Freedom: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Rocio Robles (2013)

To create my illustration I used my personal essay to get an idea of what I wanted to create for my illustration. I got the idea of creating an image that represents my struggle to succeed in something I’m not fond of, until I discovered the key that freed me from my blindness. At first I was very unsure how my illustration was suppose to relate to my personal essay until I looked at my other assignments that I created before, then it hit me. I realized I am like a wolf because I do not bark but howl when I need to be saved, when I feel pain, when I’m sad, happy or hurt. In my essay I felt trapped because I thought I would never succeed in writing until I realized that my voice was the answer to my problem all along.

I created an image of a bird flying away from the birdcage which symbolized the idea of how I realized the true potential of my voice. I drew a long strand of a red rope wrapped around the wolfs legs, but broken off halfway to symbolize how I was trapped as the birdcage symbolizes how I felt trapped. As for the background I wanted my audience to feel the same feeling I had in my personal essay, and that feeling was disappointment in myself but realization at the end.