It's Madeline! by @laursefc (Lauren Sefchik)

This was my Illustration final where we had to recreate an existing childrens' storybook cover. So as my friends chuckled over the ether-sniffing Curious George, I happened upon a book with the most simplistic of art ever seen. It looked liked kindergarten artwork...and it was Madeline.

"Hey! I can do this! And if I run out of time, even my crapwork will still have more complexity than these illustrations! I can't miss!"

Picked up the book, Mr. Yee approved it, and all that was left was a certain style. After pondering the fact that cartoonie-anime would be a good selection, I then realized that Madeline would have made a perfect shoujo-type series! So I immediately looked up reference for Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Kodomo no Omocha, and then a few other misc. series from Jamie's Ribbon manga, and then...boom! Madeline was reborn! I decided that if I had to choose between the two evils, I'd do this cover in guache paint in order to give it that stand-out boldness to it. What's more is that this time I painted it on marker paper. Marker paper is thin as all hell, but it retains all the moisture of the median that it doesn't bleed through the paper. Let's just say that guache works wonders more on marker paper. The only downfall is that once it dries, there are serious chances of chipping...that and the fact that it curls up into a tightly coiled roll. ~_~* So...OUT comes the iron and I pressed it like crazy...which also warped it like crazy. ARGH! I can't win!

Mounted it on foam core board after spraying it with 5 coats of that clear finishing spray to prevent anymore chipping (you'll see a bit on her hat ribbon and in her mouth), and then prayed that I would get a decent grade.

I did. In fact, a lot of people liked it BECAUSE it was super bold and stood out a lot. My friends also say that Madeline has now improved at least 50 fold from her oringal illustrator. ^_^ giggle Artwork © Copyright 2002 Lauren Sefchik