The Grip of a Girl’s Legs

…is the name of today’s story at Fictive Dream.

Throughout the month of February 2022 I will be showing you illustrations I did for Flash Fiction February 2022 at Fictive Dream, an online magazine devoted to the short story.

Here’s the image editor Laura Black chose for this story, The Grip of a Girl’s Legs, by Meg Tuite.

And here is the artwork with the banner. Take a look at this image. And then…

Read the story at Fictive Dream.

11 thoughts on “The Grip of a Girl’s Legs”

  2. memadtwo

    I like the idea of a body having its own mind. Now that I think of it, sometimes mine takes charge as well.

    And I really love the intensity of your illustration. (K)

    1. Claudia McGill Post author

      Thank you. I wondered if it were too vague (often I will take an image like this and add on top of it with more decisive shapes and so on) but I liked how it was and how the layers showed through it. And I agree, my body seems to have ideas of its own the older I get, and they are not always in agreement with mine…

        1. Claudia McGill Post author

          I am the opposite. Sometimes I think I have a self-destructive level of motivation or persistance. I’ll keep going until I fall over. Not always a good thing.

  3. Laura Black

    In The Grip of a Girl’s Legs by Meg Tuite we meet a woman who is struggling with her mental health. The illustration is very much in tune with the story because in its background there is a sense of chaos yet, through the palette, it engages with the idea of hope that also exists in the narrative. I think it’s finely balanced. Thank you, Claudia.

    1. Claudia McGill Post author

      Thank you. I think this story is very poetic, full of images, and asks the reader to fill in pictures as they read. I think an image like this one leaves the viewer a lot of choices as to what to look at and how to make sense of it, as the story does. Plus, these are colors I really like in combination and to me that always makes an image have a positive feel.

  4. Laura (PA Pict)

    I really like the way your composition suggests both containment and a core bursting out of its framework and I think that works with the way the story explores the relationship between mind and body. I also think the visual textures connect to the mental and emotional states depicted in the story.

    1. Claudia McGill Post author

      Thank you. I think there was such a nice balance between the narrative (this event, then that one, and so on) and the fragmented and indirect way it was told. I think an image like this one matches that feeling.

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