Week 37: Neurographic Monarch Wing

Welcome to Week 37 of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey. I’m Melinda, and I’m here to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and establish a healthy habit of creative self-care through my simple form of art journaling.

This week we’re revisiting neurographic art. The first time I tried neurographic art, inspired by an Instagram reel by one of my favorites, Andrea Nelson, I didn’t realize it was neurographic art. But I did notice that the loose lines and softened edges and joints reminded me of the patterns on a monarch butterfly’s wings.

And I decided that revisiting neurographic art, and using that particular natural beauty as inspiration was a perfect creative-self care small-art activity for this week’s art-journal page.

I started with longer not quite horizontal wavy and widely-spaced branched lines, for the main orange part of the wing. Crossed by more vertical and curvier lines on the right side of my page for the white-spotted black edge.

I find this type of art so relaxing.

Enjoy making your lines, and softening all the pointy spots where they meet. If you’d like to create a look similar to a monarch wing, keep the softening small on the elongated part. Widen your lines and softening further to create the look of the edging. The lines get so wide you lose sight of the fact they’re lines, while you create rounded white spaces like the irregular dots on this type of butterfly’s wings.

Be mighty

Monarchs are pretty impressive. The ones born later in the summer in my part of the world have significantly longer lifespans than those born earlier in the season. They need the extra time to fly up to 2,500 miles to Mexico. It’s amazing a creature as delicate as a butterfly is capable of that.

Is there something you’ve accomplished, or gotten through, that you weren’t sure you could? Or that others doubted, or made you doubt, you would?

Use that as your journaling prompt this week.

You’re more capable, and you’re stronger, than you think.

If a butterfly can escape the coming cold to fly all the way to Mexico, you can take on whatever challenge you’re facing.

Take time to make art

I’m proud of you for taking this time for creative self-care. Art-making is not a waste of time. It’s balancing. I’ve said it I don’t know how many times before, and I’m saying again that choosing to take time to regularly make art was transformative for. Don’t be like me and take years to give yourself permission to be creative. There really isn’t always something more important. Mental health is important. And exercising creativity in ways we enjoy and find meaningful is vital to our mental health.

Feel free to add lines to your butterfly wing as you go. I did. Both for aesthetics, and because I find this type of art-making so relaxing and balancing.

When you’re happy with your lines and dots, add monarchy color. I used orange, red, and yellow from my little Crayola set to once again show that reclaiming your creativity doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. If you’d like to be more creative with your color, or leave it black and white, it’s your art. Do what works for you.

I’ll be back next week with another small-art and journaling prompt. In the meantime, enjoy some neurographic-butterfly-wing-making, and feel free to click here to check out or revisit past prompts.

If you decide to share your work on social media to encourage others to reclaim their creativity and establish a healthy habit of creative self-care, tag me melindavanry on Instagram or melindavanrydesign on Facebook. You can also use #artjournalwithmelinda. If you’d like a smaller safe place to share, be encouraged, and encourage others on this journey, click here to sign up for my weekly email and invitation to join the private Art Journal Journey Facebook group.

Thanks for the opportunity to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and practice creative self-care.