GTS 2014: Mini-Terrarium Wall Art

TAh Dah -drum roll please... here's my take on mini-terrariums... FLOURISH

Flourish © Diana Ting Delosh 2014
Ink, Watercolor and Photoshop

The brief for round 1 of Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search was to create Mini- Terrarium themed wall art and type was a requisite.  My process begins with doodling. To come up with a phrase or word, I jotted phrases that came to mind in my sketchbook, my journal on the edges of job scraps, napkins, etc. I began with a large terrarium image focus and phrases like: Small World. As the doodles progressed I found the foliage kept growing out of my container and sayings like Grow Where You're Planted or Get Out of Your Comfort Zone or Grow Wild came forth. Could I distill that essence into 1 word?? 

Flourish Sketch © Diana Ting Delosh 2014
The sketch only hints at whats to come.

Finally came up with FLOURISH, a word with a lot of meanings. It could mean thrive or to brandish something like a sword or  to embellish. My concept was of a delicate plant growing inside the mason jar, bursting out of the confines of the safe jar to be this wild, slightly chaotic plant with big showy blooms.

Mini Terrarium Plant - Ink  © Diana Ting Delosh 2014
Note after I painted the lines I decided the composition was too tame . The plant needed to be growing off the page.

The actual art was created as 3 separate pieces: the mini-terrarium, the Flourish hand lettering and watercolor background wash.  Put together all in Photoshop. Couldn't decide if the type should be bigger or smaller and in the end went with the smaller type version. Only to hit submit and decide a second later that I preferred the bigger type layout as in the original sketch  - oh well.

Incidentally, the GTS 2014 Gallery is Live -Click here to see ALL 999 Entries. My Entry is on page 13, mid-way down the 1st row smack in the middle of amazing gorgeousness. And in case you were wondering -Nah, I'm not 1 of the 50 semi-finalists.

Global Talent Search 2014 Competition!

Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search  2014

I've officially thrown my art into the ring - Hoping to be 1 of the 50 semi-finalists in Lilla Rogers' 2014 Global Talent Search Compettiton.  There are 999 entries in the 1st round. so - if my math is correct, that means if you're selected as a semifinalist that means you're amongst the top 5% of really amazing illustrators. Needless to say the competition is fierce!

The brief for round 1: create a piece of wall art - theme of mini-terrariums. Piece Must include type - may be hand lettered. Any medium allowed. Art Size : 7 x 9". Presentation size: 8 x 10". We all received our brief on August 4th and the deadline was August 18th, 12 noon EST about 2 weeks to create wonderfullness.

I am so glad that the brief for the first round was something that I have an affinity for. Loved the idea of mini- terrariums and plant images that this brief conjured up. The only bugaboo was the type /lettering part. Not the act of hand lettering mind you but deciding what the word or words will be. Found this part the most vexing.

Sorry but I can't show my piece publicly until the GTS 2014 Gallery opens show casing all 999 illustrations. Which will be I assume before the 50 shortlisted artists will be announced on Tuesday Aug 26th. That's in a week! OR Perhaps it'll go public on the 26th -not really sure as the GTS crew have their work cut out for them posting all 999 illos in the gallery.  EEEEEE!!!! Very excited! I've got all my digits crossed.