Creativity Corner Sketchbook Explorations

The Process of 50 Shades of Jelly Beans

May 8, 2014

Hello everyone. As always, thank you for your continued support of the Vive la Différence series. As I mentioned on Monday, I wanted to share the process of my vignette. I thought it might be of interest to some of you. A lot of work goes into making an art piece (whatever it may be) and just seeing the finished article (is something ever finished?) can often be unsatisfactory.

I chose the theme: 50 shades of jelly beans with objects: colours and flowers. Initially I wanted to make a 3D piece and photograph it. I went to buy the jelly beans and was thinking about a background. Here below you see the scanned image of the flowers I drew and painted.

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

Once I had my jelly beans (yes, I bought over 50 different colours) I needed to decide whether I will use them to make flower shapes or simply use them to fill in the background.

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

As mentioned in my latest Vive la Différence post, I just couldn’t cope with the smell of all these preservatives and E-colours, so abandoned the idea. I needed a Plan B. Good job I am proficient in my Photoshop skills. In order not to just get flat colours I drew around the various flowers of my scanned artwork. If you look at the very first image again, you will see how I was able to create the various jelly bean shapes out of the different colours and mark makings. So, now I had my 50 shades of jelly beans!

In order to emphasize the jelly beans I first tried to make the flowers and background monochrome. I experimented with different degrees of shades here.

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

My favourite of this monochrome series has to be this one here below. Can you see how the flowers would look great in either flocking or velvet? I can see this as wrapping paper!

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

Next I was trying to make the flowers look like white chalk and although the jelly beans still show up well I felt both flowers and jelly beans were fighting for too much attention.

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

Ah, colours…. they always make me feel right at home! This is definitely my comfort zone. You’ll see a whole lot of experiments here. I just couldn’t decide, always trying to make sure the jelly beans stand out somewhat.

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

Once I had decided upon the image I would show in my vignette (not show here) I was free to take another angle, forget about the 50 shades of jelly beans and play with the shapes and patterns to my heart’s content. I’m always looking to create interesting imagery. Here below I was playing with the shapes and contrasts to get a certain effect. The jelly beans now serve as shapes for creating background patterns that support the flower imagery.

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

I love this next one as it was getting closer to what I wanted to achieve. There was a real synergy between the flowers and the background. Not quite there, but nearly!

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

My absolute favourite is the image below, where the background and the jelly beans blend perfectly with the shapes of the flowers and you have to look closely to make out all the shapes. I also love the colour combination, which I know is a little in vogue at the moment. This was unintentional. It would also be fun to see this piece embroidered.

the process of 50 shades of jelly beans - colourliving

I hope to have demonstrated how you can start with a simple idea and create something unique. Without me talking you through the entire process, you wouldn’t know how this image came about. The last few images were not right for my VLD vignette as it wouldn’t have made much sense and so I’m happy to share them with you here in this post. Apologies for the amount of images. I did spent many hours on it and felt it told the whole story better than showing just a few.

I’m dying to know. Which one(s) speaks to you. Any favourite(s)?

I’m attending Blogtacular this weekend and hope to see some of you there. Happy weekend lovelies x

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15 Comments

  • Reply Shona Lockhart May 9, 2014 at 9:44 am

    Who knew that jelly beans could be the catalyst for so much healthy fun? I’m sure not a bean passed your lips in the process! Lovely images – time having fun is time well spent.

    • Reply tina May 12, 2014 at 10:22 pm

      Hahaha, good point Shona.
      NOT A BEAN:-))

      Thank you. Yes, had lots of time but it also took hours!

  • Reply caroline @trend-daily May 9, 2014 at 4:31 pm

    Love the first mustard colour way Tina!!! I’d log t learn photoshop one day and get back into textile design. Fab! Have a great time at Blogtacular-send my love to everyone! xx

    • Reply tina May 12, 2014 at 10:24 pm

      Thank you Caroline… Had a fab time at Blogtacular. Happy week xx

  • Reply Anya Jensen May 10, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    WOW amazing – love the process Tina and I’m with Caroline that mustard is great. Have fun at Blogtacular – looks so fun. Much love Ax

    • Reply tina May 12, 2014 at 10:25 pm

      Thank you very much Anya. Yes, Blogtacular was really good. Now it’s your turn to have fun and get inspired. Not long now:-)) x

  • Reply Mel May 12, 2014 at 6:57 am

    Amazing Tina! It’s funny as I was reading, I was thinking almost the same as your commentary! I agreed wholeheartedly with your final two in that same order. Have you ever thought about going into fabric design? Thanks for taking us through the process and love how this Vivre la Difference pushed you further. Can’t wait to read about Blogtacular, I had fun following the tweets. xx

    • Reply tina May 12, 2014 at 10:29 pm

      Aww, thanks Mel. How nice we were on the same page (so to speak) and how nice you also liked the last 2…
      To be honest, I’ve never really thought about fabric design as such. I think what would excite me is to do a one-off run so I might do that… would be fun right?

      I thought it was appropriate to show this process. At least I’m always interested in a process, not just the finished article!
      Bet Blogtacular looked and sounded fun. A lot of people have already blogged about it so try #Blogtacular where you’ll find a lot of them listed.
      Thanks Mel xx

  • Reply Jocelyn Casey May 14, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    Tina, this is brilliant and so are you. Your work belongs at an art show! My absolute favorite is the second of the yellow and grey rendition….yellow is speaking to me lately and I have always been a fan of grey- representing the middle path and all 🙂

    thank you for sharing your process….big hug to you xx

    • Reply tina May 14, 2014 at 10:27 pm

      Thank you sweety… (blush)
      Oh, maybe Mr Bright Bazaar infected you with the yellow bug:-))

      Pleasure love. Sometimes it’s nice to do that, instead of always seeing the result only.
      Hugs back and the very best luck for your talk at The Hive… xx

  • Reply Doris May 17, 2014 at 9:41 am

    Thank you so much for walking through the process with us. You are one talented lady Tina and I loved that you went through several iterations before you landed on the final image. xD

    • Reply tina May 19, 2014 at 11:21 pm

      Aww, Thanks Doris. That’s a real compliment. You didn’t say which ones appeal to you.
      Glad you enjoyed reading about the process xx

  • Reply noreen May 21, 2014 at 1:06 am

    wow, tina, that was interesting! i loved all the variations. my son’s school makes art with jellybeans, but they create the whole picture with different colored beans and glue them on. joy! n

    • Reply tina May 23, 2014 at 6:17 pm

      Aww, thanks Noreen. Ha, that’s a coincidence:-) It sounds fascinating.
      In the beginning I was going to create flowers out of Jelly beans but that smell:-)
      Would love to see some of those pics.

  • Reply Holly June 1, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    HI Tina! Image number 18, the less vibrant yellow/grey one, is my absolute fave!! They’re all interesting and show such an nice process, but yeah, when I scrolled to that yellow/grey, I had a moment 🙂

    Thanks for sharing your process with us Xx.

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