This past fall I worked on a custom watercolor for a dear friend. Her (super smart) husband was defending his dissertation and she was looking for a gift that incorporated his epitaph, the John Muir quote:

The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.

John Muir, the American naturalist and author, traveled the world and wrote extensively about the importance of preserving the outdoors. He was involved in the creation of Yosemite National Park and is often called the "Father of Our National Park System." You can read more about him here.

I was thrilled to begin working on the watercolor and knew I had to incorporate some outdoor elements. I typically start with drafting a few ideas in a sketch book and then switch to Adobe Illustrator to refine the design. Once the customer chooses his or her favorite design, I start painting! For this watercolor, sketched three design options and eventually we landed on one that incorporated the mountains and a forest. These are the three design options I created for this particular watercolor:

My idea for the first design was to go with something very bold and graphic. In this option, the black portion of the design would be painted with various shades of green watercolor while the words remained white. The second and third options incorporated the outdoor elements around the text. The second option won the contest so I started painting right away. See some of the in-progress photos of the work below.

And this was the final result!

After I sent off the completed watercolor, I painted the third design option and added it to my shop (see below). Click here to purchase this hand painted watercolor for yourself! In addition, I took the first design option and created a different watercolor with a fun, new quote. Click here to see that one (spoiler alert: it says "find joy in each day").