Cartoon: Health messaging is all around us

Everywhere we look, we are bombarded with health messages, usually across a variety of media platforms. How to prevent disease. How to treat disease. These days, a person has to be able to think critically not just about the message being transmitted (i.e., Is it credible? Does it apply to my personal circumstances?), but also about the messenger transmitting the message (i.e., Is the information from a trusted source? Are there any conflicts of interest or external motivations that may be influencing the message?). In an age of such complexity, it has never been more important to educate ourselves about health and healthy living. We need to become critical thinkers, so that we can appraise the messages and the messengers. There’s a lot of health information out there – too much to stay on top of by ourselves. That’s why we also need to identify trusted curators of health information, who can help us sort through all the noise to find the signal.

An excellent, plain language resource to start educating oneself about health messages is the free, open-source book by Woloshin, Schwartz, and Welch called Know Your Chances.

Words Matter: The Importance of Choosing One’s Words Carefully

This week, I was asked by a friend if I could come up with a cartoon that she could use in a presentation that she would be delivering at an international conference on communication later this month. She wanted a humorous illustration that would help make the point that the words we use matter in ensuring that our ideas are understood as we intended. By contrast, when we choose the wrong words, misunderstanding can often occur, sometimes with comic effect.

This cartoon was drawn by hand using a black Pitt pen on glossy (finger paint) paper, which was then scanned and colorized in Photoshop. It shows a Catholic school student having to explain her unfortunate choice of words in class to the priest.

What if we made taking the stairs the more desirable choice versus the elevator?

My (boring) workplace stairwell…

If I got my hands on some paint (and permission from the building owners), oh what the possibilities could be…

I could paint a huge tree of brightly-colored autumn leaves with a bluebird perched on a branch…

Or a thrilling ride down a ski hill…

Seven flights of staring at boring, bare walls while walking up drab concrete steps is otherwise not a very inspiring way to start one’s work day. I wish developers and architects (and companies) would do more with stairwell and stair design. Stairs are sculptural and are functional public art just waiting to happen. Maybe if we had more visually interesting stairwells, more people would actually want to take the stairs at work – instead of always opting for the elevator.

Collection of hand-drawn sketches from Illustration course

This fishbowl sketch was based on the class’s theme of surrealism. We had to pick an object – in this case, a vase with flowers – and give it a surrealism spin. I decided to turn one of the leaves into a fish trying to escape the fishbowl – a metaphor for how employees can sometimes feel trapped working in a corporate office 9 to 5, day in and day out. The hands represent ‘working for the man (or ‘woman’, as the situation may be)’. A classmate – a florist by day – later remarked that the drawing made her think of Little Shop of Horrors. The sketch was done using watercolor pencils and wash.

The sketch below was a very quick fashion sketch I did on a break. It was my modern interpretation of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. The sketch was done using a combination of graphite and color pencils,and wash.

The sketch below arose out of a themed exercise the instructor assigned to the class. We had to incorporate black beans and a ‘found object’ of our choice – in my case, a broken candelabra – into a drawing. I decided to do mash-up of the classic children’s books, The Little Engine that Could and Jack and the Beanstalk. The drawing is done entirely in graphite pencil.

Illustration: ‘Afternoon at the beach’

Inspired by a photo I took earlier this week of a multi-colored parasol at Parlee Beach at dusk and the artistic style of Maud Lewis. Drawing and colorization done entirely in Photoshop using my laptop’s touchpad.

Whimsical fish and bicycle mixed-media illustration

This was an illustration I did for my 3-1/2 year old nephew based on a trip I made to London, England in September of 2012, where I happened upon a lovely green delivery bike complete with wicker basket for Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill off Regents Street.

The bike and cat were hand-drawn using a black pitt pen; the fish and newspaper were photographs I had taken and cropped, while the boy, cartoon fish, and background were all drawn using Photoshop. Colorization was completed in Photoshop. My nephew loved it! 🙂

Misty Copeland – first black principal ballerina at American Ballet Theatre: illustration

This sketch was originally drawn by hand using a black Pitt pen then scanned into Photoshop for colorization. The patterns in the tutu are individual pieces of fabric that were scanned and incorporated into the image.

‘The Hare and the Elephant’ fable: illustration of a passage

“As he passed, all the villagers exclaimed: “Look at his paws! And those ears! That’s the biggest hare we’ve ever
seen!”
When he heard this, the hare turned to his friend, saying, “We can go home now! That’s settled! I’m huge and you’re tiny!”

This is a passage I illustrated from the fable, ‘The Hare and the Elephant’. During the first class of an introductory illustration course at the Ottawa School of Art, our instructor had asked each student to select and illustrate a passage from this fable. All of the illustrations – some more elaborate or imaginative than others – were then collected and scanned into a single keepsake digital book, which was given to us as a souvenir at the end of the course.

My drawing was sketched and colored by hand using india ink and a quill pen initially and then watercolor paint.

‘Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain’: digital cartoon

After taking an introductory illustration course at the Ottawa School of Art and learning a few new tricks in Photoshop, I have been re-inspired to draw and colorize digitally. This sketch was inspired by a trip to Montmartre in Paris that I took in the fall of 2012 and the endless charm of the 2001 ‘Amélie’ film. The drawing was originally done by black pitt pen, scanned, and then colorized digitally. I think I might look into getting a Wacom stylus soon, though; I’ve heard it makes colorizing – and eventually drawing – much easier than using a mouse (or in my case, the laptop’s touch pad).

Carols by smartphone LED light

I recently attended a traditional nine lessons & carols (for background on this service, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Lessons_and_Carols) church service. However, not known for my punctuality, the church was packed when I arrived and there were no bulletins/programs left. I had no choice but to pull out my Blackberry in the dimly lit church and try to stealthily download a program from the church’s website. All the while, I could sense the dozens of disapproving looks and murmurs behind me from people, who doubtless assumed I was simply indulging a serious crackberry addiction in their sacred place of worship.