The sun’s rays that we watched dancing over Lake Zürich, during a rare afternoon without kids, is the inspiration behind les reyons du soleil. The sun was unusually warm that day; it had been the whole week. We started our afternoon with a stroll along the lakefront observing the sailing boats, people swimming and swans swanning as we passed them. The scene was idyllic and unusually calm and peaceful: there were no little people pulling at our clothes, asking a million and one questions per minute. No rascals to chase after or to prevent from jumping head first into the lake.
As we continued along the lakeshore, we stumbled upon a small wooden pier that jetted out into the water. We made our way along the pier and sat ourselves that the end of it, our feet dangling over the edge. Admiring the blissful calm, we suddenly realized that it was the first time, in many, many years, that we had heard the waves crashing against the rocks and the ducks fighting over a piece of bread. It was blissful. We sat a while longer basking in the full warmth of the sun, taking in the beauty of our surroundings, until the lake became too tempting. We stripped down and jumped feet first into the clear blue water.
S P L A S H
Soon the sun started its descent. The effect of the changing light on the water was rather more dramatic than we had realized before. The color of the lake appeared to darken by the minute laying emphasis on the sun’s rays. Appearing like a sprinkling of gold dust on the lake’s surface, the rays bounced among the waves. We watched them, mesmerized by their beauty and hypnotized by the coordinated patterns they created as they moved back and forth, back and forth, with the movement of the water caused by the ships and sailboats making their way past us.
Shapes
As the sunrays hit, we observed many different patterns forming on the water that day. However, it was the little pearl-like gems that really stood out and so became the inspiration for this design. From some of the photographs we had taken, we explored the shapes and densities of the light forms. We noticed that to capture movement, we would need to work with sizing.
The closer the water was to the sun’s rays, the larger the resulting shadow. Therefore, as the waves moved the water around we noticed how the little gem-like shapes changed in size. Concentration was another key issue. The smaller forms seemed far more concentrated, while the larger forms appeared to have considerably more space between them. We drew many shapes, making sure we never had anything too perfect. Then, when we had identified the forms, we experimented with placement until we were happy to have identified a constellation that reflected our reality.
Colors
The coloring was rather simple. For the little light patterns, we knew it would have to be either a white or a yellow. We decided to take a decision on the background first and let the pattern tell us what the optimal choice should be.
We knew we wanted a blue background to portray the color of the lake. However, the exact shade of blue that best reflected both our observations and our feelings was slightly more complicated to identify. A bright, clear, vibrant blue was the obvious choice, capturing the color of lake as we had seen it in the early afternoon. We started with a royal blue. We remembered how the color of the water darkened quickly as the sun started to set and so we experimented with adjusting our blue into the darker direction. One or two shades darker were still ok, but very quickly the blue became too dark and almost too gloomy for the happiness we were trying to portray. We headed back to our starting point. We tried lightening the blue. However, this didn’t feel optimal either as the lighter shade would provide far less contrast against the sun’s rays- something which we felt should still form the focal point of the pattern. We finally settled on a slightly darker shade of royal blue that we had started with, but a shade that still felt vibrant and warm.
Once we had the background, we set about choosing a color for the light rays. We experimented with yellow but somehow the yellow/blue combination didn’t feel natural enough, it all felt a bit too heaving and not refreshing. White was the only other obvious choice for this print. It fitted perfectly.
What do you think about les reyons du soleil? Do you think we captured the warmth of the sun shining on the still rather fresh lake water?
If you love this print, you can place an order on our website: www.koivikko.design
