Grizzy - "Surrounded yet Alone” 🍺
The 6/9 backstory illustrations for my illustrated novel, Swordplay. Grizzy is a special character to me as she was originally constructed based on my high school art teacher. She was a very bold woman and constructively honest, which toughened and hardened many of us back then to accept criticism and accept our fallacies and shortcomings.As I began to toy with the idea of including an older character in Swordplay who is witty and loud and adventurous, I started to explore what that may feel like. After months of diving into her narrative structure for the story I feel the most confident with her arc then I do my other characters as it just fits so right with the rest of the gang. So for her backstory illustration, I wanted to depict a moment of harsh truth for Grizzy. It’s kind of a rare moment where she feels rather alone, even when surrounded by people. Around her are young socialites still looking for their adventure yet to happen. They’re filled with ambition and desires, a crowd she once felt a part of. Sitting here now however, makes her feel the cold reality of her age. She has become a relic of years past. A testament of adventures already had and a personality that is hard to relate with comfortably. The few times she feels like Charlotte and not her wild tales nickname, “Grizzy”. As I’m getting older myself, I feel more and more like Grizzy on different levels. While most of the time she is a firestorm of energy and strength (which only seems to deepen in stubbornness), I love exploring the tender side that comes with getting older and feeling that you have lived what was once an exciting future but is now behind you. So stick around and find out what her story is as I’m writing this illustrated novel with my newly hired editor. This said editor is dramatically helping with my over description, run-on sentences! And she’s not afraid to tell me either lol.