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5 Retiring Classics

The shop’s closing this week on Saturday, May 27th, 2023 at 11 PM ET, and this is your last chance to grab any of my classic pieces of fat and disabled people before they leave the shop for good. Let’s take a look at five retiring Classics before we bid them adieu!

An ink and watercolor piece showing a close up of a fat, nude person viewed from behind, smiling over their shoulder while showing off their numerous back rolls that create a beautiful, flowing silhouette. Their kinky, natural hair is shoulder length and a deep purple color, complementing their smile's lip color of a warmer violet color. Along their spine is a long, vertical scar cascading down, framed by a several smaller, horizontal scars, all from a spinal fusion surgery. One arm is lifted above their head while the other rests delicately on their shoulder, capturing a purple, white, and yellow viola flower in between their outspread fingers. All along their back, like flowers growing on a cliff, are more violas and their big, bright green leaves. The flowers are bright in color, with white and yellow centers framed by large, oval like petals in clusters of five, and they complement the bright yellow background to the piece. The person has lots of stretch marks, cellulite, acne, and moles dotted all across their skin, as well as a bit of hair along the upper lip of their smile. The person's skin hasn't been painted in, and their body is outlined in black ink, giving it a striking look in contrast to the bright watercolor painted around them in the form of flowers and leaves.

Winter Flower: Viola

Made With

  • Watercolor Paper
  • Watercolor Paints
  • Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen, size S
  • Pigma Micron Pen, size 005

About the Piece

With the Winter Flower series, I wanted to make a series about fat people in winter, playing around with the idea that winter and fat, disabled bodies are often regarded as dull or undesirable. I looked up some flowers that are known to bloom in winter around the world and paired them with three fat, disabled characters, emphasizing their scars and rolls and cellulite. Their smiles are shown in defiance of the viewer, in the knowledge that they are beautiful as they are.

For Viola, I chose to include a spinal fusion scar.

Viola is my favorite of the three pieces for its composition and its color palette; something about the combination of purple and yellow makes my heart soar. It’s so vibrant and lively!

View Viola in the shop
A black and white illustration of a fat, nude witch wearing a witch's hat, sitting in a reclined position with one leg propped up on the knee of the other. They are sipping tea while reading from a tiny book with a sigil on it. They're sitting in a room filled with plants and with a circular window behind them. At their feet is a cat, sleeping while slightly curled up with its front paw poking out toward the witch. The witch has lots of stretch marks and a large birthmark, as well as a small star tattoo on their upper arm and cellulite on their legs. Their cane lies near them on the floor by more potted plants.

Cozy Witch

Made With

  • Canson XL Mixed Media Paper
  • Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens, sizes S and XS

About the Piece

I made Cozy Witch in 2018, which was a time where I was very into drawing fat and disabled witches. I love the association with both nature and magic, something that I think fat, disabled people are well representative of. We are resilient people through necessity, and while we struggle often, we also find ways to celebrate and appreciate our bodies, our lives, and our experiences. That’s kind of what I wanted to capture here, along with normalizing representations of us in perfectly normal (or magical in this case) situations, something I still strive to do today.

Cozy Witch was the first piece I ever entered into a competition at the Queens County Farm’s Fair in 2018, and it won first place! I got a huge boost in self-confidence that day, especially considering how many other pieces were there that I thought I would win because of how beautiful they were.

View Cozy Witch in the shop
A colorful illustration of the curve of a person's rolls and belly and their right breast. The person's hand, which shows that they have polydactyly with an additional pinky, is resting lightly on their belly which is covered in long, jagged stretch marks and dimpled by cellulite; the nails are painted a very pale shade of yellow. All over the body, which is drawn in black and white, are crocus flowers blooming in vibrant purple petals with yellow stamens and bright green leaves, all of the flowers seeming to grow toward the person's round nipple which is yellow like the sun. Also all over the body are heaps of freckles, acne, and small, round scars. Between the space made from the person's right arm and their torso is a bright yellow background.

Crocus Mother

Made With

  • Watercolor Paper
  • Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen, sizes S and XS
  • Watercolor Paint

About the Piece

Crocus Mother is another one of my published pieces; it appeared in APÉRO in the Nature issue of September 2019.

For this piece, I wanted to really emphasize the idea of fat bodies as generous and nourishing, to associate them with the idea of Mother Nature herself. I chose to utilize the folds of the skin as representative of soil, giving birth to crocus flowers that bloom across the person’s body.

For Crocus Mother, I chose to include a person with polydactyly and to again use that purple and yellow combination that I so love.

View Crocus Mother in the shop
A black and white illustration of a fantastical setting of rolling hills magically going upward as they go backward, sprinkled with tiny houses and trees throughout. In the midst of the trees and sitting in one of the dips between the hills is a fat, nude, giant person with kinky, dark hair and acne on their face and shoulders sitting peacefully and reading a book in their lap. They have several stretch marks and cellulite on their belly and legs, as well as a scar on their shin. At the top, in the background, is a sun in the middle, surrounded by clouds floating a fish eye perspective to give the piece a fantasy feeling.

Rolling Hills

Made With

  • Canson XL Mixed Media Paper
  • Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens, sizes S and XS
  • Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens, brush nibs in gray

About the Piece

Rolling Hills was one of my earlier pieces attempting to include more environments and fantasy settings. I chose the title as a play on both the hills in the scene and on the person’s rolls in the piece.

My goal here was to emulate the sensation of getting lost in the world of a book when reading.

I also wanted to explore working with values and new materials like the brush pens as I was ready to begin working beyond my regular line art. This piece was well received at the time, which pleasantly surprised me!

View Rolling Hills in the shop
An ink and watercolor piece showing a close up of a fat, nude person with shoulder length, fairly tightly curled pink hair, a long scar running vertically down the center of their chest, and lots of stretch marks. This person is wearing a vibrant pink lip color and smiling coyly behind a pink hellebore that's growing up from their chest scar to cover the person's lips like a peek behind an unfolded fan. They're holding their hands on their belly, fingers spread open and just lightly touching at the finger tips. Another hellebore is interlaced with some of the fingers. All around their body, hellebores and their green leaves and stems sprout and grow, highlighting the person's curves, cellulite, green painted nipples, moles, wrinkles, and rolls. The person's skin hasn't been painted in, and their body is outlined in black ink, giving it a striking look in contrast to the bright watercolor painted around them in the form of hellebore flowers with pink petals, yellow stamens, and green leaves. The background is a pale blue.

Winter Flower: Hellebore

Made With

  • Watercolor Paper
  • Watercolor Paints
  • Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen, size S
  • Pigma Micron Pen, size 005

About the Piece

As with Viola, Hellebore is all about challenging the idea of fatness and disability are undesirable. I explored a pink and green color palette here with the watercolors, leaning even more into the fantasy element by painting the nipples in shades of green.

For Hellebore, I chose to include a heart surgery scar.

Hellebores are one of my favorite flowers. With their name, I wanted to invoke the idea of a person not backing down, so I chose a pose directly facing the viewer in a comfortable position.

View Hellebore in the shop

Thanks for going on a short trip through memory lane with me! If you’d like to bring any of these pieces home with you, be sure to head on over to the shop before 11 PM ET on Saturday, May 27th.

If you’d like to get notifications for my next shop update in the fall, you can sign up for my newsletter Into the Bramble or follow me on Patreon to get notified when the next one goes up! Patrons also receive an exclusive discount with every shop update.

If you enjoyed this look at some of the stories behind these pieces, I recommend checking out my series Behind the Design which goes in depth into the process of a featured piece. And as always, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Hive!

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