Theme Inspiration for Surface Design

Before the final outcome of my Havana Dusk wall covering came a whole lot of other stuff. First of all I needed to research a subject of what my design theme would be based on. Then I had to research more in to the theme to find out what the theme was exactly. Then I had to research in to what I could draw for the theme to meet the intended outcome and well basically, I did lots of researching in to subjects and themes until I found my theme...phew.

Image from Pinterest by Andrey Vinogradov  

In the end my chosen theme was Havana, Cuba. It was summer and I was designing for Autumn and my initial thoughts were 'tropical, vivid, urban, badass' so there you go Cuba it was.  

I started hand drawing and painting things like tropical plants, palm trees, rustic buildings, distressed walls and eroding architecture. I began drawing with pencil, stick and black ink and fine line. After researching colour palettes, I started introducing colour to my drawings along with other medium and development techniques. 

Image from Pinterest 

Image from Pinterest 

Some of my favourite techniques for developing drawings are monoprinting, printing with bleach, collage, screen printing and marbling. I especially like monoprinting for the texture it leaves behind to compliment your image. 

In the end I had a sketchbook filled with research, drawings, paintings, colour palette research, developed images, failed images, exciting images, digital development, pattern development, final samples and then of course my final design. 

Here is my final outcome!