96-97. BIRGIT AMADORI
There’s a mysterious woman lurking in Birgit Amadori’s illustrations. “I watched a lot of scary movies around the time I created these images, and I wondered whether I would be able to create an eerie, or at least lonesome, scene. The woman in the forest is a ghost—she is the reason you shouldn’t go to the woods at night,” she explains. As for the woman in the rose garden, Amadori says, “She is the queen of the garden. I would not count on her being nice.”

“Don’t Go to the Woods at Night,” is the first time the illustrator produced an image with virtually no color range. Amadori is a vector fan, but recently she’s been moving away from that look. “Fortunately, the software is always evolving and I have so many more options than a few years ago. I draw in Illustrator CS using a Wacom board. I especially like this because it feels like I am drawing on paper,” she notes.

Amadori had originally intended to use the rose garden as a background for another picture, “more like an ornamental work,” she explains. “But it turned out that I liked the wild, natural look much better, so it turned into its own piece.” She referred to a book about ornaments for inspiration and direction, but she didn’t want a geometric appearance. Creating this image tested the illustrator’s patience. “I was struggling with the time-consuming process of drawing the stems and thorns, but I learned that it was well worth it to invest a few days if the result looks handmade and does not scream ‘copy and paste,’” Amadori explains.

“My projects are directly based on things I consume in everyday life, be it books, music, movies, and so on. Things that move me immediately flash an image in my mind and I want to draw them. There is no second thought. I know exactly how it should be and I do it that way,” she observes. Emily Potts