Redrawing Black History

One of the things I find most inspiring and motivating for my illustration practice is taking part in illustration courses. In January this year, I was so happy to start off a new year with a new MATS course, Redrawing Black History with Lilla & illustrator and teacher Tamisha Anthony.

The course was offered free as Lilla & Tamisha wanted the course to be available to everyone, and there is so much fantastic content in the course that covers four historical periods; the art, fashion, politics, music, literature of the time and then applying all that context to black history and culture in each period.

For my assignments, I created portraits of 4 black women artists, writers, printmakers, poets and activists. I studied art history as part of all my art education, but all of the black women artists were completely new to me – I’m so glad I learnt all about these incredible women, but it’s such a shame that many of their names and works are not better known.

When I was working on these portraits, I wanted to bring in small details, symbols and colours that refer to part of each artist’s story, to give the portrait a fuller view of the person rather than just a simple portrait.

I really recommend this course to artists of any level. It’s such a celebration of incredible art despite the significant obstacles to their creation, and it will leave you feeling inspired. The course is still available to sign up for free at https://makeartthatsells.com/online-courses/redrawing-black-history/

Chat soon, Rachel 😉