So I decided to set myself a project to practice illustrating to a tight deadline, much like artists working on newspapers etc no doubt have to keep to. I picked an advice column out from a weekend broadsheet and set about coming up with a drawing per week, which would go alongside the letters.
First up, this lady had written in because she was worried her 18yr daughter was seeing a 28yr old muscian but wasn't being honest about it, and the mum suspected he was exposing her to drugs. The daughter is off to a charity gig next month and the mum has just found out the musican is playing there, and is worried sick about what kinds of debauchery could happen!
Next up was quite a sad letter, written in by a 14 yr old. His gran had died a few weeks back, and this kids mum was devastated, the kid writes his mum cries all the time and there seems to be nothing he or his dad can do to cheer her up. I tried to get across this inconsolableness by making his mum so much larger then him, his arm not being big enough to put on her shoulder and comfort her.
Last one so far is about a guy who cheated at a vegetable competition in a village flower show. He used disallowed fertiliser on his onions and went on to win the competition After winning, he was made president of the show for next year. He is racked with guilt and doesn't know whether to confess and bring shame to his family (who would be made guilty by association, his father and grand father were all presidents of this show) or keep quiet and remain president, which means so much to him.
Illustrating this is a nice challenge, as the pictures have to work immediately, and will no doubt be seen before the letters are read by readers, so have to clearly give some insight into the story.
Thank you for writting this
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