The Life of a Print - Shell Grotto
Initial thoughts
Everything starts with print and pattern
Print and pattern are always such a great starting point for me when beginning to create the interior of a room. By developing the print first, it enables me to build a story and allows me to tether other aspects of the room to that story. The print is my anchor. If I decide to develop a multicolour print, I’ll select some of my favourite colours I’ve included to treat as my hero colours within the design scheme. I create my prints on Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. I don’t go a day without using them. In fact, I use them so much that I think the shortcuts I use in the programs, I can actually use in real life!! It’s not as easy to command Z a spilled cup of tea! If you’re a print designer too, you’ll know what I mean!
The starting point for every one of my prints is extensive research. This can be the study of the topic I want to draw from – eg: flowers, animals, boats. Or, If the print is going to be featured in a specific space or building, then I’ll read up on the history of that place to see if anything relevant could be included in the design. These are the foundations behind all of my prints, research is key. For the print featured here, I studied the famous Shell Grotto in Margate.
Research
Photograph everything of interest
The Process
Throughout my 14 years as a print designer, I’ve built up a library of photos I’ve taken myself that I can draw from or study. It’s a helpful habit to get into early on and can really benefit you later. Snap close ups of your floral arrangements or textures or patterns when you’re out and about, like marble or stones. I like to take pictures of wildlife or insects. Anything and everything is good and you can use them as a reference to draw from.
After I’ve collated all the imagery I want to study, I usually proceed in one of two ways.
The first one, if I’m short on time, is to use the actual imagery I’ve selected to draw from to arrange a rough layout of the print I want to create. The benefit of this process is to only draw up what’s actually necessary. The disadvantage is that I’m drawing to order and it’s not as inspiring
The second option is to draw what I like and see how they fit together in a layout later – this is a good option if you have lots of lovely time to spare on drawing and being creative. Because I basically draw for a living, I usually opt for a quicker method of plotting out what I need first, so I can eliminate time spent drawing things I don’t need until later
At this point – I can begin drawing. I am actually quite basic in that I’ve tried a million fancy papers and pencils but I always end up using standard printer paper to draw on with a totally run of the mill clicky pencil!!
The beginnings of what becomes the shells for the Shell Grotto print.
Once I have my drawings completed, I scan them into my computer at 300dpi. This ensures they’re good quality. Once they’re cleaned on Photoshop – backgrounds removed, light and dark adjusted – I can begin to place them on the layout or create a new one, and then develop a repeat pattern. Everything at this point is still in pencil.
The basic repeat pattern, before adding colour.
Once the repeat is looking good, I’ll spend time adding colour to each drawing in Photoshop, on different layers, adding tones and depth to bring the print to life.
Adding colour to the print.
Once the repeat is in colour, I can start to formulate different colour combinations to ensure I achieve balance and harmony in the print. Colour is so important and can change the look of a print completely. Pretty cool really!!
