September has been a big month for me.
My nest emptied.
Both our daughter's are now away at University and it feels very quiet around here all of a sudden.
To ease through this bittersweet transition of life, I have been setting aside a little time for creative play.
It began with a bit of reflection on my own University days, back when I studied Illustration and Graphic Design. I found my old graduation show portfolio, blew away the layer of dust and had a good flick through the pages.
Inside it, I discovered a project that I remember gave me so much joy to create.
It was a set of paper-crafted, pop up greetings cards inspired by Victorian cards and ephemera. Clearly, I was sending a message to the universe that I dearly wanted to design greetings cards all those years ago!...
It got me thinking...
A lovely way to craft myself out of the empty nest blues, would be to experiment with a similar project using some of my existing illustrations as the starting point.
This time, create little pop-up tunnel book style images, because that would feel like I am bringing my 2D drawings to life.
In many of my illustrations, I like to lead the viewer in by playing with depth of field. Often by placing an abundance of foliage and flowers in the foreground, then something wild and wonderful roaming around in the middle ground...
If I do this in 2D with my drawings, then why not try to re-create these scenes in 3D.
It will be fun trying and helps focus the mind on doing something lovely. It's also a great way to spend some time away from screens and online noise.
A time to breathe, relax and sharpen the mind by using hands and analog tools to create, with simply paper and paint...
It's a start and it feels good.
I don't know where it is leading but I don't think that really matters right now. It's the fact that it made me feel happy, relaxed, inspired and amused for a couple of hours - that is all the reason I need to create this.
There's still lots to add to this little side project, I shall return to this and hope to share more with you on it soon.
Best wishes
Angie