About the book
Drawing and writing have always been Fifi Colston’s go-to places in good times and bad. With New Zealand in strict lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, her work as a freelance artist – illustrating books, facilitating workshops and teaching art to school students – was put on hold indefinitely. Unable to make a living bringing other people’s words to life through her art, Fifi turned to her trusty sketchbook to tell her own story, day by day as the weeks unfolded. Posted online, her identifiable visual style and humorous captions drew a responsive audience trying to make sense of the uncertainty of a unique situation they had to rapidly accustom themselves to. In recognition of this, Fifi has left blank spaces in Lockdown Sketch Mind so readers can add their own experiences.