Surface Patterns for Hot Summer Days
This July has been wonderful in Finland. I have enjoyed gardening and photographing and it shows in my art journal too.
Both the wildflowers and flowers in the garden look great with a dark background. So when I made the drawing with colored pencils, I added some shadows too. Great way to express sunshine is to combine black with yellow!
But my main focus was on summer fabrics. It is so much fun to design prints for summer dresses.
The collage of the left is an old one. A sketch for a surface pattern made in 2011. It was made by cutting circles from handdecorated papers. This time I replicated the design by cutting circles from stamped papers.
The summery prints are mostly made by stamping here. Paper scraps like old scrapbooking papers can be altered easily with markers, colored pencils and stamps. I always try to add subtle color variation in the background to keep the result interesting. Thinking about shadows help here too.
As you can see, my colored pencils are always with me! Hopefully your summer has been as wonderful as mine!
From Photos to Art Nouveau – Doodling on Photos
One of my favorite styles, art nouveau, thrives from natural forms. So, when I am walking in the garden, I see art nouveau everywhere. I often have a camera in my hand, and I snap photos while admiring the flowers.
When checking photos after one of those walks, this snapshot of martagon’s flower buds caught my eye. It almost shouted art nouveau to me. Its shape reminded me of the Mackintosh lamp shades seen in Scotland a month ago.
Art Nouveau Martagon
I printed the photo on Canon matte photo paper. Simply using markers and gel pens, I doodled streamlined shapes to move the martagon to the era of renewal and decorative beauty.
In the original photo, the direction of the elements was downwards. I wanted to change the composition so that it would be upwards. The upward direction would refer to the spiritual renewal, a centric theme in art nouveau. I doodled several upward shapes like the flower seen in the upper right corner.
The colors of the plant were also a source of inspiration. I wanted to keep the narrow range of colors seen in the stem but also brighten the muted tones with splashes of bright green and pink.
Drawing on a photo was such a fun process that I will do it again. One idea would be to create art nouveau portraits. Art Nouveau style doodles would look great on portrait photos too. Actually, like in the best days of art nouveau, anything can be “beautified”!
Doodling on Photos
This was not the first time I used the technique of drawing on the photo.
In 2010, I combined doodles and a photo. This page was also very easy to do:
1) doodle with pens on the background paper
2) attach a photo and then doodle on the photo.
More projects with doodling on prints
These posts also combine printed images and doodling:
>> Subconscious Goals
>> Creating Wood
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Find Where You Belong to
It took just a few seconds looking at the pictures of folk dresses to become almost overwhelmingly inspired. I hurried to my fashion themed Smash book and created this art journal spread.
And then I had to make even one more page. Folklore and folk art always make me feel like this: fabulous! They give me both the sense of belonging and the sense of freedom. I feel that I am one part of the long chain of all the women, of Finnish women, of my mother and grandmothers. At the same time I am not defined by them, just empowered by them. With folk style, I can express my roots and origin without constraints.
They say that one of the basic needs is to belong to someone, to somewhere. I think that creating art can greatly enforce that feeling.
What kind of art makes you feel like that you are included? Maybe enjoying creating is not so much about finding one’s personal style but finding ways to feel belonged.
If you want to develop, it will be insufficient to create art that touches only you. You will want to get connected to other people as well. I claim that the deeper you go in your own self-expression, the more you will also touch others. Our mothers and grandmothers may have very little in common but we can share the goal to create something new and original from our heritage.
We do not have to think shapes or lines. It is often enough to dive into the colors. For me, colors represent the feeling. Shapes and lines are just to support them.
Find the colors from your origin and mix them with the colors of your present life. You are free to create any combinations! The best colors give you the sense of belonging. They will also inspire you to create art that is filled with meaning.
See this journal fully finished! >> Watch the flip-through video!
Draw Your Own Fonts
“I am very much down to earth, just not this earth“, says this little art journal page which I made for my fashion themed art journal. The quote is from a famous fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. I kind of relate to his quotes and predict that my art journal will be full of them! Namely, I have found creating lettering so much fun! These two great books have inspired me for that.
The books are:
1) Draw Your Own Fonts (also with a name Draw Your own Alphabets) by Tony Seddon
2) Creative Lettering by Jenny Doh
Both of these books try to bridge the gab between graphic designers and art journalers. If you want simple exercises and skeleton like starting points, I would recommend Tony Seddon’s book.
Draw Your Own Alphabets introduces each font as a simple concept which you can alter easily. It is also a workbook where you can practice drawing the fonts. I find this book easy and practical and every skeleton inspires me to create my own version of it. Clearly, if you are a graphic designer wanting to learn how to create elegant fonts, this book is not the best for you. But if you are an art journaler or card maker who wants to have fun with lettering, this book is just what you need to get started.
All the fonts shown in the art journal page are based on Draw Your Own Alphabets.
Another book that I have and like is Creative Lettering. It introduces 16 artists who show their way to use alphabets. The artists have very different styles from each other, which is great and which really inspires to use alphabets in different ways.
Creative Lettering is more beautiful than the previous one and it is still pretty easy to pick ideas from it. I am quite picky when purchasing books but these two I can warmly recommend!
(If you wondered how did I made the background of the page, it is explained in the blog post a while ago.)