Hey everyone! I’m Joe, the creator of @jo.e.vial, a digital illustration account.
As someone who is extremely sentimental, I love capturing moments of people I love because photos have always been a great way for me to reminisce the memories I’ve had with my loved ones.
Out of curiosity, I decided to try out digital illustrations one day and I instantly fell in love with it. I thought it’ll be a great way to capture beautiful memories that can be customized for different uses, from framing them up to using them as wallpapers for laptops, tablets, and phones, to giving them as gifts for our loved ones. Upon experimenting with a few pieces of works, I decided to create @jo.e.vial to document my digital illustration journey and to house all the precious moments that I have illustrated and will be illustrating.
For the last 3 months since I have started out this journey, I have learnt so much more about digital illustrations, been inspired by so many amazing artists, and heartened by everyone who trusted me with customizing their illustrations.
Through my interactions with many of the artists that I have met, I realized that many of us started out this digital illustration journey as a result of Covid lockdown. Some of us have always wanted to try it but did not have the time to, while some of us simply discovered this new hobby as a result of boredom. It reminded me that we so often forget to pause, to find time to do what we want to do because we are always swarmed with an endless list of things we think we need to do. Indeed, these often work-related things may be important to us, but I have also come to realize that there will always be no end to work. It is so important for us to consciously take time out to do what we want to do even if there is absolutely no “need” for us to do them, because our mental health is just as crucial. In fact, in my journey of creating digital illustrations, there were points where I pushed myself to create and build my profile so much that I completely neglected the need to rest, resulting in me feeling burnt out even while doing
something I love.
The message I would love to share with everyone is that no matter what we do, we must remember to respect our body and to do things in moderation. We are so used to being caught up in what we do, so used to going through the motion and pushing ourselves beyond our limits that we often forget that we are still humans. And because it has become almost ingrained in us to just keep going no matter how tired we are, there is a greater need to be intentionally conscious in taking care of ourselves. It is okay to take a break. It is okay to disconnect to recharge and reconnect with yourself.
For those of you reading this, be kind to yourself and have a little break if you haven’t already. There’s always so much to do, but there’s only 1 precious you who, if collapses, will leave the endless list of things to do forever undone.
With lots and lots of love,
~Joe
*To go see all her simply elegant portrait illustrations head to @jo.e.vial on Instagram!
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