Poem Illustration

Being on a gap year has made me realise that slowly but surely good habits tend to wear off, such as self discipline or energy. Why am I forgetting to write in my blog every week? I have, therefore, set myself a few tasks in order to make the year without feeling utterly useless in my existence, amongst which I have taken upon myself to continue with art. The project has not begun, but on my trip to Barcelona earlier this Summer, I was enthralled by the variety of modernist architecture and was inspired by a guidebook I came across in Gaudi's Sagrada Familia's gift shop to begin a watercolour journal, in which I will paint quick watercolour illustrations of architecture all around me! Beautiful, no? HOWEVER, I cannot find any good art supply stores anywhere in the Holy Land's capital, which means I have begun a new sub-project in the meantime; illustrating poems for birthdays. This all begun a couple of years ago when I illustrated a poem for a dear teacher, 'The Bee', by Carol Ann Duffy, and a year later, a poem for another dear teacher. Both cut outs in penknife on watercolour backgrounds. For a dear friend, I was inspired by Kipling's poem 'If'. I've always thought nineteen is a slightly awkward age. Are you allowed to rave? Are you still considered a child/teenager? My friend turned eighteen a few days ago and at the beginning of the year, she lent me a couple of poetry books (which guiltily, I have just leafed through). One of the dog-eared pages bore Kipling's poem on hope and the future and existence. And I thought, what a perfect poem for any birthday! 'Yours is the world and everything that's in it.' A beautiful poetic verse, yet also non-commital and cliche enough to be appreciated by anyone. The idea of breaking free and becoming independent I illustrated in a ballpoint drawing of a swallow, soaring down the corner of a white page. Behing it, a trickle of crimson watercolour dots. The page is covered with the cutout of the words in circus-type/magic font, which I feel went well with the verse's general evocation and begind the white, crimson coloured card. Although it is not a difficult poem to be inspired by or to analyse, I am starting to realise that illustrating poetry is often an excellent tool to deeply understand the essence of a particular poem!