Manifesting ghosts through drawing

to understand ourselves

Ever since I was a kid, I have hoped that if I concentrate really hard, I just might catch a glimpse of a ghost or accidentally slip through time and have a nosy around.

No luck yet.

There’s that brilliant David Bowie quote about creatives ‘being able to manifest things inside themselves’ isn’t there? I found it:

Always remember that the reason that you initially started working is that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest in some way, you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of society.

So I decided to manifest a ghost the only way I know how, by drawing one.

Here’s me as a child, never seeing a ghost.

For the nosy folks like me, I explain how I made this drawing at the bottom of this post. 👇 There’s a process film that shows all of the bad drawing/ side tracks I went down/ experiments that didn't work. Plus I share the Procreate pens I used.

The ghost in my drawing is the spirit of an illegitimate child, Mary, born in our house in 1871. She grew up to be a barmaid at the restrooms of the local railway station. Here she is drying a sherry glass 🥃

I wrote a post about how I discovered little Mary and my hopes of slipping back in time to meet her here.

Out of curiosity, I visited her mum, Margaret’s grave at dusk the other day. I think I half expected a crash of thunder or a ghostly hand to reach out of the cold winter earth. Sadly, nothing. Just me in my anorak with my Asda carrier bag, staring at a pretty ordinary gravestone.

Christmas is a time for ghosts, and maybe I'll be lucky this year (but not one of those scary Christmas Carol ghosts though, please 👻👻👻)

Back to the David Bowie quote

you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of society.

Do I understand more about myself and how I coexist with the rest of society?

Ha! I don't know, I think that's going too far.

But it does help me understand that I was a strangely dark child with a fascination for the past. Maybe we were all trying to slip back in time or see ghosts? Let me know in the comments.

I feel lucky that I can manifest the contents of my brain into something real. It's always such a thrill, I feel high for days.

Drawing memories or fantasies helps us appreciate the things that make us who we are. It's so easy to take your own experiences for granted, to forget to value them. Drawing them gives them extra power.

‘Cut to the chase, Helen, how did you make this drawing?’

OK, OK, I made it on Procreate. I’ll explain how for paid subscribers:

• I’ll share the Procreate pens I used

• How I made decisions on the palette

• Leading the viewers eye

• How I made the ghost look ghostly without going into horror

• The ‘no fiddling’ rule