The Power of Pronouns: Blue Summerfield’s Joyful Inktober


“My comic sketch during Inktober, came from my enthusiasm for starting my transition,” says Taylor “Blue” Summerfield (Computer Animation-Interactive Media ’19). “It shows a conversation between myself and my partner, so lighthearted and happy.”

“I’m on Hormones,” Inktober sketch by Taylor “Blue” Summerfield

Summerfield received his AAS in Illustration. He says that although he’s now an animation student, he “retains a love for Illustration–so I’m participating in Inktober. It’s a fun warm-up or cool-down to my schoolwork,” he says.

Inktober is a month-long event, which often involves following prompts, for drawing each day’s sketch. For his “I’m on Hormones” comic sketch, he followed his own inner prompt:

“I find the best way to express my feelings is through drawing. It can be difficult to express in a journal or personal blog how I feel about my transition journey. But with drawing, even if it’s just a quick sketch, it can catch the energy of the moment that I’m bursting to tell people, and pin it to paper,” says Summerfield.

“Summerfield’s drawings are a sequence of images expressing a personal experience. They communicate a profound meaning beyond the pictures.” – Ed Soyka, Chair, Illustration

“I digitized my original Inktober drawing (above), by bringing it into Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop,” explains Summerfield. His initial drawing was done in Faber-Castell markers and white gel pen on gray-toned paper.

“She Called Me Sir” by Taylor “Blue” Summerfield

“The sketch was inspired by an earlier one I did over the summer, ‘She Called Me Sir.’ It was before I started hormone treatment,” says Summerfield.

“It was about the first time that a stranger at my job referred to me as ‘sir’ and with male pronouns. I was overwhelmed at the time and decided to make a comic about it– the same excitement that drove me to make the comic about my hormone treatment,” he says.

“Both comic sketches reflect key moments that I and other transgender people experience in our transitions,” says Taylor “Blue” Summerfield

“Everything–be it the beginning of hormones and the instant feeling that things are finally going right, or the act of being recognized for the first time as who you actually are by a total stranger–matters so much to me.  I plan to make more comics as I continue to become who I am,” he says.

To see more of Summerfield’s drawings and animations go follow him on Instagram at: @coldpups.art

Images used with permission.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.