Coloring Inside the Lines

Not every day goes how I want it to.

What person's day does?

On those days when I am struggling to find the creative flow,

I revert back to my childhood.

It's like a throw-back Thursday, only creatively.

:)

Around Christmas time I found this kit marketed toward children

by a company called Dejeco.

The kit included 4 small pre-printed outlines on mat board,

8 markers, and an instruction booklet written by the artist

to show you how to complete the "painting."

A grown-up coloring book, if you will.

A paint-by-numbers...kind of.

A...well, you get the idea.

I fell in love with the whimsical, fantastical drawings and 

knew I had to get it...not for a Christmas gift for an artistically inclined child on my list, 

but to color myself.

I have very fond memories of spending rainy afternoons as a child

coloring in coloring books,

and then later as a pre-teen, coloring in those graphic design books

that were like kaleidoscope images.

It was always soothing, comforting, and a zen activity for me growing up.

Geared to ages 7-13, this kit was not meant for adults,

but my childhood love of coloring reared its head and convinced

me to overlook my embarrassment of buying a childhood art project for my

40 year old self.

I am so glad I did, though.

On days when I am just not feeling it,

I open this kit and just spend some quiet time

(sometimes alone, sometimes with my kids drawing next to me)

mindlessly filling in the blank board with texture and color.

It is not only therapeutic for my mind...very zen...but also

artistically therapeutic, as it gives me new ideas for projects and techniques.

I am sharing one of those boards here.

I do have to say, though, that I was not completely satisfied with just coloring it.

After I completed it the way the artist wanted me to in the instruction booklet,

I scanned the project and used my digital artist's toolkit in photoshop

to complete a transformation on the piece,

making it more of my own.

I am past my embarrassment of reverting back to coloring

and sharing this with you here in the hopes that it sends the message

that it is OK to reconnect with that inner 7 year old

in order to clear the mind, reconnect with a child-like excitement of the world,

and move past a stalemate in your creative process.

xo