Grow

Thank you for this wonderful class, Ira! I only managed to watch it a couple of days ago, so I might not be in time for the contest event T_T… But I'm happy to have completed my first Skillshare project! :)
Scan (colours not quite right)
Photo:
Art Nouveau is my absolute favourite art movement, so I was really excited to basically draw fanart of Ver Sacrum! I am more familiar with the Art Nouveau artists working from France at the time, such as Alfons Mucha, René Lalique and Émile Gallé, and their styles are a great influence on my own aesthetics.
Following the theme of Ver Sacrum, I wanted an image that conveyed a feeling of spring, imagination, and change. I chose a moth for the idea of metamorphosis, and dream. The Spanish moon moth in particular holds personal significance to me, and I liked its colour scheme.
In terms of colours, I wanted to limit the palette, following the original printing constraints of the magazine. Being a self-taught printmaker, I tried to imagine what I could do with only 3 blocks (3 colours aside from the paper colour). In drawing and painting I tend to opt for a lot of different colours on a piece, so this was an interesting challenge. I made some on the fly changes to my initial thumbnail plans, though doing this on a traditional piece always terrifies me a little, haha…
I wish I were good enough to achieve fluid lines in digital media… Since I am not, this is done with inks and gouache on watercolour paper. I did not manage to create a clean flat colour with the gouache, might try a digital fix someday... Materials used were:
- Daler-Rowney acrylic ink, Sepia
- Winsor and Newton drawing ink, Gold
- Lamy gouache in pans
- Canson watercolour paper
I had a lot of fun making this illustration! Thank you again for the class, Ira!
I can be found on Instagram as @echo.ism if anyone wants to come say hi :)
Isabelle
Process and details:
Pencil sketch:
Inking 1
Inking 2
Details