Nope! I am no football woman; I’ve never really ‘got it’. But the women’s football team has been truly inspiring. I think it is amazing that this previously male dominated sport has seen a women’s team achieve such resounding success. That their ‘best player’, Beth Mead, has come out as gay and has written a book must surely stand her in good stead as a role model for young girls and LGBT groups in this country. There was some controversy about her comment that you need to select the best players for a team and not concentrate on diversity at the highest level. I think she is right; we need to focus on diversity at grass roots level and help more disadvantaged players get the chance to achieve success. Of course, the barriers to success are multifold but they shouldn’t be racial.
I decided to do an ‘editorial’ style illustration about this issue as a personal project because of how much I admire these gutsy women and their ability to invigorate the gender debate. My approach was to feature Beth, a book and some young female fans in a fun way and hopefully tell the story of a football star leading the way for young girls to achieve their dreams.
Thumb-nailing Some Inspiring Football Woman Ideas
I start with some footballing thumbnails. Here they are, done in charcoal really rough and sketchy just to give an idea of how the concept would work:
My Selected Thumbnail
Inspiring Football Woman Linework
Here is the linework I created from that thumbnail.
Football Woman Editorial Illustration
Here is the final piece with colour. I love that it is so bright and bold. I decided to render it graphically using Affinity Design (vector based) as I thought clean lines would work best for this illustration.
I hope you enjoyed my take on the success of Beth Mead and the Lionesses. Here is the book she wrote Lioness; I must have I have not read it … yet! Hugs, Ceri xx
