Jack and the Beanstalk

Lately I've been giving myself "assignments" in order to fill out my portfolio. Some of those assignments have come from myself, but others have come from illustration competitions--the SCBWI Draw This! competition, Illustration Friday, and the SVS Third Thursday critique competition.

Last month, I was a sort of runner-up in the Third Thursday competition--I won a critique, but not the money toward class credit. I was happy--the critique was really what I was after. I was pretty happy because that means I get to try again! (I'm hoping for a repeat this month--a critique without the prize money. We'll see if that happens though.)

The prompt was pretty fun this time--any scene from Jack and the Beanstalk. Of course like everyone my first few ideas were of Jack climbing up or down the Beanstalk, but as I sketched thumbnails I eventually settled on this idea as my favorite.

As I was brainstorming I was also trying to think of other things that could help my illustration to be unique. I was thinking of different settings or cultures. Finally, I found the idea I was looking for--the Depression! The Jack and the Beanstalk story fits perfectly into that period. I would love to illustrate an entire version of Jack and the Beanstalk in that era... but for now, here is just the one illustration: