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Inoculated: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Cameron Fukuyama (2012)

This illustration is a fusion of both my external fear of needle *shudders* and my more personal internal fear of having to take on responsibilities. My fear of needles is represented with my decision to make a syringe the central image of the illustration and my internal fear of responsibility is, appropriately, represented inside the syringe with different symbols of responsibilities floating inside. Symbols like the steering wheel to represent the responsibility of driving or the stack money to portray financial responsibilities are placed closer to the bottom of the syringe to show that they are closer to being inherited, while others ,like the heart to symbolize love or the pacifier to symbolize raising a family, are further back in the fluid to convey that they are less immediate to my life. The measuring units on the side of the syringe are numbered by years to represent the 18 years I have, or had, until all of these responsibilities are relevant to me. The syringe drips to show that this administration of responsibility is gradual yet unavoidable, and, like needles, they can often hurt and take time to adjust to.

This illustration was made using Adobe Illustrator and images from the web that were traced over and manipulated to different sizes and perspectives. Illustrator is not an easy application to use. I personally enjoy using Photoshop more but I can see the areas of application in which Illustrator would be better suited. The tracing, coloring, layering and touching up were a challenge from the start, even with a sturdy picture of what I wanted in my head throughout the whole process.
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