J is for Journey

My husband says I work well under constraints ... creatively that is.

As usual, I thinks he is right. That is the reason that I post according to the alphabet. I have done this every year for five years and it is consistently a recipe for creative freedom and new process.

During November I spend lots of time thinking about the letter I am about to work on. Sometimes, especially early in the alphabet, the hardest part is choosing among options. But try J and Q and Z and things are more of a challenge. Yet I always find something. Check out the other AEDM art on this blog to see how I have done it over the years.

Yesterday, I day, I did a word drawing based on the letter I. The process worked for me on every level - brainstorming words, drawing and writing them in a pleasing pattern, then designing and painting and playing with Photoshop. I was delighted with the results and with the pure pleasure I had in making that piece of art.

So today I did J. Slightly different approach - I drew/wrote the words that J suggests, creating letters to reflect the images of the words. I added lines until "something" appeared to me. My thoughts today are an upcoming journey, mostly, but also on snakes, because I spent the weekend with my favorite four year old herpetologist. When I looked at my drawing made of words, there in the center is a stunning snake.

Today, instead of coloring, I decided to go digital and developed this image into layers and filled them with color. I love the cheery scene that I see. What do you see? What can you read?

This is in interesting way to make art, and I want to continue exploring what happens when I combine words and pictures.