Thursday 11 August 2011

All Packed and Ready to Go

Continuing my exciting adventures in Photoshop! This one drawing I've had finished and scanned for some time but I was kid of wary of colouring it. The task seemed daunting. Then today, I bought a special comics issue of something called digital artist magazine which has lots of info on computer colouring, among other things, so I was very eager to try them. So - voilà!
Yes, it's yet another kidnapping fantasy - or should I say man-napping? The little name-tag is meant to suggest that the man works in some kind of store or restaurant (talk about "takeaway"!). I was actually a bit taken aback when I went to the United States and realized that many older people there not only worked past retirement age, but actually had to work to earn living wages.
This is a very sensitive issue for me. My father died aged 73, only eight years after he'd retired, and his last three or four years were plagued by health problems. That meant he only had five years at most to enjoy the quiet retirement he'd dreamed of for so long. When some government, French or British, wants to raise the retirement age to 67 (or higher - who knows? sky's the limit!), I have a strong urge to punch head of said government in the face. Hard.
Strange as it may seem, coming from someone whose fantasies involve tying up older men, I actually have a lot of respect and love for older people and find it a downright shame that they should have to work until they drop in any so-called rich and affluent society. So who knows? Maybe "Felix" isn't so bad off and is actually being man-napped by somebody who'll take him away from it all. Enforced retirement... Now, that's a thought...