Short Story Illustrations | The Match Stick

For my short story I chose The Sniper which features a young student in the grips of an Irish Civil War during the 1920s as a skilled sniper. It has a lot of tension, emotional power and a fast paced plot which grips the reader. I chose this story for my Project because I loved the atmosphere and wartime history has always intrigued me. For the small exercise I was asked to create a set of five illustrations focusing on either Place, Objects or Person. I chose to focus on the match stick which the sniper uses to light his cigarette in a moment of desperation for a second of relaxation. However, the glow of the match signals his whereabouts to an apposing sniper which then ensues a chaotic battle of intelligence and aim.

For the illustrations I wanted to make them simple yet powerful by using chalks, white liquid pen and watercolours which I hoped would capture the atmosphere in the short story. I illustrated the match in an unlit state and eventual going through the stages of fire and ultimately burning out. For the final illustrations I burnt the image with a match I was using for reference which I fell gave it a more haunting appearance. I love how they turned out and really enjoyed working on black/brown papers. Although I've worked on these typed of papers in the past they have never been of high quality, so I will utilise these materials for further experiments. To improve in this style of illustration I feel I could simplify certain aspects such as making the flame for prominent while the match stick would be more of a simply style I.E. silhouette, fine liner only, etc. or vice versa.