The Unknown
Bethany Lok-yee Tse
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.
![scene 1 - the girl is eager to know what's outside the world.](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BethanyTse_2.jpg)
![Scene 2 - the girl imagines herself ‘walking a whale’, just like how people walk their dogs.](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BethanyTse_3-717x1024.jpg)
![Scene 3 -the girl creating a candy house.](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BethanyTse_4-717x1024.jpg)
![Scene 4 - the girl imagining herself running around in the candy land](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BethanyTse_5.jpg)
![Scene 5 - the girl decided to go out for an adventure, and she is picking up her backpack](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BethanyTse_6-717x1024.jpg)
![Scene 6 - She finally stepped out of the house](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BethanyTse_7-691x1024.jpg)
![Scene 7 - She finally got to know what’s happening outside](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BethanyTse_8.jpg)
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PROCESS
![](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/process-01.jpg)
![](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Process-1.jpg)
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.
![](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/process-2-1024x663.jpg)
![](https://theshow.ecuad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/process-2b-1024x662.jpg)
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:)