Hello everybody,
I am two weeks into my Spring quarter! My new classes are Anthropology, Design History, Design Concepts, and Web Scripting.

In case you’re wondering, Design Concepts is a class about the creative process, where we practice coming up with more and better design ideas. Our first assignment was to choose an organic object and illustrate it nine different ways (by hand!), exploring different media and techniques.

I decided to celebrate and study spring via plum blossoms. The process was challenging, because I’m not very confident in traditional media! The results were exciting, though. To make it simpler, I did each illustration directly from a photo reference. Here they are, in order of completion. The true dimensions are 4″x4″. And as always, you can click for a larger version.

 

#1: Fountain pen and effaceur

 

Of the nine, this is the only zoomed-out view I chose to do. I wanted to capture the intricate texture of blossoming branches. An effaceur is a small felt tip marker whose fluid is made to erase standard fountain pen ink. So to begin with, I tried drawing contours with the effaceur, then brushing over the area with watered-down ink. It bled too much, so I reapplied detail using both the effaceur and the fountain pen.

 

#2: 4H-6B Pencil

 

The letters and numbers refer to grades of pencil lead. Hard H pencils produce finer, fainter lines, whereas B pencil lead is soft and dark. The everyday pencils we come into contact with are HB, which strikes a happy medium. Anyway, I used differing grades to create the shades. My goal was to make the blossoms look as if they were glowing, an decision I made after photoshopping my reference photo to high contrast.

 

#3: Found Paper Collage

 

This one got a little smushed in teacher transit, but the tracing-paper tendrils originally fanned out uninhibited from the page! The white and red petals are made from French boulangerie bread bags, and the stems are made from a Japanese book about… I have no idea what.
I cheated and used Illustrator to build my collage in vector shapes, the outlines of which I then printed and traced. That way, I didn’t waste any time messing up!

 

#4: Acrylic

 

I think this was the first time I touched my acrylic paints since Color Theory class ended. I realized with pleasure that I hadn’t lost my skills! Oh my goodness, I hate drawing clumped petals though. Is is not intuitive to me at all. Those of you who draw roses off the cuff, I salut you!

 

#5: Foutain pen contour line

 

A contour line drawing shows only the edges of things, without any shading. This one was pretty straightforward. Actually, all nine started out as contour line drawings, because I got the basic shapes down before deciding on the medium. With all that practice, I’ve become much better at looking at something and reproducing it accurately.

 

#6: Colored STABILO pens

 

I wanted a more abstract look for these unopened buds, so I gave them some interesting texture and color treatment. They remind me a little of the drawings in Shel Silverstein’s books…

 

#7: Childlike marker and white-out pen

 

I basically let loose on this one, after drawing a few blossoms as I felt a child would do it (circles and sticks).

 

#8: Colored pencil

 

This was unquestionably where I broke the most new ground. I never choose to use colored pencils, nor have I ever done anything so neo-impressionist before. It’s somewhat Van Gogh inspired, but I bet my method differed from his: in order to figure out what colors to use, I added colored noise to my photo reference and studied the pixels in each area! I figured out that similar value was the key to a smooth appearance, even if adjacent hues are wildly different. So, I reordered my 48 colored pencils in order of light to dark instead of rainbow order. Rather tricky. Then, I was able to quickly grab 4 or 5 pencils from the same value range and go at it. All the little controlled strokes took forever.

 

#9: Marker logo

We were required to make one of our illustrations more stylized, leaning towards the logo end of the spectrum. This one I saved for last because I knew it would require the least time to complete. Whew!