Illustration Friday: Waves

It's Friday, and it's time to share another self-made illustration! This week, what I really wanted to practice is my line-work -- i.e. get more comfortable with using a pen to draw directly onto paper. So, my illustration is the swirly sea you see in the image above.

My inspiration for the waves was a painting I saw a few years ago in a World exhibition at our local museum. The painting in question was from Japan and it featured lines and swirls in the sea, with bright Koi fish intermingled into the design. It was both fascinating and meticulous, and I loved the idea of making waves with thin repeated lines and swirls. I've seen the design since in a lot of modern nautical art, and I always enjoy seeing it.

I started this card by cutting out a stitched rectangle panel and stamping the boat from Avery Elle's Knotty stamp set. I stamped the boat in blue ink because I wanted it to be a bit faded and fit into the image in a subtle way. I quickly sketched in some pale color with my Copics. Then I drew in the sea! I didn't plan any of the images, I just started with one swirl and build up from there. Once I'd filled out a few of the swirls, it became a lot easier to figure out the rest.

After that was done, I used Copics to color in the background. I stamped my sentiment onto a thin piece of white cardstock and trimmed one end into a flag shape. I adhered it to the front panel.

For the background, I used nautical striped patterned paper (theme 49 for OHC was stripes!), and I adhered the front panel with foam squares. As a last touch,  I scattered a few enamel dots around the card.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~