Overheating in Winter
Editorial Illustration: "China’s Young Children Are Overheating in the Middle of Winter" by Dai Wangyun
Backstory

This editorial illustration is based on Sixth Tone’s article "China’s Young Children Are Overheating in the Middle of Winter" by Dai Wangyun. It’s about how concerned parents tend to overbundle their kids in winter clothes. When I read the article, the first image that came to mind was a Russian doll, with each layer of the doll as another jacket. I got pretty attached to the idea, but after some more thinking, I decided a melting snowman would get the point across better, even if it’s not as visually interesting.

From there I began to fine-tune the draft. I really tried to apply a design mindset to this project, taking into consideration how perspective, colors, detail, etcetera would all contribute to the message of the drawing.

For example:

  • Chose an upward perspective so the viewer could see the melt/sweat beads dripping down from the snowman.
  • How do we know the snowman and the woman are mother and child? They are holding hands + the snowman is wearing a backpack, a yellow hat, and generally bright, round clothes (showing it is a child).
  • Obscured the mother's face so that the focus would be on the snowman's overheating, and not the mother.
  • Bare tree + blue colors in the background to indicate the season is winter.

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