From Sketchbook to Clutch

It should be no surprise to anyone that lately I've been drawing a lot of trees in my sketchbooks. I love the autumn season and how the trees change their color and their shape. I love seeing tall trees with just a few splashes of their colorful leaves still hanging tightly on. I thought I'd share some images from a recent page in my sketchbook to show how I take my ideas from that stage to the finished design.



This first page shows different kinds of trees I've been drawing. I often don't sketch in color. My favorite writing instrument is using a black or blue gel pen - my favorite being a G2. I usually use different pen strokes and cross hatching to show different colors or texture. The tree trees pictured are a pine variety, a maple, and an oak.


Here's a close up of my idea for a clutch with a pine tree. I want the main focus to be the tree, so not a whole lot of little detail will go into the rest of the clutch. I usually do decorative stitching or embroidery, but I like the simplicity of just the tree and grass. The dark area beneath the tree isn't a shadow, but instead will probably be dirt or leaves from other trees.



Here's the finished clutch. The "dirt" underneath the tree ended up being a burnt yellow hue and I added a small patch of brown and pink flower fabric to the one side. I'm really pleased with how the pine tree turned out and the shape that the needles took.

I have many more ideas for similar clutches in this style. I'm currently in the middle of a maple tree with red and orange leaves. I really like playing with the colors of autumn and incorporating these styles of trees into my clutches. I usually do just the botton trunks, so it's nice to change it up a little bit. Hope you've enjoy this look behing the scenes!

Beth