The minute I saw the beautiful photo of Jessica [link] I immediately formed a story for the angel in my drawing. Just the emotion purring out of her face, that fragile piercing look. It got to be one of my favourite photos of the beauty and it was just perfect for the angel.

My story for this drawing is rather long, as many thoughts went into it. I will try and put it into fewer words. I hope you can follow my thoughts in this as it’s a big part of my drawing.

The girl just died and went to heaven. She’s not sad, nor happy. She left her one and only love when she died. She had fallen in love for the first time. Her life was changing and everything was beautiful like a dream. The couple was sitting in this beautiful garden celebrating their love. Lots of flowers everywhere and the birds were singing, just like a fairytale. Butterflies surrounded them in every way. Suddenly a guy come running, shots her and she’s gone. Nothing anyone could do... her love could just hold her wishing he could do the day over and protect her, take the bullet instead. Change history.

She’s in heaven, surrounded by softness and light but she feels clouds around her, dark grey clouds. The sunlight is trying to break through to her and make her realise she’s immortal, an angel. She wants to feel again, be with her love but she slowly realise it’s time to rest, time to let go. She looks down on her love and feels such a need to be in his arms one final time, just to feel him close to her, to remember for an eternity but she can’t touch him and she never will again.
She has to let go and so does he…
Rest my love

My story is a dream, a sad dream I’ve had many times. That this happiness, this moment when you feel completed and at peace... when you life feels like you’ve always dreamed of – you loose it. It’s my worst fear, to loose my love and my happiness. True happiness is rare and you just want to hold on to it when it finally comes to you.
And I know this happens. People loose loved ones every day... Almost 10 years ago I went to this school. It was one of the first days there and we had to introduce ourselves. There was a pregnant girl, she had dark short hair, was rather small. She had this fragile look about her. When she was to introduce herself she just had this beautiful sad look in her eyes... she told a sad story. She was pregnant in month 7-8 I think. She stood up, holding her hand on her belly. She started speaking, told about her boyfriend, how he just went out to pick something up and never came back. She sounded like they were so happy. Newfound love… their baby on the way. He was killed in a car accident, died right away. Imagine her situation for a moment... imagine how everything can feel so perfect one minute and the next your life changes completely. It’s one of these moments I will always remember, it touched me in such a deep way.

I think we should always treasure what we have, because the next day it can be gone

Made with Caran D'Ache graphite pencils.
40x30cm (16x12 inches)

Prints available: [link]

A special thanks goes to Jessica, because she's my absolute favourite model to use in my work

Rest my love Copyright © Zindy S. D. Nielsen
Do not copy, re-produce or use without written permission.
I give full permission for it to be featured inside DA, in news articles and journals.