Pansies in Bloom

Tissue paper, acrylic paint, charcoal, 18x24
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The focus of this project was to make a Croqui, or a design that could be engineered to put into a repeat pattern. To accomplish this I used the bread and butter of print and pattern: florals.

While out and about in Savannah, I came across some lovely pansies and was immediately hooked. I played around with some concepts until I remembered the illustrations of the Madeline books from artist Ludwig Bemelmans.

While bringing the florals to a larger scale in gouache, I was saddened by the loss of opaqueness to the design. So, I took inspiration from another picture book artist, (and one I adored growing up) Eric Carle. His colored tissue paper technique seemed the perfect medium to add some interest to my pansies.

I painted and applied different textures to the petals before cutting them out and pasting them to the washed background. After adding the final touches of charcoal outlines, the pansies were complete.

-JA