naomi campbell's diamonds

©2011, Monika Roe

Yesterday I saw yet another story about Naomi Campbell's alleged acceptance of blood diamonds from former Liberian President Charles Taylor and this illo idea popped into my head. 

If you haven't heard of this, it was a big story last year, I'm surprised it's still being talked about in the news. According to testimony during Charles Taylor's trial for crimes against humanity, several men came to Naomi's door in the middle of the night and gave her a bag of blood diamonds from CT. This was following a dinner given by Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

She said she received the stones but didn't know what they were. Other witnesses dispute her claim, saying she bragged to them about receiving the diamonds the following day.

Here I wanted to illustrate the late night event of some anonymous man dropping the bag of stones in her hand and the possibility that she may be a complicit thief. When an idea pops into my head like this I can see it very clearly and when bringing it to life if I have any questions I can refer back to the clear picture I have in my mind. Usually if I don't take the time to put the idea down on paper (or the computer) it will haunt me until I do!