A personal project illustrating William Wharton's WWII novel 'A Midnight Clear', shortlisted for the 2016 V&A Student Illustrator of the Year Award.

 

Set in the December of 1944, it tells the story of five American soldiers posted to the remote Ardennes Forest in war-time France. While guarding an empty French chateau, they slowly come to realise they’re not the only ones hiding in the forest. 

 

These illustrations depicts the moment when Sergeant Will Knott and GI Shutzer discover a group of German soldiers camped out in a hunting lodge at the heart of the woodland. What started as a simple routine of keeping watch becomes more complicated as Knott realises the German soldiers they encounter might not be the enemy they first thought.

 

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