Design Process

I spent the day shopping with my daughter today, we were shopping for new clothes for her to wear to a new job that she begins this next week.  We had a lovely day doing something that we haven't been able to do for a number of years as she recently moved back to the area, both she and her husband to start new phases in their careers.  As we discussed some of her goals and plans for the future I was reminded how the design for the wedding box visually illustrated many of those goals that she and I were discussing during the course of the day. 

 

Sometimes designing is all about an emotional journey, as was this box and because it was for someone that I loved it became a very personal journey.  Because of that I was even more critical and apprehensive at the same time.  A huge part of the journey also involved my comfort level and my need to visually represent the landscape in a way that I knew my daughter and her husband would find pleasing. 

 

When I began to design the Wedding Box I knew that I wanted pine trees to take up the bulk of the space in the foreground.  I also knew that I hadn't painted pine trees in some time and I needed to practice so that I felt comfortable and capable with my ability to represent the trees.  This is just one of the many practice sheets that painted when I was trying to decide how to paint the trees and which color scheme I wanted to use.  I also had to decide which paint brush seemed to work for me.  I ended up using the Loew Cornell 1/4" Angular Bristle and really felt that it worked beautifully for me.  It had just the right amount of play in the bristles to allow me the control that seemed to work.  I used it both dry and wet and found that I was able to control the paint and was delighted with the end product. 

 

I am happy to report that the final product did represent the trees and I was satisfied but more importantly my daughter and her husband were also happy with the result.  As I looked at the pine trees on the finished box naturally there were some flaws but isn't that the great thing about nature, nothing in nature is ever perfect.   In that way I decided I had something in common with the natural world.