft. I realized when the perspective changes, it changes the atmosphere and mood of the artwork, which takes a significant role in conveying different emotions.

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Thanks for sparing your time looking at my artworks and hope you enjoyed them!

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please feel free to contact me:)