…is the name of today’s story at Fictive Dream.
Throughout the month of February 2023 I will be showing you illustrations I did for Flash Fiction February 2023 at Fictive Dream, an online magazine devoted to the short story.
Here’s the image editor Laura Black chose for this story, Extinction, by Sheree Shatsky.
And here is the artwork with the banner. Take a look at this image. And then…
Read the story at Fictive Dream.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Claudia, love this much, si vibrant and the perfect choice of . illustration with eggs such a topic of conversation these days. Your work takes my story to another level, thank you, thank you!
Glad you like it. I like making circles and ovals in my work (it’s such a pleasant feeling hand motion to move the brush or pen that way!!) and I also enjoy giving them an environment where they have some motion or some room to roll around (if they wanted to). I loved your story; I love the off-kilter worlds you create and the sense of kindness and understanding of human foibles of the characters who are mostly trying to do their best, it seems, but sometimes get (very) thwarted!)
The motion pairs so well with the story because I see this poor guy rolling around aimlessly. TY so much for your kind words!
This illustration, so vibrant and captivating, works very well with Sheree Shatky’s quirky story. The ovals have movement and, just as Sheree says, engage with the the image of the store owner dancing around in his egg suit. Thank you, Claudia for another glorious artwork.
Thank you. I think circles/ovals are shapes that express a bounce or a flowing rolling kind of feeling (just as eggs do or round balls in real life). It is emphasized here, I think, by the harder-edged shapes that kind of give a setting to imagine the ovals moving around in. I loved this story and how we enter a world that is a bit off-kilter.
*so
I like the way the eggs look like stones. Fossilized. Very evocative when paired with the story. (K)
As you know I love making circles and ovals (it feels so nice to just scrawl out big loops, I think). And I really like this image for what you said, there somehow got to be a nice amount of personality on these egg shapes, what with their layers and the speckles.
Oh my goodness I love that image, I would have that framed in my home!
Thank you. I like it a lot too. I really like making this kind of shape and how full of motion the picture turned out!
This illustration is superb, Claudia! I love the egg shapes (which my brain determined were dinosaur eggs before I read the story) and I am smitten with the visual textures of this piece.