A question of posture

Client: HouWijs
Subject: Making illustration for the course book ‘Liggen en Zitten’ (Lying down and sitting) by Jose Gernaat

When José Gernaat asked me if I could make illustrations for her course book about the treatment of posture problems, it instantly sounded interesting. But also a bit daunting! It’s not just illustrations of people sitting, lying and standing. But these are people where the body forms in a certain way because of the way they lie and sit. So the anatomy of the body was also very important to represent correctly.

For each illustration I first made a sketch, often based on a real example.

First sketch with the legs resting up.
Chosen sketch with legs on the ground.

During online sessions, together with José, I refined the illustrations further and further. A pen stroke more or less made all the difference. The illustrations in the book have no color. Therefore I used shades of gray to create more depth in the illustrations.

The finished illustration with shades of gray so that there is depth, but also to show what clothing does when you are in a certain position.

Sometimes there was no direct example available and José showed me what pose could be drawn. A few times I used myself or my husband as a model, anything to draw the right pose!

It is well known that many medical books are not very diverse with showing patients. I wanted to change this with my illustrations. José’s book does have this diversity.

A collage of some of the illustrations that can be found in the book.

Want to know more about the course and the accompanying book? Take a look at the website of HouWijs (Dutch).

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