In the dark of the night … In der Stille der Nacht …

Here's my submission for the Global Talent Search by Lilla Rogers Studio.
I wasn't chosen to go on in the next round, but enjoyed working on it anyway. I think it will look good in my portfolio!

Good luck to the 50 artists that were chosen for the second round!

To explain it a bit, the theme for this assignment was "Little Terrariums", and we were to do a design to be used as wall art. After an initial moment of disbelieve I totally loved the brief, when I found out that in english a terrarium is not a cage for crocodiles and lizards and such (as it would be in german), but a little garden planted inside a big glass jar. It's mainly succulents and cacti and plants like that, and while doing my research I already realize that I was going to love this. The forms of these plants are amazing, and to me they called out load and clear to be cut in paper and to be printed. Although I initially planned to do something painted, but ok, change of plans …
First I sketched out loads and loads of plants, only simple sketches, to get a feeling for the forms. Then I cut them in thick paper. I did far too many, I think it's more than 50 cutouts, I just got carried away. I'll probably do a whole series of them later on … here's some of my cutouts, together with the prints I did with them.

Papercuts and monoprints for GTS

Then I dwelled a while on the question wether I should print them as original monoprints. I even started mixing the colours. But then decided to do my composition digitally and scanned in what I had printed in just one colour. Good move, I am happy that I did, as this way I had much more possibilities for choosing the colours and composition.
Originally I didn't think to include figures or characters at all, but when I put the printed elements together they looked so magical to me that I went back to my scissors and did a fairy … not sure why I did the winged horse … it just came about. I liked the way these figures were not too literal and not too detailed, so that there's still room for the viewer's imagination. And with the figures came the story: I was going to do a night time scene with a little secret garden coming to life.
 

When I look at it today I would maybe only include the horse … or two horses? And keep the fairy for another illustration, which would work well as series. Not sure about the text either … I think it needs something that tells more of a story … will think about it!

You can see the gallery of all submissions to GTS  here and the gallery of the 50 artists chosen for round 2 here. Enjoy! It's a visual feast :-)