Inside the Elephant House

The Irish Independent Review

I created illustrations to accompany the short story Inside the Elephant House by Henrietta McKervey. The story is set in a cold and quiet Dublin Zoo during the winter of the second wave of Covid-19. The story follows the two neighbours who have become close friends during the pandemic. I wanted the illustrations to evoke the atmosphere, unusual setting, and bittersweet qualities of the story.

I drew the image in pen on paper, which I scanned and digitally composited and coloured in Adobe Photoshop. I also added textural layer brush ink textures. The hero image has a double-exposure almost dreamlike quality to it, depicting a moment in the short story where the two main characters are looking through a large glass panel at elephants in Dublin Zoo.

The work appeared in the printed issue as well as an online version of the feature of The Irish Independent Review.

Commissioner: Jon Smith, Review Editor, The Irish Independent