Ever After - Collected Posts

A collected post with all the illustrations from Ever After. The response to this project has been amazing, way more than I could have anticipated. So because it IS supposed to be a cohesive book, even if the worlds and characters are different and separate, I thought I would do this last thing - a video where you can see the actual object. Many thanks to my friend Grace Yu, for holding the book AND lending me her camera.

Below, the introduction to the project and twelve illustrations. Just click each one to go the the respective post, for the full text and preliminary sketches - and from there you can also navigate to the previous and next page. And don't forget, many of these can be purchased as prints from my Society6 shop.

It's been fun!

Introduction (there's a poem!)

Ever After - Intermission

Intermission

Twenty-two years, seven months and four days would pass before he would be able to feel her again.

And so it ends. The twelfth and last illustration of my Ever After project, and apparently the least clear one since people never know how to interpret it. I have my own version of the story and there's a certain way I wish people would see it, but hey! Ever After is all about interpretation, and if people want to go and think things, I'm totally up for that.

As usual, a couple of sketches. This was one of those where I had an idea, but I didn't know how to tackle it visually, so I had a bit of a hard time with getting across what I wanted in the early versions.

Previous page - Anabelle, the Human

 

And there you have it.

Ever After - Anabelle, the human

Anabelle, the human

What they couldn't know was that no king would ever be worthy of the Fairy Queen.

Of course I had to include fairies somewhere in my book. This one was, again, one of the last ones I did, and I think I captured a possible narrative better because of it. I also had to do those tree textures under pressure because my schools facilities closed way too early, but it was fun!

Previous page - So how did you meet?

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Next page - Intermission

Ever After - So how did you meet?

So how did you meet?

Tim would spend his Sundays baking pies and teacakes. Rose liked to knit scarves and her favourite colour was lime green.

Ah, an orgy. Not something one gets to draw for every project, but when it happens, it sure happens. I am eternally grateful to my two wonderful flatmates Ana and Grace who posed for this image - it was both incredibly funny (for me) and incredibly awkward (for them). Worth it!

I must also praise the brilliant mind of my friend Reina who found a surprise Pinnochio amidst the naked bodies. What a pure soul.

Previous page - James & Joel

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Next page - Anabelle, the Human

Ever After - James and Joel

James and Joel

The letter on Joel's chest was the one that never faded.

You wouldn't believe the ridiculous reference pictures my friend had to take of myself for this one. Initially I had a completely different idea for the colour scheme (as you can see from below), but this one ended up being the chosen one. Is it bad that I still look at the rejected one wistfully?

Previous page - The Tallest Tree

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Next page - So how did you meet?

Ever After - The Tallest Tree

The Tallest Tree

The eighty-seventh time they saw each other, they finally found an excuse to speak.

This is definitely the pink fluffy sickly sweet illustration of the bunch. There had to be one!

Previous page - The Love Potion

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Next page - James & Joel

Ever After - The Love Potion

The Love Potion

He was the loneliest boy in the world.

The deadline was looming when I did this one, but surprisingly I still had time to enjoy doing that swirly shiny potion. I do enjoy my swirly shiny things.

Previous page - The pond near the linden tree

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Next page - The Tallest Tree

Ever After - The pond near the linden tree

The pond near the linden tree

People from the village had only heard of the Swan Prince.

This one was fun! Definitely one of my favourites. I have a thing for swans, in case you couldn't tell from the cover. This one was one of the last ones, and at this point I was really feeling like the illustrations were becoming... more narrative, maybe? They just feel better than the initial ones. I guess that's what you call evolution.

Sketch and alternative composition below!

Previous page - Abraham's Knife

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Next page - The Love Potion

Ever After - Abraham's Knife

Abraham's Knife

The problem with Brigitte is that her heart was too big.

The last one that I did; this one gave me particular trouble, and I didn't have a lot of time to spend on it. My original idea was actually quite different, as you can see from the first sketch; however, I felt that this would be a bit easier to understand, at least visually.

Previous page - How the seasons came to be

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Next page - The pond near the linden tree

Ever After - How the seasons came to be

How the seasons came to be

Neither could stop running as long as the other lived.

This one took me a while, and in the end I wasn't happy at all with the result. It sucks a little bit when it happens, but hey, live and learn. I do love the story I made up for this, though.

Previous page - A Promise well-kept
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Next page - Abraham's Knife

Ever After - A Promise Well-Kept

A Promise Well-Kept

It got to a point when you couldn't tell whether one ended and the other one began.

My really, really old people apparently also look like Yoda.

Previous page - The Prophecy
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Next page - How the seasons came to be

Ever After - The Prophecy

The Prophecy

In the end, there was nothing anyone could have done.

This is a special one - it's the very first one I thought of, the first one I finished and it's still my favourite. This image just popped into my head (probably influenced by Dolls, by Takeshi Kitano) and I just had to do it, even if it took some time to figure out a story behind it.

My friend Helena was awesome enough to play dead so I could draw this. Fun times.

Previous page - The Glass Boy
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Next page - A Well-kept Promise

Ever After - The Glass Boy

The Glass Boy

"We should be able to get there before the moon is out", the boy whispered joyfully.

The very first illustration in Ever After, and I can't believe I'm actually finally posting this. Have some precess sketches, too! Never mind those notes, it's a terrible narrative.

Previous page - Introduction
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Next page - The Prophecy

Ever After

So the past few months have been leading up to this:

 My master's final project, Ever After, is a book about love. And a lot of other things, like fate and mythology and Shakespeare, but mostly about love. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick was a huge inspiration, as was Paris je t'aime. Basically this book is a mash-up of all my favourite things - you know, like raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens.

And it has illustrations, of course. Twelve of them, in fact, and each one has a titles and some text, and a story behind it - but it's up to you to decide what the story is. Don't worry, there's a typewritten (!) introductory poem to help you along, too.

It's a weird book, but I like it. I'm proud of it. I hope you like it too.

First page - The Glass Boy