Hi, I’m Samara! I also go by Sam Violet. I’m an illustrator and I work in a variety of mediums. I love using bright colors in my work and I’m largely inspired by horror and Halloween. In incorporating supernatural elements into my work, I aim to create art that is both fun for viewers to look at and fun for me to make.

Black Swan is a psychological thriller about a woman named Nina who gets the leading role in Swan Lake and changes as a person as she learns how to embody the role of the black swan. I chose this movie because it’s an excellent psychological movie - I love how the storytelling gets you to question reality as you watch it, and I’m intrigued by its ideas about the expectations and restrictions that society places on women. For my poster, I based my drawing off a scene near the end of the movie (spoilers ahead but I’ll try to keep it vague!) that to me symbolizes the death of Nina’s innocence, as well as her final attempt to achieve perfection regardless of the consequences. For the color palette, I used a website called Filmgrab to get an overall idea of the colors throughout the movie, and I paired some dull blues & teals with black and some bright pinks and reds to make the scene feel really intense.

Samara had a hard time picking only four favorite films, but ultimately went with Hereditary, Megamind, Across the Spiderverse, and Love Lies Bleeding. You can view Samara's portfolio at samvioletillustration.com