Friendly Earthlings - a new art adventure

The week leading up to Earth Day had me thinking a lot about how to give back to the planet and how to share these thoughts with others. On a walk through a local conservation area, I was crouched next to some mossy rocks trying to get a better look at them. I took some up close photos of the moss on the rocks.

While looking at these photos I thought about how cool it would be to be small enough to see moss up close like this all the time. You’d have to be a pretty small person. Over the next thirty minutes of the walk, I couldn’t let go of this idea and I started thinking “what if I just draw teeny tiny people enjoying nature onto these photos?”.

For the rest of the hike that day, I took one close-up photo after the other. The photos stayed in my camera roll for a few days. I was mulling over the little people idea, not really sure if I was going to go ahead with it after all.

But the Friday before Earth Day, I had some time in the morning before having to go to work and I decided to just give it a go.

I chose a photo of some mud with a blurred pond visible in the back. Looking at it, I could picture someone in yellow rain boots splashing around in the mud. And that’s what I drew. Stomping around in mud was probably one of my favourite things to do as a kid.

Here you can see the before and after:

And since then I have made a lot more of them - they are so fun and easy.