I'm fresh off a lovely, relaxing, rejuvenating vacation week. We were at the coast, so we got lots of time to throw rocks in the water, sit and listen to the waves and gulls and wind in the trees. It's truly amazing to me how much I really need time with all of those sounds, breathing the fresh air and just being still in nature. I was reminded just how much I need to make time to be still in nature regularly to feel alive, connected and whole. We came back home to late spring goodness up in our little mountain town. Our little garden sprouts are fully out stretching their first true leaves up to the sun. We picked up our baby chicks to start a new flock of hens. And fledgeling robins are bouncing along behind their hard-working mamas, mouths gaping all over the yard. In short, I'm feeling more aware, alive and mindful...And as if on cue with all of this mindfulness, our May Bootcamp assignment is to do an illustration for an editorial piece on meditation. I felt really free going into this piece and just started by playing with the background and all that goes on in my head when I first sit down to meditate. It usually goes something like this... "Breathe....one...two...one... Did I turn my phone off? I think it needs to be charged anyway. Maybe it won't ring. Geez, did I brush my teeth this morning? Man, I'm hungry. Oh yeah.... breathe...one...two...one...two..." So I wrote down all those distracting thoughts and started gluing them down.
I am working on being more mindful of my color pallet too. I chose one based on the colors from these rocks I collected on the beach. Aren't they beautiful?
Then paint, stamps, and messy texture making background play. Fun!
Then I added the gal meditating...
And brought it into Photoshop for some doodle-type florals around her head to represent the mindfulness that eventually creeps in - for me this happens best when in nature. I also added some hand-lettering for the title of the article. I tweaked the colors to move towards more of a blue pallet, but may go back. Here's where I am with it right now....
We'll see where it goes from here. I'm trying not to over-think this one and just let it develop as it will - minding my mindfulness. ;-)
Then paint, stamps, and messy texture making background play. Fun!
Then I added the gal meditating...
And brought it into Photoshop for some doodle-type florals around her head to represent the mindfulness that eventually creeps in - for me this happens best when in nature. I also added some hand-lettering for the title of the article. I tweaked the colors to move towards more of a blue pallet, but may go back. Here's where I am with it right now....
We'll see where it goes from here. I'm trying not to over-think this one and just let it develop as it will - minding my mindfulness. ;-)