Last year we worked with 18 brilliant disabled creatives on our Young Artist Development Programme (YADP). Their work is featured in a new zine called “Department for Wonder and Play”, more about this here. In addition to the digital and physical publication, we’re going to spotlight each artist on the blog so you can get a deeper insight into their work and process. Over to our Solidarity Coordinator Katie, who chatted to Bolu about her work.

Cheyenne’s project is a Manga comic strip called Link of the Moon. Manga is a type of graphic novel that originally comes from Japan. Cheyenne wanted to make a comic about characters playing in a fantasy world and having fun together. Manga is traditionally drawn in black and white, but Cheyenne thought it was important to add colours, because they make her very happy! Link of the Moon has vivid blue, purple and pink tones which run throughout it.

Cheyenne’s been drawing since she was 10 and has been working on the characters that feature in her piece for a long time. Many of the characters in the Manga strip are European LGBTQ+ people – Cheyenne likes to create stories for characters like this.

Cheyenne says:

“I hope my artwork helps people feel happy.”

Cheyenne used a lot of different materials for this project: colouring pens and pencils, paint brushes, fine tips, water colour and gel pens. Cheyenne uses these materials a lot, and has sketchbooks filled with drawings and paintings.

Thanks to Cheyenne for telling us about her wonderful project.