DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION GALLERY
POCKETING STARDUST
Pocketing Stardust, Valerie Caesar, 2025.
If you’re familiar with my Small Black Stories series post 2020, you’ll know that walking is a huge part of my life — it’s a daily routine, it’s a meditation, it’s a balm for my physical and mental health, and it’s the source of inspiration for much of my work. So it’s not a surprise that I chose my own Doc Martens-clad walking feet as the subject of this illustration, with the title inspired by the starry texture of the denim and boots, and a lyric in one of my favorite Chester Watson songs.
The piece began as another exploration in portraiture. I’d just gotten these Doc boots with a platform sole, and took a crack at rendering them in soft pastel. I’m proud of the detail I achieved with the ribbing on the rubber gum bottom.
New Doc Martens Boots, Valerie Caesar, 2025.
After I completed the illustration I started messing around with it as an animation. Here are two different avenues of play — the first the straight walking animation, and the other inspired by the mixed media animation children’s programming I grew up on in the late 80s and early 90s. These feature photos taken in my hood of some original storefronts that have still managed to survive the ravages of gentrification. I’m trying to document them quickly and in various ways before they go. The animation makes me think of a Sesame Street-style urban children's program opening sequence.
Pocketing Stardust (animation), Valerie Caesar, 2025.
Pocketing Stardust (Episodes animation), Valerie Caesar, 2025.
A CLOSER LOOK
Watch this short video at the full screen setting to view Pocketing Stardust and the making of its animation in closer detail.