February 2, 2015

Body Positivity and Plus-Sized Art


This month I've decided to reflect on a movement that's slowly gaining ground. It's all about body positivity, and showing society that the beauty standards of today don't really mean anything anymore. I've talked a bit about body positivity before on the blog, but I wanted time to really focus on it. It's important to me and needs to be discussed.

More and more plus sized ladies are coming out and declaring their confidence in their size. More and more ladies are taking back their happiness by accepting who they are. One lady who's been helping spur this on is named Tess Munster. She's a beautiful lady who's only 5'5" and is a size 22. And yet, she's gone and done something thought impossible:
She was contracted to a Model Agency: Milk Management in London. You can check out an article about it here

It's got me thinking about how I view myself. There are certainly days where I feel confident about myself. Having figure flattering clothes can help with that for pretty much anyone of any size. Knowing that a woman who's well beyond my size 16 is a professional model now makes me feel a little better. It tells me that this movement of confidence in the plus size world is becoming validated. It's a great feeling!


Confidence takes time to build up, and there are plenty of days where I feel like a cow! But that doesn't mean I'm any less of a woman for having a down day. I take up space, I have fat, I'm a bit overweight. But I know I'm healthy, at least. I try to keep myself relatively active. And that's really all the matters. 

The magazines that declare: "Lose Weight Fast!" don't matter anymore, not really. It's all a scheme to keep our self-esteem in the pits. It's up to us to look at ourselves and evaluate what we want to see. To see worth in ourselves and be positive about our bodies, no matter the size.

To extend this rant further, I'm going to work harder than ever to keep my paintings plus-sized centric. Yes, I still will paint 'straight' sized women every now and again, but I really see now that I need to hone in on the plus size industry. It's my dream to come out as a fashion illustrator specifically for this industry, and the more I paint and draw and work - the closer I'll get to that goal. 


Today I did a plus sized painting inspired by my favorite artist, Alphonse Mucha. If you don't know who he is, I suggest looking him up! He's amazing, and was one of the first artists to inspire me along this path of fashion illustration.

2 comments :

  1. Your illustrations don't read "Plus-sized" to me. They read "Normal-sized" and healthy. Beautiful drawings.

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    1. Plus-Sized is just the term I use to indicate 'not stick-like', really, like some fashion sketches can tend to be. I try to go for the larger sizes and have been working on experimenting with different types. Some of them do read as 'normal', I suppose!
      Thank you!

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