Final project for "Create Digital Illustrated Stories with Procreate"

The course assignment was to create a sunny summer scene in an isometric perspective; we had to suggest a story through the use of evocative and specific details.

The prompt inspired me to illustrate a moment from the 1927 short story by Ernest Hemingway called “Hills Like White Elephants.” This allowed me to add some tension and irony to the summer theme.

Affinity Photo 2

The story takes place entirely at a train station along the Ebro river in Spain. A couple have a few drinks at the train station’s bar, waiting for the next train. While sitting there, they argue in an oblique way about an medical procedure the man wants the woman to receive. A popular interpretation is that the procedure is an abortion, though it is not specified in the story. Per Hemingway’s writing style, they avoid speaking directly or honestly about the issue, with their emotions and conflict in the subtext. The man’s behaviour and dialogue are brusque and overbearing, while the woman is avoidant and distant. She often looks away and compares the nearby mountains to white elephants, thus the origin of the story’s title. She ultimately agrees to receive the procedure, but she remains emotionally distant and perhaps unhappy—though she says she doesn’t feel anything at all.

I was inspired by Fagostudio’s style, and I looked at many of their illustrations from recent years. I’ve been aware of their work for some time, and I took the course specifically to practice creating work in their style.

To suggest the subtext of the story, I portrayed the characters with a few key details:

- The characters are dressed in 1920s European fashion
- The woman’s posture is slumped, her arms crossed over her abdomen, while she looks at the distant hills
- The man’s body language is arrogant and unsympathetic
- The characters look in opposite directions, with a feeling of distance and disconnection between them
- The clothes of the characters are meant to be on opposite ends of the value spectrum, almost like an old cowboy film
- I chose to keep their eyes shaded or hidden, to further add an impersonal, distant feeling

As for the setting, I incorporated some details mentioned in the story:

- The colour temperature and shadows suggest midday (the story mentions the shadows of the train station being very close to the building)
- The beaded curtain is mentioned prominently in the story
- The drinks on the table include the beer and anise liquor they order in the story
- The mosaic tiles on the table reflect a Spanish style, to suggest their location
- A pair of train tickets sit on the table

We were asked to create a second version of our illustration with a different lighting scheme. I portrayed the scene at sunset, shifting the colour palette to cooler tones, with a feeling of purple and pink to represent the sunset sky, as well as some pink-orange light coming from the sun near the horizon.