SAMPLE PROJECT

SAMPLE PROJECT - student project

Hey Everyone! Welcome to my class Design with watercolors. In this sample project we will go through all steps of our class project from start to finish. Ok, let’s start!

MOODBOARD

Personally I’m a huge fun of using a mood board to help you be inspiring during your design process. So here is the moodboard I developed for this class.

SAMPLE PROJECT - image 1 - student project

My moodboard have images that inspire me and reflect my mood. I like to put inspiring images in my separate file in Adobe Illustrator or adobe Photoshop, but you can do it the way it works best for you - maybe you'd prefer to do a collage with some inspiring stuff or just use a pinterest board for your project. It’s totally up to you.

I can’t wait to see to see what's inspiring you and your moodboards for this class! 

SKETCHING

Before I start sketching I prefer to have my moodboard at hand to be inspired while I’m sketching.

I like to make my sketches sitting on some cozy place with a cup of a good tea-it helps me feel myself really free and relaxed. First of all, drawing is all about  enjoying the process! There are no strict rules what’s right and what’s wrong, just do what feels right for you. 

I really love to draw flora, because almost all floral elements are work well with each other. 

The only rule I follow is pretty simple: keeping abstract and detailed things seperated. This way you won’t be mixing styles and your set’ll look cohesive. 

I advise you to make as many sketches as you can. It develops your creativity and you may eventually use your sketches in some future projects.

So, here are some of my sketches I’ve done for this class:

SAMPLE PROJECT - image 2 - student project

SAMPLE PROJECT - image 3 - student project

Once I have enough sketches for my future set  I'll move on to the next phase- painting with watercolors.

PAINTING 

So, I have my sketches and it’s time to think about my colour palette. As long as I’m doing seasonal set, first thing comes to my mind - my colours should reflect different seasons of the year. And again it’s about general stereotype. For example, I’m going to use green and bright colours for summer, pink, blue and green for spring, orange, red and dark green for autumn, dark blue, red, and dark blue-green for winter because these particularly colours often associate with seasons of the year.

So, here is my example of painting with watercolors.

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SAMPLE PROJECT - image 5 - student project

I tried to keep them really-really simple, because that way our vector set will be more nice looking. And otherwise, if our elements would be very complex with large amount of colours our vector will look messy and untidy. In this case it’s better to use only Adobe Photoshop and don’t convert an artwork into vector, but in this case you will get raster image,  with all its tradeoffs. 

DESIGN PROCESS

Design process is really fun process: you can play with elements layout as long as you want. It’s totally up to you.

For my postcards I use several layouts: 

— making some frame with elements

— filling in some shape

— making a pattern

Here are some screenshots of my design process:

SAMPLE PROJECT - image 6 - student project

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MY FINAL SET

And, finally, after all the fun we had during the class, we get our hand-designed postcards set! We got it! Here are my postcards sets:

SAMPLE PROJECT - image 9 - student project

SAMPLE PROJECT - image 10 - student project

Don't be shy, try to print them and make a gift to someone - I think they'll love your present - it's just so great! Here is my printed version:

SAMPLE PROJECT - image 11 - student project

I can’t wait  to see your progress along the way! Upload your moodboards, sketches, watercolor set, your steps in designing and finally your final set. I’d really love to see what you all come up with. Enjoy the process!