1. Weeks 1 – 2: Prep Work and Planning	4. Weeks 11 – 16: I to N
2. Weeks 3 – 6: A to D	5. Weeks 17 – 21: O to T
3. Weeks 7 – 10: E to H	6. Weeks 22 – 27: U to Z

Welcome to the art portion of Alphabet Superset! Below are the pieces I came up with for A through D of the challenge. Each piece will dive into my thoughts on the design, and include educational portions around the topics surrounding each piece… a major part of why I am doing this to begin with! Education <3 If you missed out on what this challenge is I highly recommend reading #1 on the list above (Weeks 1-2: Prep Work and Planning).

Please note, that some topics may be difficult for some people to read. Feel free to skip past anything you struggle with. Large headings are included before each week to prepare you for the topic.

Week 3 – A for Abortion

For this design, I wanted to be very inclusive. The harmful stories that come from the BIPOC community are outrageous, and the trans community is often forgotten entirely in the popular language in support of abortions. For example, “in Canada, 1 in 4 women has had an abortion.” That number is clearly all-inclusive of every abortion that has been recorded in Canada… but that sentence labels trans men and non-binary people incorrectly.

I brought trans representation not only with the flag but with a mix of feminine and masculine features. It was just important to me that you could look at this piece and see that no body part fit perfectly, and it was a mix of humanity.

With that, I struggled with the skin tone concept for the character the most. I had already drawn them to be a mix of characteristics, but I didn’t know how I wanted to represent race and be able to finish it within the week. I decided to take a skin tone map and translate it into a gradient across the body. Initially, I did this with a map with a wider range of tones and similarly coloured the hair with a variety of textures and it just… looked terrible (see below) and felt awkward. But I was determined to make it work so I picked another palette with a more limited tone, better layout, but still a good variety of light to dark. It still sabotaged me a little because the darker tones ended up behind the green glow of the text, but it was much closer to what I wanted without looking weird.

I plan to revisit this piece on a rest week or at the end of the project. I want to do a better job of it in watercolour and I think I can pull it off now. But I’m still unsure of what to do with the hair. Maybe draw more textures vs. leaving it to be added in the colouring phase?

Below I’ve uploaded some of the previous versions of this design. I kind of like the shadow version as well, but it felt… ghostly instead of inclusive.

Week 4 – B for Body Image

As a polyamorous person, I meet a lot of people who are different and beautiful in a wide variety of ways, and the amount of fat on their bodies rarely contributes to or detracts from how amazing they are. How physically stunning they can be. I created this piece for my husband because we have a lot of conversations about the lack of body positivity surrounding men’s bodies. There are a lot of campaigns and imagery for women or non-binary people, but we have some work to do for our men. I’ve noticed that even outside of his own struggle, a lot of men stress over the idea that they should be heavily muscular if they are not slim, and strive for bodies we see in movies that are very difficult to maintain.

So B for Body Image is for the men in my life who are beautiful in their bodies every day.

Week 5 – C is for Consent

As someone who has been sexually assaulted, I believe we need to discuss the idea of consent in all aspects of our life from a young age. Consent is not just in relation to sex. It is permission. Permission to hug, permission to enter a home, permission to take up time, permission to vent, permission to affect each other when we have control. Practicing the idea of consent in more areas of my life where we assume or it is culturally considered okay has changed my life. The people around me feel better respected because I asked if they were okay with me affecting them or their space.

Honestly, it’s the little things that create the biggest impact.

With that said, I struggled with my design choices for this piece but opted to go the way I did because my topic is sex education. In the future, I may recycle some design sketches for teaching consent/permission in childhood situations, but the idea of this challenge is focus.

If you’ve never taken the opportunity to look them straight in the eyes and ask if you can do something sexy or kinky to them, you’re missing out.

Consent is not just looking them straight in the face and dryly asking them in the most contractual tone you can manage “Would you like to have sex with me?” (sign contract here)

Work with your partner if you don’t know what this looks like between you two yet. One of my favourite methods is also a “safe word” system. I use the traffic signal system of Red for Stop, Yellow for Slow Down/Check-in, and Green for Good. Consent in the moment can be a quick question and easy confirmation that doesn’t slow you down enough to break the moment.

It can be responsible, but also exciting and motivating.

How do you seek consent in all aspects of your relationship?

Week 6 – D is for (STI) Disclosure

Disclosure of STI status got me really thinking for this design. I wanted it to be cheeky (heh) and playful because STI discussions are hard when they’re not a regular part of your life… so the idea of sneezing genitals seemed like the perfect icebreaker!

Disclosure in regards to STI status is very important for anyone sexually active, but it’s discussed most openly in the non-monogamy scene. Because the degree of separation becomes so apparent in local communities, spread can happen quickly, especially in STIs that can have minimal symptoms and still spread. A common practice in non-monogamy is to get tested regularly. For some people, this means when a new partner is introduced and then at a repeated pattern throughout the relationship(s) if the relationship structure is not closed. Much of the community recommends going every 3-6 months. Some people get together to discuss at the same time when their results come in, some only update if anything new pops up, and some people openly post their results on social media! It’s really up to you and the people you are sexual with.

Discussing STIs with partners can be difficult. Knowing how to talk about it can be difficult, especially since STIs can range from being as easy to resolve as a small bug, to being life-altering experiences. Don’t just consider that your partner(s) may need to know about your status. Figure out what you need first. Are you the type of person who researches these things first? Or are you afraid and want help from your loved ones in doing that? When approaching your partner(s) consider how you would want to be approached. Better yet, consider asking your partner(s) today, before any knowledge of an STI how they would like to be approached about this discussion if something ever appeared in your bloodwork. This conversation can cover all sorts of diseases and health issues. Not just STIs, but STIs are a great place to start.

Wrap Up

The first batch of Alphabet Superset letters has honestly been amazing to work on. I thought that I would struggle harder for ideas as I’ve been hmming and hawing over some of these words for months. It just goes to show that my real problem was putting pen to paper. I just needed to do it.

Please comment below with your favourite week, and if you have any questions on the topics mentioned! Are you working on the Alphabet Superset?

Support

Here are some ways you can support me in this project or Alphabet Superset itself:

Alphabet Superset Website

Buy my Alphabet Superset art on Redbubble.

Follow my Social Media.

Materials

All of the art created for these pieces were created using:

Ecoline Watercolour Inks
Highlighters from Midliner, Pen+Gear, or Bic
Pencil Crayons from Prisma Colour
Pens by Sarasa or Winsor & Newton
Paint Shop Pro
Canva
Watercolour Paper from Artist Loft
Sketchbook from Denik (out of print)