May 24, 2014

MATS May Boot Camp Final Design

Time is flying and I can not believe it is already end of May…summer has arrived in Switzerland and I can not wait to hop into the lake and go for a swim ( right now at 16 C water temperature it is still a bit chilly ).


Two weeks ago I shared the mini assignment for the May boot camp with you - drawing faces and people / vintage dolls.
Last week we got our main assignment : Illustration for a manuscript on meditation for a magazine. Well…I can truly say I have never done this before…but it did not make me too nervous since I have done tons of placement prints for fashion over the years of being a fashion designer. I am not saying it is the same - not at all but I felt I am having a starting point. 

Still being in love with my choice of going with Kokeshi dolls I kept drawing a lot of them, studying the details and patterns painted on them. I knew my illustration would be a lot Asian inspired due to my choice of dolls. 
Lilla pointed out drawing your own fonts would be a good idea as well so I did two of them I used for this assignment.

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Sketches : Kokeshi Dolls and font copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014

It is a fun article and I could really relate to it…I do not like to meditate as well - mind you, after reading the article, I think I should give it an other try.

Here you can see my final result…the background is rice paper and my Kokeshi doll is standing on a lotus flower surrounded by cherry branches. There are lots of thoughts running through her head while she is trying to meditate.

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Final illustration MATS May boot camp copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014

I was lucky to see a few sneak peeks from my fellow boot campers and all I can say is "WOW"…beautiful, artistic…just fabulous. There is so much talent in this group and this assignment really suited the style of traditional painters and mixed media artists. The gallery is live now and you can see everyone's gorgeous work over here.

Since I did drew a lot of the Kokeshi dolls I am planning to keep going with them…trying more illustrations and also use them for surface patterns. Will keep you posted.

Happy Thursday !


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