As the days got warmer, little splashes of color started popping up around the house. Spring was well and truly on its way. It was inspiring to watch the enthusiasm with which the children explored the new colors, textures and smells around them. Pinning their little noses as close as they could, the children remarked on the sweet smell exuded by the blossoms. Running their little fingers delicately over the brightly colored petals, they observed how soft and flimsy they were. Finally, they asked if we could take them home.
With happiness etched on their faces, the children skipped excitedly from bush to shrub to lawn picking the daisies and the other wild flowers they could find. When they had their hands full, they carefully designed perfect little bouquets, which they proudly carried home. The little flower bunches spent the next couple of days sitting in their vases for everyone to admire.
Look! Those flowers are magic. They are blowing bubbles.
Shapes
When it comes to appreciating the prettiness of spring flowers as they emerge after a cold winter, there are many obvious starting points: the colors, the shapes, and of course the sweetness of their fragrances. However, the forms and shadows that emerge once they are inside are equally as enchanting. This print aims to emphasize this beauty.
To start, we sketched a simple vase shape exactly as we observed it. We then set about modifying the form until we were satisfied that we had captured its depth and dimension. The stems were next. Our aim was to focus on the loveliness inside the vase and so purposefully stopped sketching just where the blossoms would have begun. We had observed that once in water the stems seemed much lighter and more fragile than before. We feel we captured this observation using loose lines and unstructured shapes.
Once we were happy with how the vase and the stems looked, we tried to capture the little bubbles that were at the heart of this print. As the sun shone through the glass, the gurgles were accentuated even further. They clung to everything they could: the side of the vase, the stems themselves and to individual leaves that had accidently found themselves laying misplaced at the bottom of the vase. The bubbles were tiny, but beautiful. Each one was unique in terms of form, vibrancy and opacity. We sketched them free hand and felt content to have captured their individuality by adjusting shades, tones and opacity of color.
Colors
It was clear to us from the start that the focus of the print should be on the loveliness of the bubbles. We did not want to give much importance to the stems or to the vase and therefore opted to keep them as simple as possible. The simple lines were drawn in black. We chose a stroke size that was not overpowering, but substantial enough to ensure that the shapes were representative.
We probably would not have even noticed those little bubbles if the sun had not been shining through the glass that day. It was obvious for us then that the base color of the design would be a shade of yellow. Once we had found the right shade of yellow, we proceeded to try to identify the right color for the bubbles. We started with white, but felt that the outcome was too bland and did not provide the right contrast to allow the bubbles to shine. We experimented with green, to reflect the color of the stems, but it just didn’t feel quite right. Our attention shifted towards blue, as we felt this could capture the color of water. However, it just seemed to cool the whole feel of the image and so we decided to explore further. Finally, reluctantly, we tried red. We found that it contrasted well with the yellow emphasizing the bubbles exactly as we had wanted. The combination of red and yellow provided a sense of warmth to the print that was somewhat missing with blue.
What do you think of Varret? Do you think it captures the magic flowers we brought home that day?
If you love this print, you can place an order on our website: www.koivikko.design
