The Postmistress Of Paris & Other Influential Women

Illustration of Mary Jayne Gold by Bree Reetz

The first book I finished this year was a good one!

I loved how the main character was strong, independent, piloted her own plane, wore trousers, loved her dog, was friends with surrealists, could laugh at herself, came from a life of comfort and left it behind to adventure, and took action to help people escape the Nazis in France by delivering secret messages. When I finished The Postmistress Of Paris I was surprised and delighted to learn that the idea for the main character was sparked by the very real, Mary Jayne Gold. I’ve drawn her portrait, above.

The seed of inspiration for drawing women was planted…

… while reading Inferior by Angela Saini. I felt white hot anger reading about the incredible women in this book. I started furiously writing down their names as I read. I wanted to see their faces. How had I not known about these badass women? And as I learned about them (sometimes having just heard of them for the first time and sometimes gaining a new appreciation for their contribution to their field) I decided I wanted to draw them and share their story.

So I made a plan.

In the front part of my journal, the first 25 pages or so have a different layout and I like to use this area for fleshing out my ideas for personal projects. Because they’re located in the front of the book, they’re easy to find and reference later.

I wanted to share this example because one of the things I’ve learned in my own practice is that having a few projects outlined means that I don’t wait for inspiration to get to work and that inspiration finds me working. Having a to-draw list, allows me to show up and focus on my practice without getting hung up on big questions or lost in inspiration rabbit holes.

Do I always draw from a list or for a specific project? No. Illustration is my personal practice and I find that I get the most joy out of my practice if I don’t force myself to be too rigid or results focused either. But I do owe a lot of my consistency, growth, and evolution as an artist to little personal projects like this.

I write these project outlines for myself, with no intention of showing them to anyone, so consider yourself lucky to have this rare glimpse at my messy notes behind the scenes.

Want to see the portraits I’ve done so far?