Summer Landscapes, Illustrated Bookmarks
This project was initiated by pattern designer Genna Blackburn’s 75 Art challenge, which provided a series of prompts for illustrators to play with in a collective drawing experiment.
I wanted to use this as an opportunity to bring more narrative into my landscape illustrations, and focused on incorporating characters and dynamic elements into the pieces.
For consistency across the challenge I designed within a long portrait canvas, so that the designs could later be applied to bookmarks as part of a collection for promotional work and summer markets.
The prompt ‘cactus’ had me researching the home landscape of iconic huge saguaro cactus, Arizona.
After researching native animals I settled on incorporating a snake as a character for this piece, but took some creative license with the colour and pattern of the snake, as I wanted him to work within the pink and yellow colour way that compliments the green of the cactus.
The prompt ‘hot air balloon’ immediately brought to mind a colourful hot air balloon of primary colours, reminiscent of a circus.
I wanted the balloon elevated over an epic natural landscape, suggesting freedom and levity.
The highlights and undertones of the mountains reflect the colours in the hot air balloon, bringing a fun and playful life to this landscape.
I added the river emerging from the valley to further add to the dynamic feel of the illustration.