Behind the Scenes: Summer Diorama

Now fully in summer mood mode, I wanted to something cozy and relaxing. And I think it's time to revisit my process, because there are a lot of new subscribers, so might be a good moment to take few steps back and explain how I start new project every week.

First of all, there's always that big question mark of what to create. In the beginning, when doing these daily, I started a list and every time I got an idea or someone suggested a theme in the comments, I wrote it down. But I was a bit in the "fire and forget" mode. Now, when I create personal projects once per week, it's more of an occasion and also, it takes me more time to finish. So I really want to feel excited about the new piece, so simple "pick from a list" doesn't cut it for me every time.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great failsafe and I still keep and update my list of ideas. But now, I always allow my mind to wander a bit and get inspired. Last week, I was having a smoke on the patio and for some reason, my brain broke out of the ever going loop of thoughts and I got to inhale the surrounding atmosphere. Dark dark blue sky and warm lights of candles and fairy lights created a great moment I wanted to capture. I even took a quick photo to remember this.

Visit the full Pinboard here

At this point, you might be inclined to just rush into creative process, but when feeling inspired like this, try to imagine the small things, the details you're going to make. Harder, right? That's because your idea hasn't materialized yet. It's just a vague shape, a color, a feeling.

In order to give it a real shape, homework needs to be done. A little bit of research. Something, that's really contradicting to the feeling you just have. But trust me, if you do it right, your work will be all the better for it. Most of the time, I start with a Pinterest board, Makes it easy to save images and also share the board with my audience as well as keeping the references linked to the original creator.

I looked up all the different ideas for the summer evening patio scenes and in this particular case, there's no shortage of those. People seem obsessed with cozy outdoor scenarios. Other times with other themes, you might not be so lucky and you might to dig deeper, occasionally even different media than internet (crazy, right?)

I then proceed and save the things I like the most to PureRef. It's a simple app for mood-boarding and allows for quick organization, cropping and scaling on endless canvas. This way I crop, move, scale and assort all the different details and create an object palette. A to-do list of sorts, to remember smaller details.

Finally, it's time for a sketch. And I know I said this few times, but recently I came across a similar comment, so let me assure you. Your sketch doesn't need to be nice. Really. The sketching is about the thoughtful process of organizing your ideas into layout, creating a balanced composition and filtering the details. What to leave out is just as important as what to keep. An empty space is just as important as details.

I started the sketch with a rough layout for the wood frames, as those would be the main vertical element and effectively replace the walls. But I felt it might feel too open, so I sketched in larger and dense bushes on one side and balanced it out with the sofa on the other, to create a feeling of closed up cozy corner. I then balanced the layout by adding a standalone plant in the front corner, while leaving some empty space in between.

I really liked how the scene read, so I continued by adding smaller details, while keeping the "white space" in mind.

You can watch the full?process video on Youtube.?

See you in the next one :)