Project Information
Name of Project: News Source Project
Class: Illustration
Due Date: 11/9/2020
Date Posted: 11/9/2020
Program: Adobe Photoshop
Size: 6 in x 4 in (for each composition)
Project Description: After reading one of three given news articles, we were tasked with coming up with at least three illustrations relating to its’ narrative. We needed one illustration dedicated to the article’s headline title, and at least two illustrations concerning text within the article. We could use any medium of our choice, and had to include color.
**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to any of these articles, and have made illustrations based off of them for academic purposes.**
Article Brainstorm
Before choosing an article to use for this project, I read all three and dedicated a page of my sketchbook to brainstorming any ideas that came up when I read it. I drew different elements or wrote quotes that jumped out at me, and finished the page with a small set of thumbnails that could potentially turn into full compositions.
Out of the three, I chose the second story concerning single mothers and the pandemic because not only could I relate to it (as my mother is a single mom) but the text gave a lot of incite to different vivid imagery.
Preliminary Compositions
Preliminary Headline Compositions
The headline for this article is:
For the headline image, I came up one overarching idea and two compositional layouts. I had an image in my head of a single mother holding her children away from a steep cliff, looking down at a net from below. The two compositions I came up with both encompassed this idea, but from different angles.
Preliminary Text Compositions
First Text:
Second Text:
Third Text:
Fourth Text:
For each piece of information I found to be important, I made a composition based off of any visual language I saw. I ended up with four text compositions in total. For the first two images, I stuck to the narrative more closely. For the final two images, I decided to forgo the ‘Tetris’ imagery and use something adapted to it; I had the single mother, who appears as the main character in the narrative, carry the weight of all of her burdens literally in the form of building blocks. I ended the narrative with her trying to put these building blocks together, trying to fix something that may be broken beyond repair due to government negligence.
Digitized Preliminary Compositions
I scanned my compositions into Photoshop and cleaned them up, making the line-art more consistent and less erratic. From here, I chose the second headline composition as I thought it demonstrated the danger the characters face more accurately.
Final Composition Line Art
I redrew the compositions from scratch, fixing any perspective issues and adding more detail. I also came up with character designs for the narrative, which include a single mother and her two children, a teenager and a toddler. The design of the mother is inspired by my own mother, as I wanted to include a small tribute to her as I am grateful for her courage and guidance during this difficult time.
Final Composition Grayscaled
When adding color to this project, I want to challenge myself by using limited color to emphasize different areas of each composition. I began with using shades, tones, and tints of black, grey, and white to color in most areas of the compositions. I also added different words to the fourth and fifth compositions, to designate all of the things this mother must carry and keep together during the pandemic.
Final Composition Gradient Maps
I decided to use a warm yellow color in areas I wanted to emphasize, in which either resemble a sense of danger or hope throughout the narrative. To add color, I combined elements of fully colored areas with the experimentation of gradient maps. I was suggested by a fellow classmate, Xavier Sosa, to use gradient maps to reflect color in a way that does not take away from the integrity of under-layers of grayscale. After much trial and error, I figured out how to use gradient maps that pushed the compositions even further than before.
Thank you Xavier! You can find them at https://sosa.digital/ .
Final Composition Layout (with Text)
Article By: Chris Arnold
Illustrated By: Julie Elwood
‘Incredibly Scary’: Single Moms
Fear Falling Through Holes In Pandemic Safety Net
Nellie Riether, a single mom from Ringwood, N.J., faces a stark choice: raid her retirement savings or uproot her kids from home and move in with her sister.
“To be honest, it’s mortifying and embarrassing at 46 years old to say I’m going to have to move in with my sister,” she says. “Emotionally, it’s a bit of a failure.”
Riether has been out of work since April, when she was furloughed from her job in office building design. She can’t pay the rent much longer, and she’s worried about her kids, who are 13 and 15.
The state jobless benefits she receives don’t even cover her rent, let alone her car payment, insurance and food. And she’s frustrated that Congress couldn’t figure out a compromise months ago to send more help in the middle of a national emergency.
“This is beyond politics — this is people’s lives,” says Riether. “This is my life. This is my family’s life. We need a stimulus package.”
A lot of people need help in the pandemic, but especially single mothers. There are approximately 13.6 million single parents in the U.S., raising 22.4 million children. Eighty percent of those single parents are moms. Women have lost more jobs than men during the recession, and others are quitting their jobs in frustration from the demands of child care. However, quitting is just not an option for most single parents.
For Riether, not having a partner to share the financial burden is just part of her predicament. There’s no partner to talk to. And it’s difficult to bring up with friends what she’s going through.
“I mean, I don’t want to burden other people with, ‘Well, I’m going to lose my home and be homeless,’ ” Riether says.
“I might make a joke about it, but it is very heavy and it weighs a lot. The future is uncertain and it’s incredibly scary. It’s just incredibly scary,” she says.
It’s a common fear for single moms who’ve lost their jobs and are watching their savings dwindle away — moms like Deborah, who got laid off in May from her public relations job with an entertainment company in Los Angeles. (She doesn’t want her last name used because she doesn’t want to hurt her chances of finding work.) Deborah says she has been looking hard for a job but nothing has come through. In the meantime, the rent will be due soon, and she’s not sure how she’ll pay it. She hasn’t talked about that with her daughter.
“I mean, she’s 7. I want her to make sure she keeps her innocence,” Deborah says. “I want her to just think the world is all rainbows.”
But for single moms relying on unemployment money and unable to find a job, the world is anything but rainbows right now. It has been nearly three months since an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits expired. State benefits often aren’t enough to cover rent and other bills. And economists say many people are depleting their savings.
For single moms who are working, many feel fortunate to have a job, but between juggling remote school and housework, there’s never enough time. “I’m always kind of half-awake,” says Ellen Griffin, with an exhausted-sounding laugh. “Last night I think it was 2 before I fell asleep, and then [I was] up at 6.”
Griffin is a single mom in Birmingham, Ala., where she works at a public library. She has two kids, 10 and 13. Before she gets to work at 8 a.m., she needs to get her older son set up for remote school at her father’s house. He’s 90 years old.
Her younger son, Drake, needs more attention because of his autism. She shuttles him to school every morning. Then there’s speech therapy in another location. At the library, more than half the staff has been furloughed, so she’s doing extra work — running books in bags out for curbside pickup, while wearing a mask.
“It’s like Tetris,” she says, “trying to fix all the pieces so everything is covered.”
Works Cited
Arnold, Chris. “’Incredibly Scary’: Single Moms Fear Falling Through Holes In Pandemic Safety Net.” NPR, NPR, 26 Oct. 2020, http://www.npr.org/2020/10/26/925898367/incredibly-scary-single-moms-fear-falling-through-holes-in-pandemic-safety-net.
Julie Elwood 