Teacher Wellbeing Cards - Illustrations for improved teacher wellbeing
- kainwhite1
- Jul 7
- 3 min read
Over the first six months of 2025, I have been heavily focused on completing a series of 32 card illustrations designed for publisher Innovative Resources. Thanks to John for inviting me and Sue, Kirsty, Matt and the rest of the team there. A truly wonderful bunch of humans to work with.
The set of cards are primarily aimed at school teachers to assist in wellbeing related activities. As an educator, I resonated with this concept from day one and jumped at the chance to help create what is hopefully a very useful and special set of cards to help teachers with finding more support in the workplace. Teaching on the outside, seems like an 'easy' job, with all the holidays, good pay and largely a positive environment. But there are many aspects of the profession that can be extremely challenging and difficult to pin down.
Teaching is EXTREMELY rewarding, but burnout is a real challenge for almost everyone in the field. I have had several different roles in my 8 years officially as an educator and now work a small position coaching art students at a secondary school while running my own art education resource website that provides lessons to teachers all over the world at NetSpaceArts. This is rewarding for me, but I still miss the buzz of the classroom....sometimes.
The biggest drain I always found was the amount of creative energy you consume on a daily basis. By the end of the week, there is very little left for your own creative projects. Feeling supported in the workplace can be hugely beneficial to avoid becoming drained and hopefully these cards assist in acheiving just that. I won't elaborate much more in this but if you would like to learn more, go to the Innovative Resources website mentioned above.
During the process, I was assigned to come up with a series of designs that were to be linked to conversation prompt words like 'passion, courage and joy' that are intentionally chosen to promote introspection and thought that can help with general wellbeing practices.
The aesthetic we arrived at was to include a loose watercolour wash combined with some selective pen lines and paper textures. I completed this series in layers that were combined on the computer using transparent layers. This gave us a chance to refine the designs so when they are all laid out on a table, no one card dominates over the other.
I began with pencil sketches, then once we had a design that seemed promising, I created more layers to work with. One watercolour and one pen. A total of 3 layers per card was created, with some not making the final cut. In total I created around 100 individual drawings and watercolour images (each of the 32 final cards is 3 images combined plus some that were not used) to reach the final designs.
Using all of the above layers, I scanned everything into Affinity Photo and added them all as layers over each other, using the 'multiply function' in the layers panel (which is commonly used when layering images like this), I was able to isolate what I wanted from each layer without losing details. I added a few final touches and ensured everything looked consistent, then sent the designs away for feedback!
Check out the video below for some of the steps in time lapse
The completed package comes in a plush looking slip case with a high quality finish overall
The teacher resource cards themselves are based on years of research by lecturer in education Dr Kristina Turner & Psychologist Professor Monica Thielking. Both have extensive knowledge in the education field and recognise the need for a greater range of teacher wellbeing resources. Having worked for many years as an educator, I think my experience in the classroom (and beyond) has helped inform my creative decisions.
Check out the rest of the range at http://innovativeresources.org/
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