Bird By Bird
This week, I don’t have any meaty thoughts for you to chew on. But I am bringing you a picture for your fridge to say “I love you fam!”
Many of the projects I work on, I feel a certain obligation to them. They weigh heavily on my heart and I think I’m responsible for bringing them to life, so to speak. But lately, I’ve needed to refill my my creative well with simply enjoying my crafts.
I’ve been rolling a story around in my brain (we should start making a list of the analogies I use for what goes on in my noggin😆) about an interesting couple of neighbors I had a child. It could have been a novel, maybe a mystery. But since their name was Starling, it seems just too perfect for a small illustrated story which also fits the bill for a project to refresh my soul.
So I wanted to share my sketches and paintings with you! It has been challenging for me to draw just for the sake of practice. I stink at practicing anything. I generally just want to pick it up and be good at it; I mean don’t we all? But I’m trying to work on it. So here is a pencil drawing of a starling I did in church. (It helps me listen I promise!)
This little Starling book will hopefully have the flavor of a Beatrix Potter with a hint of parable. Maybe it will only ever be a tale I tell my children, but I am ACTUALLY practicing so that the illustrations are quality. Here’s a Western Bluebird that I drew to get the feel of watercolor pencils again. I love being able to have a watercolor foundation but also add detail where I want it!
Elicia Johnson 2021 Watercolor Pencil
Original from Birds & Blooms
I mentioned this before: I’m not as passionate about art as I am about writing. That makes it less risk to share (if people don’t like it, I don’t care!) But it also makes it difficult to practice because I see my shirt-comings and I’m not especially bothered by them.
Anne Lamotte wrote one of the most enjoyable and authentic books on writing. In it (amongst reality coated in hilarity) she passes on advice her father gave her brother when writing for school. You just write. Take one bird at a time and eventually, bird-by-bird you will finish the project.
Well here I am, going quite literally bird-by-bird; only I’m the project. Each day, I’m learning a little more consistency, dedication, patience and that true passion has a constancy to it that only grows if you show up and feed it.
Here are the first couple of illustrations for the Starling book, in which we meet Mr. and Mrs. Starling in their natural habitat: a very nice mauve tinted trailer with lilacs all about. I’m sure I’ll think of a killer title in my sleep one of these days. I’ll also choose not to write it down when I wake up at 2AM because I think I’ll remember it and then I’ll bring you a fairly good title some time after that.
Honestly this little book is such a balm to my soul. Recently someone I love and respect very much watched a movie about one of my favorite humans in history and compared me to her. You can probably guess who, but I feel so presumptuous writing her name out for you. But words have such power. And now every time I pick up a brush or pencil, I remember those words and I think of that heroine and my heart swells. I imagine my heart looks a lot like the little engine that could about half way up the hill.
I see the room for improvement and I can finally say, “That was fun; let’s do it again. Better this time.” I can finally believe that if I keep doing that, I could make something excellent when before I beloved excellence was out of my league. Thank you for helping me to dream, but also to live and enjoy and play.
Studying different positions of flight of the swallows at the bridge.
Maybe you have some of those limiting beliefs too. {That’s not for me. I’m not very good. Maybe one day. There are too many other people doing that. I’m too ____. } You should work on that.
Seriously, the air is so much fresher and the world is so much brighter once you start to peel away pieces of your identity that God never intended to be there.
So I guess I lied. There’s a little something to chew on.
