Sketching My Spring Flowers Collection
Something I love to see other creatives share are their sketchbooks and their behind the scenes processes, so I thought I would give you some insight into how I created my spring flowers collection.
I really enjoyed creating these designs. These are some of my sketchbook pages for you to see how I developed the designs that I came up with for the final collection.
I created these pages in my Seawhite A6 sketchbook a few months ago, inspired by some Instagram images from Maison M. I loved the vibrancy of the colours and working in a smaller sketchbook made me work simply and quickly which added a spontaneity to my style that I really liked.
I started hunting out pictures of spring flowers and bulbs on Instagram and found lots of lovely images to be inspired by.
I particularly liked informal bouquets of flowers created by people in their homes, rather than formal arrangements by professionals.
Simple hyacinth bulbs in pots along with a jar of vibrant red tulips
I like working with block colours in watercolour and use pen and Parker ink to give definition. I love the illustrator Quentin Blake, and the simplicity of his style and materials. He still manages to give so much character to his illustrations, particularly when he draws animals and people.
A stylised sketch of some camomile flowers using watercolour and a dip pen
Using different materials in my paintings and sketches always gives me energy, so I experimented with using Pentel oil pastels as well as Winsor and Newton watercolours and Caran d'Ache coloured pencils. I also used some Winsor and Newton Brushpens when I wanted to work quickly and try out different compositions.
This is an abstract piece inspired by pink tulips with bright green leaves that I created using oil pastels and watercolour
Some of the flowers I captured seemed to be more suited to repeat pattern designs, so I have started to create a collection of surface pattern designs using these. Keep an eye out for updates on my portfolio pages for new ranges that I’m developing.
