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With my first publication, I chose to focus on a topic that I have very rarely seen discussed in any type of media; psychosis from the perspective of someone who's actually experienced it. The target audience for a topic as complex as this one obviously aren't children, but rather teenagers or young adults who are encountering the topic itself in their lives. In this regard I found it important to not just explain underlying causes through scientific language, but really explore the experience of living with debilitating mental illness as an individual. This is reflected in the illustrations towards the climax of the book, which explode out from the wraparound narrative of a filmed interview and relay the visceral feeling of an anxiety attack, depersonalisation, dissociation and paranoid delusions.
- An adult, serious conversation in which the reader gets answered to some common questions concerning what it feels like to have a psychotic episode.
- A mix between characteristic digital illustrations and watercolor technique that gives the book a very unique look.
- A matter of fact statement about the treatment and common lives of people suffering from mental illness.
- A mix between characteristic digital illustrations and watercolor technique that gives the book a very unique look.
- A matter of fact statement about the treatment and common lives of people suffering from mental illness.
As someone who has experienced psychosis as a constant factor of my life, making this book was a very personal process for me. I tried to channel a lot of rather unpleasant memories, and thought about how I would illustrate these so other people would be able to understand the state of strange, malleable reality that psychosis puts you in. For this, watercolors, along with wildly scribbling colored pencils proved to be a pretty accurate representation, which was then cleaned up with some editing and digital linework, along with hand-written text to convey the human part of the narrative. In the end, the entire thing was supposed to feel like an interview that the reader themselves was conducting.
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