Just a little bit late, but it took me a while to do this one. I had a lot of fun with this one though—I have sooo missed collaging!

Illustration Friday: Pretend

Initially I was going to be cheeky by having a woman with a very ample bosom being poked with a needle to deflate her “pretend” boobs—my first thought upon reading the prompt was, faking. Faking personalities. Faking body parts. Dualities. Stereotypes. Being someone you’re not. Recently there was an article on how Victorian women supposedly love getting “work” done on their bodies (yeah, well, not me; I have neither the courage nor the expense). I was appalled, but morbidly fascinated. So the feminist in me was lamenting again how we constantly bow down to societal pressure: drinking from the font of eternal youth and beauty to please our superficial selves or to win the attentions of men and women alike (mostly men, har). I went for a sarcastic, sardonic approach, but not entirely losing the mischief. I was inspired by the work of Jonathan Hernandez, who makes beautiful collages out of newspaper cut-outs. I haven’t glued down the elements so as to make them seem to “jump off” the page, but I’ve considered the composition in the second stage of photographing it, giving another dimension to the static imagery.

Right, well, I promised comic reviews didn’t I? It’ll have to be tomorrow instead. :P