Welcome to my world of abstract floral illustrations and my playtime with them.
Now anyone that knows me (referring to my followers on Instagram) as a wedding stationery designer ( or if you don’t know me for that matter), knows that I thoroughly enjoy tight, highly analytical, classical – traditional designs. Often times I and often romanticise over the next piece of luxurious, ornate design that I will dream up next. Yet after spending hours upon hours working on watercolour details I also have fallen in love with being able to just let it all go. That’s how my passion for abstract floral illustrations started.
Abstract floral watercolours are so loose and freeing to paint. After a hard days work I now year to sit down and just be able to play with watercolour.
What sort of mediums do I use for abstract floral illustrations?
For the past three years I mostly have tried to develop my acrylic paintings and calligraphy and was rather one sided in my preferences.
To see what I mean, have a look at this blog showing some dark and moody acrylic paintings.
I stuck quite rigidly to acrylics to similar paintings that you can see below.
Why?
Well, I wanted to stand out from the crowd. Which is an understatement and am sure that I stand out in the wedding industry with my invitations. Besides, I found that using acrylic paint, which although I thoroughly enjoy wasn’t loose enough for me to really let go. I still find that with acrylics I am being far too tight with my style.
However watercolour really gave me that freedom and ease of movement which I had been longing for after creating some very tight pieces.
I used some photographs of florals for inspiration. Then set to work creating my first range of watercolours and acrylics based on trying to throw myself into furthering an abstract floral illustration portfolio.
It is far from perfect, or where I would like to end up as a designer or illustrator. Nevertheless we have to start somewhere don’t we. We have to leat go of our fears and sometimes just put that brush on paper and start to create!
Here are some of my abstract floral illustrations below.
One day I dream to get out of the wedding industry that I currently work in and branch out into full time floral abstract illustrations and would love to see my design on wallpaper, fashion or packaging.
This floral watercolour below didn’t translate as well after being scanned. It looks as though the colours were not strong enough and haven’t shown up so well. A lesson for future!
What do I use for my inspiration when painting abstract floral illustrations?
Normally I’m one of those artists that waits for the moment of inspiration to strike. It can strike when a client reaches out with a completely fresh set of design colours. Also when I’m travelling inspiration often grabs me. When I’m visiting Portugal, France and just have a complete change in surroundings that when I find inspiration. However mostly I’m inspired by floral arrangements. Instagram and Pinterest holds a wealth of floral arrangements and floral design.
I generally look through instagram and find floral artists like Ponderosa and Thyme or someone similar, these always seem to inspired me. Other times I must day that other illustration artists that I see on Pinterest do quite often inspire me.
But saying that, I will NEVER EVER copy them, but I merely use their work as a starting point. Once you start and put that brush to paper it’s amazing what can unfold if you allow yourself to play and not worry about how others will perceive your work.
I generally as a rule I never paint live on instagram, I find it very jarring that others can see and are judging my work as I paint away. I have to work quietly, away from peering eyes and in the solace of my own company.
If you’d like to see more of my floral artwork you might like to see this post about Watercolour Illustration – Diving into Floral and Fauna, or Bespoke Watercolour Wedding Invitations.
Visit my Portfolio here.
Visit my blog for more articles that you might like here.
Here are some other articles that may interest you:
Custom hand painted wedding stationery.
Find out more about me , pop over to my About page.
Wedding invitation terminology read this Glossary here.
Would you like some wedding wording suggestions? Read this article.
Bespoke wedding stationery and the process involved.
Need some sophisticated French inspiration? Look here at how I designed a custom wedding suite for a client with a destination wedding in Paris.
Interested in London wedding invitations with a black tie influence? Read here.
8 Reasons to hire a wedding stationery designer
20 Luxury wedding venues in Italy
Chateaux de Vaux le Vicomte, French wedding locations
