Written By: Heather Jenkinson, Illustration

Michael Dickerson, B.F.A., illustration, 2010, Alexandria, Louisiana, "Falling Angel"

During my first year of SCAD, I had an amazing Drawing I professor. She was really strict with making sure we drew exactly what we saw. When it came to the final project however, she gave us a lot more freedom and told us to draw “for the sake of the drawing,” rather than draw everything that we saw. The change was really nice since it was a drawing we needed to spend 30+ hours working on. The first day we started the drawing there was a large mound of junk in the middle of the room, and we had to find a section we wanted to draw. I chose a mannequin head wearing a Batman mask, and a porcelain duck with a missing tale as my focal points. I poured my heart and soul into the still life drawing and developed a story to go along with it. The fact that I could visually edit items out of my composition really helped with my “story” or concept. It is still one of my favorite pieces, and I love telling people the story behind it. I tell everyone that the porcelain duck cut off Bat girls head so she bit off his tale as revenge. It is a silly little drawing, but I love it and wouldn’t change anything about it.