With Hurricane Maria devastating Puerto Rico and wildfires burning through Napa and Sonoma, I knew I wanted to do something to help. I devised a little charity auction of dogs and cats in sweaters, and auctioned off one piece each day for a week. I donated 100% of the money raised to United for Puerto Rico and the Redwood Empire Food Bank (50% each).
Why animals in sweaters? No reason other than I like drawing animals, and I had some new colored pencils I wanted to try out!
I love plants, but I don't exactly have the greenest thumb. I'm working on it, though. I have some succulents that somehow just won't die despite my many attempts to kill them with neglect. But succulents and California go hand in hand. I was recently in Guatemala and I was so taken with how tropical everything was, and of course in my post-vacation high, I decided I needed to bring those tropics home with me. But until I feel I'm properly ready for indoor jungle husbandry, I figured I'd start with some plants that only need to be watered once.
Scroll down for step-by-step instructions and a template.
Download and print the template.
Use the template to transfer the leaves onto sturdy watercolor paper (I used 140gsm).*
Paint the leaves, using the dotted lines on the template as a guide for the veins of the leaves.
Once the front is dry, turn the paper over and paint in the back. You can use any buckling as a guide, or paint the entire back. You don't need to be neat for this part.
Once the back is dry, turn the paper back over and cut out the front with scissors or a craft knife. Don't forget to cut out the little holes!
Score the stem lengthwise and fold along the stem so that the front of the leaf is on the outside.
Using an Inside Reverse Fold, fold the leaf down at an angle. I used about a 45° angle, but feel free to experiment.
* You can do transfer the image a couple of ways:
Cut along the solid lines to make stencils, then trace the leaves onto the watercolor paper.
OR
Draw over the lines pressing hard with a soft pencil, then put the drawing face down on the watercolor paper and rub the back with something hard and smooth (the side of the pencil works), transferring your pencil marks to the watercolor paper.
Let me know if you make some. I'd love to see them!
Here's a series of famous dogs. It started off as one of those 100 days projects on Instagram, but I only made it a couple of weeks in before life got in the way! I did some research and made a list of about 50 dogs that contributed to humanity in one way or another, so there's still plenty of material to work with. Hopefully I'll get a chance to add more!
Original post:
When Fjällräven announced their art contest to celebrate Svensk Form's recognition of the iconic Kånken bag as a work of art, I knew I had to enter. Fjällräven is a brand I can get behind. I love the design that is present in their products (who doesn't love that cute logo?), but I also appreciate their strong focus on animal welfare and environmental sustainability. In fact, the pattern itself results in almost no fabric waste. Plus, they're taking steps to help the endangered arctic fox. Yay foxes!
I knew from the beginning that I wanted my entry to not only feature the image of the Kånken bag, but also nod to its functionality. After all, good design isn't just how something looks; it's about the ideas it conveys and the problems it solves. In fact, I learned that the Kånken bag was originally designed to combat back problems in school children! I love learning stuff like that. It's great when a product you like has a compassionate story behind it.
In planning my piece, I thought about the functionality of the bag. When it comes down to it, a bag is a bit of freedom—freedom to keep your hands unencumbered while knowing the things you need are safe and accessible when you need them. And what better way to convey that sense of freedom than through people enjoying the great outdoors?
Once I got the idea to feature hikers, I did some research on Swedish national parks. Fjällraven may have locations all over the world, but it's a Swedish brand and I wanted to stay true to that fact. I soon found my inspiration in the meandering waters of Rapasalet, a delta in the Rapa Valley in Lapland. It's so pretty!
Rapasalet
I started off by doing some quick thumbnails. When I had one I was happy with, I did a rough sketch to get a better sense of how the various elements would work in the environment.
Thumbnail
Rough Sketch
After that, I quickly painted in some rough values to determine how I wanted to light the scene. As you can see, I initially had the hikers smaller, but I felt that it wouldn't allow me to focus on the bags the way I wanted to, so I reworked the foreground and made them bigger. Once that was done I refined the values.
Rough Values
Refined values
Now to the fun part: Color! I didn't even have to think about the palette I wanted to use, it was all there right in front of me as I browsed through the Kånken bags on Fjällräven's site. So many great colors! I chose the bags that I felt best fit the scene and started painting.
Color inspiration
I'm really pleased with how it all turned out. I feel like the pieces really fell into place on this one, and whether my entry is selected or not, I'm super glad to have taken on the project. It was a good learning experience and I think it'll make a nice addition to my illustration portfolio!
Here's the final piece. Scroll down for details!
This is a series I started on a whim. Once day I felt like warming up by drawing a fox driving a convertible. I had a lot of fun with it so I decided to expand it into a series. I posted the fox on Instagram and asked people to suggest other animals and vehicles. I got a lot of great suggestions, but these are the four I went with.
