Little Red Riding Hood

"Little Red Riding Hood" (Watercolor),  C. Eastwood, © 2014

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ittle Red Riding Hood hurried through the woods toward her grandmother’s house.  She was frightened by the villagers’ stories of the big bad wolf who lived in the dark forest. 

More experimenting in our class to learn how we might use watercolor in applications other than simply a painting to be hung on a wall.  This time we were to take a children's story and work through concept sketches and color scheme experimentation, with a final product of an illustration and the text it might accompany.  We were also challenged to so something "different" with the story -- to provide a "twist."  I decided to use the negative space painting technique to create the suggestion of a forest with Grandma's house in the distance.  And my "twist?" --  Little Red Riding Hood is no longer blond-haired and blue-eyed like the illustrations I remember from my childhood, but a young woman of color.  I wanted to try updating this story to a "modern" version that might appeal to children of all ethnicities.