Earlier this year I saw a Swedish stationary store announce a challenge/competition they were hosting. It sounded really intriguing. Hard to pas up. It was a pay-to-enter. The rules were fairly simple. You had to get a pen-pack. The pack contained 8 pens. You had to use all of the pens for your project.
I started the challenge by doing swatches of all the products involved. I also started drawing out some ideas so I could get familiar with the different types of pens I had to use. This took me on a creative ride that was pretty fun.
I also feel the images that came out of this is such a good example of a creative journey. How you might start with a color pallet and an idea, but by the time you finish some central elements might have changed. When I post on Instagram its often stuff I’m super happy with, that feels worthy of showing off. The mistakes, the bloopers and the stuff I’m not that happy with is often not put on display. (I know I’m definitely not alone in this).
Here Ive failed to add the paint-marker from pilot. It was a beautiful baby blue. Underneath is the final image that was submitted to the competition (I did not win, nor make a top 10 placement).
It is pretty fun to look at the different types of ideas and pictures I made before I landed on that final image. It started pretty rough. I was curious to see what would happen if I used a blue sharpie to make the sky. I have to admit that this is not my best work. Trail and error is an important part of the learning process tho.
While making the first image I did kind of fall for the idea of the hot air balloon being fueled by a lighter. The second image I created centered around that idea.
The same went for the third and the forth pictures. At the same time I also narrowed my idea down further.
This is not the best picture I could possibly take of the final result, but Im pretty happy with what I landed on.
Choosing to do the sky in this was also inspired me to do several other pieces with the same background.
Dotting in the sky with a 05 sakura pigma micron pen was enjoyable to say the least and also very relaxing.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the pen store in any way, shape or form. This is not an ad for the company or their competition. I’m simply sharing my experience.