Darla Fennell

I'm a UK-based artist and illustrator, from West Wales and Birmingham. My work is rooted in a fascination with medical and anatomical themes, and I’m especially drawn to using visual metaphors to express complex ideas with clarity and emotion. I aim to create art that is both sensitive and impactful with a distinct personal voice.

My process is a balance between traditional and digital methods. Most of my pieces begin with hand-drawn or painted elements; particularly using coloured pencils, which I apply in bold, saturated layers to achieve a rich, striking effect. I then develop and refine these works digitally.

I'm always evolving as an artist and love creating visuals that are rooted in metaphorical storytelling.


This project is a series of images illustrating the tale of a ‘Disembodied Lady’, by Oliver Sacks. After a complication in surgery, Christina experienced a lack of the sense ‘proprioception’. She felt that her body did not belong to her and could not move her limbs unless she was looking and focusing directly on them.

Within this project, I aimed to highlight the depersonalisation that the lady felt; depicting her as a statue whose limbs are broken off when not in her eyeline.