What i learned from long covid
This was one of six illustrations commissioned by Autostraddle (a queer online magazine) for for their 'How to Survive A Post(?)-COVID World' series. This illustration accompanies a reflective piece by Rachel Bean, which you can find here.
Inspiration
The image shows someone sitting at their desk, working at a computer that emits blue light in a gloomy room. Their body has the effect of almost being translucent - we can see some of their organs (particularly the lungs). Through the use of some marbled textures I hope to give the impression that their body is having some chronic or overwhelming sensations and symptoms / experiencing a stress response. Trailing off from the body we see the word “STOP" in letters that seem to be joined up by electric shocks - this is to suggest that the body is using symptoms to communicate that it cannot cope with being forced to work, and that these symptoms are forcing the person to slow down.
Method
The textures on the body were created using scans of marbled paper. Textures on the background and the desk were created using scans of black ink on paper. The rest of the image was rendered digitally using Procreate and Photoshop.
Turnaround Time
Rough: within same day of receiving article text (3 hours)
Final: 8 hours