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finding inspiration
On a recent trip to London, I had the unique opportunity to enjoy a private collection box viewing at the Victoria & Albert Museum in Kensington. I chose to view the Art Nouveau collection. The use of line is something I often rely on in my own work, and this hallmark of Art Nouveau, the whiplash line, has been an inspiration in many of my illustrations. One of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha, was featured in this collection. This enabled me to get up close and personal with the original printed piece and to even hold it in my hands.
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On a recent trip to London, I had the unique opportunity to enjoy a private collection box viewing at the Victoria & Albert Museum in Kensington. I chose to view the Art Nouveau collection. The use of line is something I often rely on in my own work, and this hallmark of Art Nouveau, the whiplash line, has been an inspiration in many of my illustrations. One of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha, was featured in this collection. This enabled me to get up close and personal with the original printed piece and to even hold it in my hands.
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starting from scratch
This experience inspired me to create a modern-day take on the Mucha design. I decided to make the focus of my new design the well-established replacement for smoking - vaping. I picked the word "dab" from a list of slang words associated with the relatively new habit, and found an inspirational image to use as the basis for my original sketch of a woman holding a vape pen. Once I finished the initial drawing, I imported the artwork into Adobe Illustrator and began the work on my digital illustration.
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I mirrored Mucha's original design through colors and composition. I recreated the pattern in his border using tools in Illustrator.
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This project was so much fun and has inspired me to work on a series of digital illustrations inspired by classic and celebrated pieces of art history.
see more of my process
Check out a few behind-the-scenes videos on my TikTok or Instagram!