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Many of you don’t know how “I’M FINE” came to be. So I thought I’d share the story here!

The Conception of “I’M FINE”

Over a year ago, I was brainstorming concepts for a new drawing. I really wanted to create a piece that would visually reflect my personal experiences from a difficult season in my life. To share my testimony. I wanted it to be real and raw, and be a message of encouragement to others.

I thought of how deflated I felt during that time, yet how I probably didn’t appear that way outwardly. I would put on a facade and pretend that everything was fine. The concept of being deflated led me to thinking of balloons and then the image suddenly popped into my mind; a deflated smiling balloon. I knew this was it!

I had to get this exact vision down on paper before I forgot, so I immediately sat down and created the concept sketch seen above!

To create the reference photo for this drawing, I took numerous photographs of a balloon (and I mean numerous!) and experimented with different lighting and crumples. After sifting through DOZENS of photos, I chose the final image (on the left) and then removed the background in Photoshop (on the right)!

Although I initially envisioned this piece to have a white background, I had a persistent feeling that something was missing while drawing. It felt too perfect and put-together, which was the exact opposite of the thoughts and emotions I was trying to portray.

The idea of writing in the background started to emerge as I was on the final stretch of the drawing, but I was very hesitant. What if I wrote in the background and regretted it? I had already spent almost 100 hours on the balloon.

So I did a little test strip on a separate piece of paper to envision what it could look like completely covered in words. It felt like the right move; so trusting my gut I grabbed my pen, took to the paper, and didn’t look back.

Over a year later, this turned out to be one of the best decisions I have made. The journaling really MADE this piece. So many of you resonated deeply with the message of being “fine”. And with over 45 million views, it gave me an audience to further pursue this creative journey and share even more art with the world. I’m incredibly grateful for all that transpired and for all the love this piece has received!

But I’m ready to move on to even bigger and better things. The “I’M FINE” era has been wild and incredible, and I feel it’s time to find this original drawing a new home!