February’s Creative Journey: Arts on Prescription & Ancient Egypt Project
Hey friends!
What a month it’s been! If January was all about setting intentions, then February has been about living them out, taking action, and embracing everything that comes with it. It’s been a time of working toward my goals but also allowing space for things to unfold naturally, trusting that everything is falling into place just as it should. I’ve been reminding myself daily: “Everything is always working out for me” and it’s become a gentle affirmation that keeps me grounded. Even when things don’t go according to plan, I know it’s all part of the bigger picture.
So, here’s a little glimpse of what I’ve been up to this month…
🌿 Arts on Prescription – Step Up Course
I’ve been so grateful to have had the opportunity to assist Anne-Marie with the Arts on Prescription Step Up course, a 12-week creative course for adults with mild to moderate mental health challenges who come together to get creative and give themselves some much needed ‘me time’. As the assistant/ shadow artist, I’ve had the joy of welcoming participants, setting up, and helping Anne-Marie create a welcoming, supportive space for everyone to express themselves through art. From the start, I felt welcomed by the group, and it’s been amazing to see how each person has grown over the past weeks. The group has been full of kind, encouraging people who share a love for art – it’s really been the highlight of my month!
We’ve explored so many creative techniques, and here’s a quick peek at what we’ve done so far:
🦚 Week 1: Collages using paper and interesting materials to create a peacock image.
🌿 Week 2: Painting Indian-inspired designs onto dried and pressed leaves using Posca pens (acrylic paint in a pen form).
🪶 Week 3: Celebrating Burns Night with mono printing of thistles and roses and creating paper tartan.
🐍 Week 4: Designing fans to celebrate Chinese New Year, Year of the Snake.
🐝 Week 5: Inspired by the old tradition “tell it to the bees,” we used acrylic paint to create art on repurposed plastic from unused coronavirus face shields.
❤️ Week 6: Embossed metal Valentine’s hearts (or whatever we felt like creating!).
I’ve been so grateful to meet such a lovely group of people, and it’s been incredible to see everyone’s skills grow. It’s really heartwarming to share a space where we can all talk about our work, encourage one another, and just be in the moment. I’m already looking forward to the second half of the course!
📚 What I’m reading
I’ve also been diving into a new book this month: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. This is a fantasy romance series that I wouldn’t normally go for, but something about the blurb caught my attention. I’m currently listening to the audiobook at 1.3x speed while following along with the physical book, which helps me concentrate and block out distractions.
The book cover itself is so beautifully simple – I really love the colours and design, which was illustrated by HappyPets and designed by Patti Ratchford, the Creative Director at Bloomsbury Publishing New York (such a cool job!). As for the story, I’m still in the early chapters, and I’m not sure what to think just yet. The synopsis goes:
“Feyre is a huntress. She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a high price…”
I’m curious to see where the story goes. Hopefully, by my next blog, I’ll have finished it!
✏️ What I’ve been creating
I’ve been working on this super fun interactive lift-the-flap book all about Ancient Egypt! I thought it’d be a quick little project I could finish it in a few weeks, but it’s taken a bit longer than expected. There’s just so much to think about – like what goes under each flap, where they should be placed, and of course, making sure the content is both fun and informative. It’s also a balance between having large illustrations flowing across the double-page spread or keeping them a bit more compact – there’s a lot of experimenting happening!
Right now, I’m just focusing on the front cover and creating two double-page spreads as a mock-up to show how the book could look. It’s such a fun project to work on and will be a great addition to my portfolio! I’m also working through fun little things like coming up with interactive questions and facts, playing around with the colour scheme, and, of course, illustrating everything. So much to do!
To get inspired, I took a trip to my local Waterstones to see what’s already out there. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest, seeing all these amazing books that have entire teams working on them. But I’m really embracing the challenge of doing this solo – it’s a big task, but it’s a fun project.
I’ve also been looking back at some of my old Horrible Histories books from home to help spark some inspiration. They’ve always been such a great resource for mixing fun and facts. It’s been so cool to revisit all the fascinating things I learned about Ancient Egypt back in school, and now I get to explore it again in my own way!
So far, I’ve got my sketches and layout ideas down, and I’ve been creating the illustrations on Procreate and the layout in InDesign. It’s all coming together, but there’s still so much to do! If you have any thoughts or ideas, I’d love to hear from you – feel free to leave a comment or send me a message. 😊
What have you been up to this month? How are you turning your dreams into action? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Until next month!
💛 Love, Janki x
