I start thinking about my calendar in early summer, usually with the intention of having it all finished by September (to give me a month to print and promote). This never happens! This year, in the spring, I kept feeling like there was going to be a theme to the calendar this time, but wasn't sure what it was or what any of the verses were going be. I like to prayerfully consider my verses and then illustrate rather than draw and find verses to match.
One day, not even thinking about the calendar, I decided to collate all the random verses that I'd been scribbling down or highlighting over the last few months. I often make a note of verses that might be used for artwork one day. Suddenly I was looking at a page of verses, most of which were all about the same thing - Praising God for his wonderful earth! There it was - my theme and verses!
Once all 12 verses were confirmed, I began to outline the illustrations to go with each one. I try to seek God on the order for the verses and what the images should be. Last year a few people got in touch to say how much a particular verse had helped them in the month they needed to see it. God is the only one who knows our needs and this makes it so important to let Him guide every step.
The next thing to do is to produce the illustrations for each page and the front cover. For me there always seems to be at least one page where I don't know what the image will be till the last minute, which is a bit scary sometimes but is a good test for me to trust God and not go off ahead with my own ideas.
Sometimes I create each page in sections as I am able to use Photoshop to put them together. For example, for my sunflower page, I painted the sky and grass as one piece, and the sunflowers were on a separate sheet. This helps if I make a mistake, but mainly enables me to alter the layout for each calendar size. Once all images are painted, they get scanned in and assembled together on each page. This year I have an A3 family planner, an A4 calendar and a slimline version. All the grids are created and added in to each page too. I usually prepare the grids very early on in the year, so they're ready for when I need them.
This time, rather than handwriting each verse, I created a font which was able to install on the computer. This was a huge time saver this year so something I'll be exploring more next year. The font is of my hand writing, which I prefer to a standard typed font. I quite like it being a little bit quirky and not too perfect!
So that's the process I go through to create the design. It's quite a big project to take on each year, but I love the process. I enjoy the journey of finding out the verses and seeing it all come together. I also enjoy seeing the development in my art work compared to the previous calendar. For me there is more to it than simply creating a product to sell. It's the journey and learning that is just as important to me too.
