Aglow

Rose Kendall

Interview by L. Valena
December 28, 2023

Can you start by describing the prompt that you responded to?

It was an image, a photo collage with pine needles in the background, and a figure of a woman who was almost glowing. She had flowers on her body.

What were your first thoughts and feelings?

I wasn't quite sure what it was trying to say. The woman was naked. She had flowers over her breasts and body, but she didn't really have a face. I thought that was very interesting. Her head was tilted back, so I was interested in that focus on the body but no face. I wondered a lot about the background. Was she lying down? Why was the background image blown up so much? Pine needles are very small. It was really interesting to work with something with absolutely no context about what someone was trying to say, but then just going for it and trying to interpret it yourself.

What happened next?

I do digital illustration, so I had to make some decisions. I decided that she was lying down, and I wanted to give the figure a face. I build up by sketching a vague outline of what's going on, and then build up in layers, refining it. The figure in the prompt was off to one side, but I wanted to center it.

I also see some lines around the figure in your piece, maybe indicating motion or something. Can you talk about that?

In the prompt, the figure looks like she's glowing. She's a little bit green and a little bit purple. I wanted her to be interacting with the background. These are the ripples and glow of her lying on the background, and being part of it as well.

And you chose to give the figure a face! It must have been an interesting challenge to create a face where there wasn't one. What was that process like?

From a drawing point of view, it was difficult. My drawn figure had a very long neck for quite a while, but luckily with digital drawing I can edit that as many times as I need. In my other drawings, quite often I have figures with eyes closed and looking peaceful. I thought that did tie into the piece. She looked peaceful. I did have to find a reference image to make sure it was in proportion. As I said, her neck was too long to start with, which looked weird.

It's all part of the process, right? At least in physical drawing, the eraser is just as important as the pencil. I think there's a misconception sometimes that an eraser is just for correcting mistakes, but it's just part of figuring out what the hell is going on. It's the same in digital drawing, right?

Absolutely. It's a process.

What do you think is happening in this image? Did you come up with a theory? Do you have something you want the viewer to get from it?

What I was trying to convey is a woman lying in the woods with the pine needles in the background. I don't know why she's glowing. I struggled with that, but I wanted to convey something ethereal and magical. I definitely didn't want it to look like a body in the woods! It's more about connecting with the world around her, and it's a very positive thing. The flowers on her add to this whimsical feeling of connecting with nature around her.

Do you have a connection with nature?

Absolutely. I grew up running around in the woods in Scotland. A lot of my drawings and paintings are connected with the Scottish landscape that I can't experience right now. A lot of my drawings involve little animals and plants. It's something I enjoy exploring.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

I do quite a lot of feminine figures, and quite often they have big hair. I enjoyed drawing a different type of body than I'm used to drawing. I liked that the prompt I was given had a nature theme, so I could play on that.

How long have you been making this kind of work? How did you get started?

I've been doing digital drawing for three years now. I did art and design at university, and when I graduated I no longer had the student discount on Photoshop and InDesign. I had to make a decision about how I was going to make digital imagery and art. I got myself an iPad and Procreate, and have enjoyed experimenting and learning to make different types of illustrations.

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

Just take a few days with the prompt to think about it, and how you want to interpret it. My temptation when I first saw it was to just draw what I saw. But I left it for a few days because I wanted to interpret it, and think about what I felt looking at it, and what it meant to me, rather than to just copy it in my style. There's plenty of time to just take a few days and think about it.

Call Number: Y119VA | Y121VA.keAglo

Rose Kendall is an illustrator and painter who recently moved from Scotland to Vancouver, Canada. She completed a degree in Design from the University of Dundee and now works as a freelance creative. Rose connects with nature through her art, using it to explore new places and themes, as well as connecting to the wild beauty of the highlands where she grew up.