Illustration for PNW Fattitude

Rachelle Abellar is a kick-ass individual. A few months ago, she organized, compiled, and produced the Self Care Zine I contributed to–currently available for purchase as a PDF download here. Besides being a talented graphic designer and illustrator, she’s a bad-ass blogger who is passionate about intersectional feminism and making a difference in her communities.

She recently founded PNW Fattitude, a fat-positive group/community in the Seattle area. When she contacted me about making some artwork for the poster for their inaugural event–A Plus Size Clothing Swap–I absolutely jumped at the chance!

Rachelle didn’t have many guidelines or restrictions, other than conveying “a fun get-together with a bunch of fat girlfriends”. Um, I’m pretty sure drawing a bunch of diverse, stylish, fat babes is my dream job!

I tried to keep my sketches energetic and bright. I worked in black and white on the first one because I wanted to make sure I was working with a good value scale in mind. I do this because color is often a weakness of mine. I end up fiddling with the colors a lot after I make a drawing! The first sketch is pretty literal, with a big group of all kinds of ladies just hanging out and being happy. For the second, I was thinking of a slightly retro, midcentury illustration feel with the final styling.

We decided on the first sketch since it was so fun to see all the different kinds of people. Above is my final illustration. The poster design was done by Rachelle and I think it turned out super cute! :)

I had so much fun developing the characters and working on all the details. Here’s a few cropped shots of some of my favorite bits.

If any of you guys are plus size and live around the Seattle area, you should definitely check out the event! It sounds like so much fun and I know Rachelle has been working really hard to host an A afternoon.

PNW FATTITUDE
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