The little match girl. (Patreon)

Page work mimicking old style tale books illustrations, with lots of crosshatching. I'm terrible at organing cross-hatching, so I resorted to straight lines all around. A time consuming method for sure, but it looks good I believe.

Have you ever read this lovely, if a bit heart-wrencheng, story?

In a New Years Eve, cold as any, a small poor girl was trying to sell matches on the street to the busy crowds going here and there, getting ready for the celebration coming at night time. 

None of those men and women paid attention to the girl, who didn't sell a single match. Cold, hungry, and sad, she went back to her home, but didn't dare entering her home, because her father would be angry with her for not taking home a single penny, and would hit her. So she took cover on a neraby alley, and to try to warm her up from the cold night, she lit a match.

With every match she ignited, a fantastic vision ensued. A great iron stove, a luxurious feast, a magnificent christmas tree. But when she was about to warm her feet purple from the cold, take a bite of the delicious roasted goose, or opening a present under the tree, the matches expired, and she was left time after time in the dark, freezing alley again.

She then saw a shooting star falling in the sky, and remembered her gentle and loving grandmother, telling her that, when a star falls, means that a soul is going up to heaven.

The little girl then fired up another match, and she saw her grandmother, the only person in the world that loved her. Not wanting for that vision to end, she lit up all the batch of matches at once.

When the last match went off, her grandmother took the girl with her, and carried her up all the way, together, to heaven.

The next morning, the townsfolk found the little girl in the alley, dead, but the sweetest smile on her face.

I'm not crying. You are crying.