I hope your cups are as full as they can be right now, and if they aren't that is okay too. My February was a bit of a wild ride of emotions, but it ended on a meanigful note. Nestled cozily in my mailbox was my printed copy of The ABCs of Grief: Emotions and Feelings by Jessica Correnti. If you are new here, I illustrated the first and second book of this series geared toward helping little ones (and big ones alike) understand grief and navigate their emotions and feelings. I am soooo excited to share the second book with you. Seeing my illustrations paired with Jessica's insightful words is such a meaningful moment for me, and I know its going to help so many little ones on their grieving and healing journeys.
While the first book is a broad view of what grief is and all of its misconceptions, the second book dives deep into all of the emotions and feelings that you can have while grieving ranging from sadness to joy to anger to relief and the list goes on. Jessica tasked me with creating the illustrations to each letter of the alphabet, and as a lovely little dive into the book I gathered a sneak peek of three of my favorite pages below.
Three Emotions and Feelings Explored
Edgy: "E is for Edgy...At times I feel nervous and afraid that more difficult things will happen." - Jessica Correnti
Boy did I feel this one! When something bad happens my brain spirals, waiting for more bad to happen. In approaching this illustration I immediately imagined fear and scary thoughts following me around like my shadow. I illustrated this feeling once before, but it really felt like it belonged on this page.
Guarded: "G is for Guarded...I hold my feelings close to my heart. I am unsure if I am ready to share what is on my mind with the world." - Jessica Correnti
This one hit hard for me too. It's easy to feel protective over our emotions, especially when we don't quite understand what they are. I have a tendency to guard my feelings tightly until I've processed and reflected upon them. For this illustration I had a few different ideas, but this one I kept coming back to: Warriors standing guard to the entrance to a castle door. I wanted to bring the heart idea into the fold, so I illustrated it carved into the door like a fortress.
Loving: "L is for Loving...I feel so much love through my pain. Love can travel through time and space. My love can even reach the sky." - Jessica Correnti
This may be one of my favorite pages of the book, and the perfect example of how we can feel two opposite things at once: sadness and joy, fear and love, and so on. It's hard for me to process and accept that it's okay to feel love and joy when I'm sad. It feels like I'm dismissing the grief I'm feeling, but in reality we grieve because something mattered to us. And isn't it a wonderful thing to have cared and loved something that much!
For this illustration, my space series came to mind, but with a twist: A shooting heart! I imagined my heart zooming through the night sky and I imagined taking a rocket to the stars and grabbing hold of the shooting heart!
This book was very impactful for me. While illustrating this book my mom started her chemo treatment and stem cell transplant. Simultaneously I was navigating my first year as a new mom. I was experiencing incredible highs and incredible lows, sometimes all in the same day. But every time I sat down to work on this book I found myself immersed in a bit of therapy. Not only is drawing and painting such a helpful tool in and of itself for my mental health, but thinking through Jessica's words on grief was so beneficial for me to understand what I was feeling.
I truly hope you all enjoy the second book as much as I do. I'm so proud of my illustrations and I hope it helps all the little and big grievers in the world.
You can buy your own copy here.
Until next time, Rachel
Hello my Snazzy Snakes and Happy February and Happy Lunar New Year to you all!!!
I know what you're thinking!! Rachel, I don't want to be a snake. They're icky and scary and all of the slithery things. I too thought these things for the longest time! But this year, I decided to look up the meaning of the snake and was so moved by the symbolism that I am fully embracing its vibes.
I was born in the year of the snake in 1989 and never thought twice about it except that I hate snakes. But I read that the year of the snake is about shedding your skin, releasing that which you don't need to hold onto anymore, and embracing your new self. Chills!!!!
After a year of motherhood, this is something I'm trying to do. Let go of gripes, let go of things that make me anxious (major work in progress here), and move forward with only the things I need.
I was so moved by the symbolism and the fact that Valentine's Day is upon us, that a little snake illustration was in order (and exciting news, you're receiving a freebie download of this print!!)
But before we get into that I thought it would be fun to show you a little behind the scenes how I made this design.
Let's get into it:
I made this in the Procreate Drawing App on my Ipad using my apple pencil. It's a tool that has become such an integral part to my art process. Sometimes I soley draw pieces on the Ipad, and other times I use it to sketch out ideas or tidy up a scanned in painting.
For the snake, I started with a quick sketch, knowing I wanted the moon, and some hearts in the mix.
Then I made a quick color palette and color-blocking sketch to help me see what route I wanted to head in. This technique is newer to my practice. I have a tendency to be impatient and dive in, which can be great, but if I'm working quickly a thumbnail color blocking sketch helps me not do as much negative work.
After creating a thumbnail, I enlarged it to the size of my final design. Then, I lowered the opacity and started drawing over top of the sketch. I blocked out color in the final design, first with the snake, then the blue hearts.
After getting all of my major pieces into the design, I removed my sketch layer and toyed around with different textures and slight color variations (keeping my color palette in mind). As you can see, I ultimately decided the moon needed to be lighter in color, so this was the final product.
She's chic and confident and at peace (in my humble opinion).
You can download your art print below. Feel free to print, share, and tag me on social @artbynieman
I'll see you beauties in March!
xoxo
Rachel
Happy New Year My Beautiful Butterflies!!!
Holy Moly to the Nth Degree!!! I can't believe we're here in 2025. As I approached Leonora's first birthday at the end of November I started to reflect on where I was the previous year. Then, as we approached the Holiday season, that reflection and nostalgia truly kicked into high gear. Last year at this time we spent the Holiday season in Houston with a newborn. Our family lives in Ohio, and while we got some lovely visitors, we mainly cozied up just the three of us (plus Frankie) and navigated this life with a newborn. The holidays didn't feel like the holidays being so sleep-deprived in baby mode. So, this year everything felt extra special. We went to Ohio to be with family and celebrated as though this was Leonora's first holiday season. We watched Christmas movies, lit the menorah each night of Hanukkah, snacked on yummy holiday treats, and enjoyed the chilly weather amongst friends and family.
We're now back in Houston and I'm finding my bearings for 2025 and looking back at 2024. It was the year of change and adaption. After maternity leave, I had to learn how to create a better work-life balance and learn to embrace moving at a much slower pace. I had so many setbacks with work due to the gazillion illnesses that come with daycare and emotional pauses with my mom's stem cell transplant. But every time I felt behind Ricky would remind me this is a year of new standards and my best is different each and every week. I too had to remind him of this sentiment when he felt like he wasn't doing enough.
Despite all of these major changes and pivots, I dug into my creativity and tapped into my imagination for so many fun projects.
I painted the illustrations for the second book of the ABCs of Grief series and saw the first book make its way into the world and little hands all over the country.
I created 12 new paintings for a wall calendar that sold out before the end of December (Thank you to all of you who bought one for your walls). I navigated time with my family during and after my mom's treatment (she is in remission and her hair is growing back!!).
We took a trip to France with our sweet baby Leonora (with a few mini weekend trips along the way to prepare ourselves). I created beautiful chalk art, and adorable illustrations for clients and myself.
I worked on my children's book (while I didn't finish it I made so much progress and can't wait to wrap it up this year).
It was a year that moved at a slower pace but was a year that I learned how much can still be accomplished when you're moving at an intentional and deliberate pace. I'm hoping to carry this into 2025.
Looking forward I'm working on my hopes for the year. Amongst the list is of course finishing the book I wrote. I'm seriously so close ... at this point, it's more about getting this project out of my flippin' head so I can move on to other things. It's been a pet project that has ebbed and flowed in excitement...coming in and out of focus when I was inspired or needed a break.
I'm also excited to receive my copy of the ABCs of Grief: Emotions and Feelings later this year and work on Book 3 of the ABCs of Grief series.
I'm hoping to work on some back-of-house items that are less exciting from an artistic perspective but oh-so-necessary for growth. I'd love to hear what you all have in store for your year. I like to think of the new year as a mere continuation of the last. A way to build upon things that already exist or remove a few blocks from the pile of life to better focus on what matters. The New Year feels a little more hopeful and a little less stressful when I think of it that way.
Cheers to your 2025 my lovelies!
I'll chat with you soon,
Rachel
