Apr 12, 2014

home decor design: time for joy

I've been quiet this week. I worked very hard.
Home decor was this week's theme for the e-course Make Art That Sells
Bedding, table ware, kitchen linens, bathroom items and anything else that
decorates your home. Again a totally new market for me.

Our assignment was to make 1 - 4 plates. I made these three:



Let me tell you something about my creative process.
On monday Lilla Rogers gave us the new subject: succulents.
I had to look it up in my dictionarry. We call them: fat plants.
To be honest I was a bit disappointed.

But after googling and seeing all these weird shapes, I began to see the fun of it.
I drew lots of plants, with pencil, markers, pen and ink and collage.
It's a great oppurtunity to try different techniques and discover new things.
Two days of playing not knowing where it's leading to...
I made a lot of these simple cut out forms. Different from what I normally make.




Then the assignment came: Plates. Huh, with these shapes?
My brain was working fast. How am I going to make this into something that suits me.
All those weird shapes. A weird world. I had to think of Alice in Wonderland.
Ah! Alice in Succuland! That was a beginning.
Then I could draw a person, that's what I like! I chose some of my succulent icons.

In the ink drawings I had seen some birds appear:




So I had a woman, a bird and my succlent shapes. I began sketching
My plan was to make four little scenes of Alice in Succuland.
I found out this idea was far too complicated for this purpose.
So I changed it and gave the woman some 'succulent' attributes.
And I've added the bird.




Now it was very challenging to add two more plates to make a series.
I made a lot of variations, looking for unity. For now I'm satisfied.
But there's a lot more to learn. The series is called: time for joy!
It maybe wasn't that easy, but at least I had fun (and sometimes not) during the process.

It also helps a lot to see all the other submissions.
Very inspiring to see how everybody deals with the subject.
Will be continued... :-)

6 comments:

Unknown said...

de borden, bordjes die een verhaaltje vertellen en het komt allemaal goed op het grote bord;
mooi resultaat van een week hard werken en er in geslaagd een idee voor een heel servies te ontwerpen want hier kunnen ook nog andere borden, schaaltjes bij, als je zou willen.

knap gedaan!!

Jeannie Hunt said...

Thanks for this post and for sharing your process. I love the drawings and the plates.

Anonymous said...

Lovi it! In what program you draw, Corel, Illustrator?

nelleke said...

thanks, Martina! I'm a Photoshop fan, but I also like to draw on paper and scan it, and then continue in Photoshop.

Sandra van Doorn said...

This is just great. it sounds like a really good class! xo

tanjawilmot said...

oh oh, your succulents are wonderful, so simple. thanks for sharing about your process - I'm tempted to look into this class as a result. but most of all, it's so nice to see play and joy, and your willingness to try new things.