Life-Cycle of an Idea

One morning about a week ago I was extremely stressed out - and had been for a couple of weeks. To the point of needing to start taking beta-blockers because my heart-rate was galloping every time I got upset. 

So in an effort to find stress relief I started researching art retreats and yoga retreats and dreamed of how nice it would be to have the time and money to attend one. As I was reading about all the amazing art experiences out there, I got really excited about the idea of trying to create the atmosphere of a retreat for myself. 

I decided the place to start was here on this fallow blog - I could set up exercises for myself to create art and talk about it here. I became so inspired that ideas just came tumbling out onto my sketchbook page. I couldn't concentrate on my work, my heart was racing (apparently beta-blockers aren't just for stress situations) and I made tons of plans.

Of course, this was all terribly short-lived. As you can see in my illustration, around 4:15pm the real-world came crashing through the front door (literally - my 9 year old son and his friend home from day camp) and my stress levels returned to their previous mid-morning levels.

However, it was not all bad. I created this illustration and in doing so found a process I really enjoyed. I started by doing a small rough sketch, followed by what I thought was going to be the finished drawing. But, as a web and graphic designer I'm sometimes more comfortable on the computer where control-z can save my commitment-phobe butt and I can play with more colors than my current selection of markers. 

So I outlined the drawing in fine black marker, erased my pencil lines and scanned the whole thing.

Next I used Photoshop to isolate and move around the pieces I liked, colored in the drawings with transparency settings (multiply), and added the arrows and text.

I feel like it ended up with a nice hand-drawn, quasi-retro feel, but more polished than I could have achieved just by doing it as a sketch on paper (at least in the few hours I allotted to do it in anyway.)

Finally, my stress and anxiety is paying off.

Welcome to the New ViviLulu!

Hello! Today I'm relaunching ViviLulu as a design blog.

I can usually be found over at Kosher Whine writing about my family. My husband, KosherCook and 5 year old son, KosherCop, are both real characters, so there is usually something hilarious to write about.

ViviLulu, however, is about my love of art, design and crafting. By trade I'm a graphic designer, web designer, and web consultant. However, I'm completely addicted to buying craft supplies, and sometimes even use them.

I've spent the last few months following a number of craft blogs, and I'm
blown away by the generosity and sharing spirit among craft bloggers. People are always giving away the most amazing demos, sharing new and different techniques.

And more importantly I've been so inspired by the wonderful work that people showcase that I've actually spent some time on my own projects!

So I hope you'll check back often and say hello when you stop by!