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I’m an old school paper, brushes, and paint gal. Digital art is a learning curve I’m still working to master. Then a client asked for a hand-painted header for her website, and I took the challenge.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it work. So, I started with what I already know. As it turned out, the process was the same almost to the end when the header needed to be placed in its digital home.

For me, everything starts on paper. Once we settled on an arrangement I made a much larger version to scale, using pencil on vellum so adjustments could be made easily. We added ferns.

Mixing colors is my favorite part of the process. I like to work in small increments, because making a mistake means starting over….

Things went really well until the end, when I smudged the paint with my hand, and technology actually saved the day. At the top I re-recreated that section and used Photoshop magic to replace the smudged area with the clean version. I can’t believe how easy it was!

Once the pencil is erased and it’s scanned into the computer, I remove the background paper in Photoshop. (The aqua background is in place to illuminate any spots I miss.)
I’m tickled with the finished product, AND thankful for the reminder that it’s okay to use the skills you have. It might not look the same as someone else’s process, but that’s okay. Let the finished project speak for itself.

When I began this blog, my goal was simple – to create fearlessly. I figured if I was struggling with it someone else out there probably was, too. That goal remains in the back of my mind as I continue to fight the perfection monster and reclaim the child-like joy of creating. Fear has no place in creativity. We are made in the image of the Master Creator and He only asks us to show up. How’s that for no pressure? Show up and be who you are. Too often I allow fear to keep me from awesome things. I listen to what-ifs and turn back to “safe.” Safe is boring. Safe doesn’t reach our goals. Safe doesn’t spark life, it hastens death.

This arrived in my in box. Not only do I love its message, it’s my colors, and I thought it would look fabulous here. It’s big enough to print out and hang on your wall as a healthy reminder. Credit Lisa Jo Baker.

This is my view today as I work. All that snow makes it BRIGHT in here! I had to pull the shades down 3/4 of the way to keep from needing my sunglasses. We don’t get much snow here in coastal Virginia, so when we do things pretty much close down – everyone’s working from home today.

There are squirrel tracks outside the back door. From the look of the muddy prints on the door, I’d say they wanted in. No wonder – it’s 12 degrees out there with a wind chill in the negatives. Brrr! I made sure my feathered friends have fresh water, and they’re thanking me by singing outside my window.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been teaching the Animation track at Regent University’s summer Film Camp. What a blast!! There were five campers, and we covered a lot of material in that short time. It was super exciting watching the lights come on in these young minds as I helped them draw their creativity to the surface.

A favorite part of camp was joint time we spent each morning with all the campers. Our theme for the week was Creation (God’s first act recorded in the bible) and our role as artists. We began the day with a film clip of some sort, and the instructors took turns presenting short devotionals that fit our theme. This time was a watering hole of sorts for me. It reminded me of how very much I love film and art and creating. Even working with high-schoolers creating silly short films is magical. It also reignited my passion to change the perception of what people consider “Christian” art.

I’ve been working on some storyboards. I couldn’t draw a stick man. There were wads of paper all over the floor. I wasn’t sure what I was battling, but I was sure I was losing miserably.

Now that the storyboards are complete I can laugh about it, but still wonder why it had to be so. hard.

There’s a powerful little book that gives the answer – “The War of Art”, by Steven Pressfield. With straight-up clarity Pressfield exposes Resistance and its tactics to thwart our dreams, goals and growth. The challenge is applying what you read, but the truth contained in this volume has the potential for being the kick in the pants you’ve been looking for, regardless the goal. It applies to everything from weight-loss to writer’s block.

Resistance is the enemy.

Creating is a birthing process. Pulling something new out of ourselves hurts!!! But WOW the excitement when we look at what we’ve accomplished, right?

I love when I muscle my way through something that stretches every limit I thought I had, only to discover there is more to me than I knew. I need to be willing to voluntarily muscle my way through more in order to create more.

I finally finished the quilt commissioned by a friend. She had seen several art quilts and fell in love, then completely trusted me to just come up with something. I said yes, having no earthly idea what I was going to do. I broke through a lot of different fears during the process, and the quilt evolved and changed – just like I was evolving and changing artistically. I am amazed at the final product and humbled at the way God works through my hands and pops ideas into my head from nowhere.

It’s titled “Foundations”. The words at the roots represent a firm family foundation: faith, honor, integrity, trust, hope, passion, purpose. The flowers (children) springing up are the result of those roots, their ancestors (in the leaves) serving as a protective covering in the branches above.

Words stamped into the “ground.

Children grow under a cover of love.

Ancestors watch from among the leaves.