Ruth Vs Billy
The Blue Faced Frog Fish
A creative collaboration bringing an important story to life.
Ruth vs Billy is a creative collaboration with Ruth Lloyd Williams founder of the Network She, writer and cancer advocate, bringing to life a book created to help people living with cancer and their families navigate their way through ther new normal.
At the heart of the book is Billy, a character created by Ruth to help explain the realities of cancer in a way that feels accessible, honest and human.
I was invited to bring Billy to life through illustration, creating the visual world of the book alongside Ruth's words.
A Personal Project
This project feels particularly personal to me. My own mum died from bowel cancer, and I supported her through appointments and treatment. That experience has inevitably shaped the way I think about cancer, not simply as an illness, but through the people living alongside it: the families, the conversations, the uncertainty, the love and the ordinary moments that continue around it.
Ruth knew some of this story when she asked me to work with her on the book, and that made the invitation feel especially meaningful.
Working with Ruth gives me the opportunity to explore ideas through creativity, while helping to create something that can hopefully make a difficult subject feel a little more approachable for families going through such uncertainty.
Bringing Billy to life
Developing Billy has been a process of experimentation, conversation and plenty of sketching.
Together, Ruth and I are building the visual world of the book, exploring how illustration can work alongside her words to communicate ideas and feelings that can sometimes be difficult to explain.
As the project develops, I'll be sharing glimpses of the creative process here, from early ideas and character development through to the finished work.
For now, I can't reveal everything...
Stay tuned
The book is still very much in the making, so there's plenty more to come.
You can follow Ruth's Blog HERE