I’ve been a fan of Karen Hallion‘s art for as long time. Just in case you aren’t familiar with it, though, Karen is an an amazing artist with a very impressive portfolio. She has created variant covers for Titan Comics as well as IDW, and was a featured artist in the 2015 ImagineFX The Art of Film – Star Wars. In 2018, she was a contributing artist for the book Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy by Amy Ratcliffe, and in 2019, she illustrated the exclusive covers for the Star Wars Celebration edition of Star Wars Insider Magazine.
Karen is perhaps most well known around the world of geekdom – and certainly around the convention circuit, where she was always one of the first stops for me, for her “She” series. On it Karen has highlighted inspirational women, and assigned a word to what they represent …to her, and to us.
Now, Karen is bringing her “She” series to book form!
The full story of why, and what inspired her to start with the series is on the Kickstarter, which you can find HERE, but I just want to leave you with a taste of it …
Three years ago, the She Series was just a quick scribbled note on a whiteboard full of ideas in my office/studio. That note said, “Some sort of strong woman series.” I had no idea the form it would take but I knew I wanted to do a series of art celebrating strong women and inspiring all of us in our day-to-day lives. The first She Series portrait I did was fictional: Princess Leia. When it comes to strong female characters, she is an icon and one of my all-time favorite characters. I drew her from the side, in profile. I liked that she was looking up and looking determined; she wasn’t looking at the viewer but was focused on what she was doing or thinking. I added a word, an action word: Rebel.
She Rebels.
Instead of using an adjective to describe her, like “fearless” or “strong,” or a noun to state who or what she is, like “princess” or “leader,” I wanted to focus on what she does, her powerful act of rebelling.
Alongside the drawings, every woman included in the book gets an essay about *why* they embody the word, and why they are inspiring. The list of authors featured can be found below:
We’re not saying this is the kind of project we know you’ll love, but we are absolutely saying that. So remember, you can support the Kickstarter HERE, and you can find Karen on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram if you are looking for one of her prints!
