It has been a long, long time since I have drawn something. I was avoiding drawing since I found out that my cancer had returned, it was too painful to think about the fact my final term was going to be stolen from me by extensive chemotherapy.
But then I realised that it only would be stolen if I let it. If I don’t work hard, if I don’t get my work done I won’t be able to graduate with my friends and the thought of not graduate with my friends hurts so, so much. So this week, during my Methatrexate chemotherapy I started drawing again. I had to do an illustration that describes me as an illustrator and also me as a person, so I decided to do an illustration about my journey through cancer, and the different me’s through the years.
We were only allowed to used black, white, grey and blue. I am so pleased with this. It took what little energy I had to create it but I am so so happy to finally have begun drawing again. It helped me get through the chemotherapy, and it made time really fly.
The second illustration is a neat version of a sketch from my Resolution sketchbook showing a scarecrow from the allotments and the strange balls on a stick that were there. Once again the same colour scheme. This one I am less happy with but it also provided so much relief throughout the week.
I hope this is the beginning of a lot more drawing as I have missed it and I hope it missed me.
These are two of the illustrations that I have been working on over the past few weeks. I was given an amazing book by my lecturer for inspiration titled ‘The Mechanical Dolls of Monte Carlo’ an amazing yet disturbing book of old mechanical dolls ranging from 1880 onwards. They inspired me to create a character where the prosthesis moves through a wind up mechanism which is a wonderful topic to draw and I have been having so much fun with it.
These two particularly focus on the idea of having a variety of different legs to pick and choose from so depending on how she feels she can just choose her leg, wind it up and go. I look forward to developing this further and I feel I am beginning to form a colour palette for the book through the purples and greens.
This was a quick illustration I did trying to show the same sort of pose and feeling of the last illustration I posted.
This illustration was done in about 30 minutes to represent the constant feeling of a foot despite the leg itself not being there.
I had the most amazing feedback session with my lecturer this week about moving on to the topic of Clockwork dolls and mechanisms so I look forward to putting up some of the illustrations done from that :D
hnggg your illustrations are beautiful.
Thank You so muchhhhhhh <3<3<3 8D
This was an illustration I sketched out about a week ago before starting back at uni. I was thinking of how I felt during my treatment and tried to represent that through a character. I chose to use red hair based around one of the wigs I first purchased after losing my hair.
Over all I feel the textures work very well however I need to look for a larger variety of textures rather than relying on wood textures all the time.
The next stage will be focusing on practice drawing arms, legs and faces to add a touch of realism to my style.
These are three little figures I created today after experimenting with patterns and shapes for my University work. We are beginning our final ever term at University soon and I am looking forward to putting my heart and soul into this one. It is a very personal project to me as I am using my personal experiences to create an optimistic children’s book for children who have lost a limb, or for children who feel they are different. I will continue to post my work as I create it :D
