I have followed Shawn Cross on social media for a long time, and have often wanted to create a make-up look, based on his inktober illness series. When considering what to base my FMP on, his works were one of the first things that came to my mind, inevitably inspiring me to base this project on depictions of Mental Heath disorders.
Shawn Cross is a professional artist from Ohio, who refers to himself as a ‘dark artist’. He has worked, over the past nine years, as an independent artist, and artist for the web-comic series Cyanide and Happiness, as well as being names co-owner and artist for Ohio based lifestyle brand; Any means necessary clothing.
Shawn rose to popularity when partaking in the annual inktober art series, in 2016. During this time, he crated a series he named inktober illness, drawing depictions of mental health disorders, as demons. Shawn credits this series for altering his art direction, to focus more on work that helps create conversations around important topics such as mental health.
On his website, Shawn claims creating this series really helped him grow as an artist, which in turn helped to grow his fan base to a world wild scale. He is now known for connecting with those who relate to his work, as many feels it gives them a voice they wouldn’t have otherwise.
As a person with a medical background, from a career as an ER nurse, Shawn used his advantage to research in to specific case studies, and look in to a range of online resources in order to create the most accurate representation of each piece/illness he put together. He claims his biggest struggle was being able to accurately identify an illness in a single image, as he is fully aware of the fact that these illnesses, their symptoms, and severity differ from person to person. He was sure to make it known that he has to chose carefully when creating these ‘monsters’ in order to make them identifiable, but apologies to anyone who felt they could not relate.
This series has become so popular, that not only has Shawn re-created each piece multiple times, in what he feels is a more accurate way, he has expanded the collection, and also now sells multiple pieces of this artwork, and has even turned the series in to a book. Although I hoped to purchase this book, I did not manage to in time for my FMP research, however found a digital version online, allowing me to gain further insight in to this art collection.
I believe the images he has created within the collection are extremely powerful, and am keen to create a similar effect within my designs. His use of dark shading and harsh lines helped to truly emphasize this fact, so I will ensure to use these techniques within my looks.
Megan Hoff 