Constraints
Mostiller and Taing’s collaboration uses shading and pattern effectively to convey depth of feeling. A small rectangular panel on the comic’s second-page layers a text recounting the constraints of Black motherhood over a smudged whirlpool of gray pigment. As readers, we are caught in the downward motion of its circular force.
In a subsequent panel, the background is rendered with falling eyes to accompany a text in which Mostiller expresses the difficulty of navigating feelings of shame. In another, Mostiller appears in freefall against a charcoal background populated with curly lines that suggest looping and spiraling. In each of these, Taing’s lines express the environmental pressures that complicate Mostiller’s ability to go through with the abortion. There are background factors she can't control.