GFW shortlisted illustration for the Illustration Award

The inspiration for my illustration has come from the work of photographer Michal Chelbin on Ukraine women in prison. This extraordinary prison features floral, colourful wall coverings but with the prisoners wearing plain clothing all in a stark reality of a lockdown life. The contrast of the two made me want to bring an aspect of this to my clothing and I was inspired to design a fresh, colourful floral print from photographs I took of flowers. You will see from my illustration I have hand drawn the same figure in different positions to highlight different angles of my design. One of the many contrasts I found with Michal’s work was how the subjects facial and body expressions did not mirror their surroundings, with somber faces and hunched over backs the colourful background didn’t convey the same emotions. The mixed media I have used is hand drawing the figures and some of the back ground with elements of the flowers taken from one of Chelbin’s photographs and collaged with my drawings. I chose to reverse the colour scheme so as to have a stark background with colourful clothing to highlight my design.