More Than Models: Elyse Saunders
by ALISON BAENEN
A self-taught illustrator, Elyse Saunders (Ford Women) has been drawing since girlhood. Her skill with pen and ink led the 23-year-old to explore other expressive mediums, and now Saunders dabbles in puppet-making, stop-motion animation, and comic-book illustration, to name a few. Most of those interests will come together in an unusual short film she’s currently developing. Starring Frankie, a marionette Saunders created–she describes him as “your friendly neighborhood alcoholic”–the film will combine footage of Frankie throughout the city alongside illustrations of the tippler, all animated through stop-motion. In between shoots with Frankie, Saunders is also working on an ink-and-watercolor fashion illustration comic book she hopes to get printed. While Saunder’s modeling schedule has kept her artwork mostly contained to her blog, treeandtreasure.blog.com, fans have found her on the web. She was just commissioned to illustrate the cover of a children’s book by someone who followed her work online.