Creative Process: How I Painted A Moroccan Gazebo With Lilacs

I am on a roll as far as working in my sketchbook, and this time I actually remembered to take a “before” photo, so introducing a behinds the scenes look at what exactly went into creating this sweet Moroccan style garden scene. I think you’ll be quite surprised to see the evolution, which you can see if you keep on reading. It is true, I have been doing mostly botanicals and florals and landscapes cute animals in my sketchbook, so when the idea of making a Moroccan pergola came to mind I thought, what, architecture? okay, why not? The truth is, that I love creating in such a way that the facing pages in my sketchbook compliment one another or share a theme, but most importantly they just need to work together colorwise, composition wise etc. At this very moment I feel on the verge of a giant babble, so instead lets just cut to the chase and see the humble beginnings of this architectural garden sketch, done with multi media, namely acrylic paint, permanent markers and paint markers. Ready?

Ta da, this is what the page originally looked like, as I had thought to do some large lilacs, I guess, but then I realized that the scale quite simply did not go with the existing lilac painting, so then the idea of a lilac bush in a Moroccan style garden somehow came to mind. I found a reference photo and got to work. First I drew everything on top of the abstract first layer, and then started to paint first of all the pergola, and then the greenery, and and then the background. I’ll admit the pergola was at one point pink and then a salmon terra cotta color, before arriving back at the traditional white, not sure what I was thinking! But such is the creative process.
Now, is when I took a photo to share on my new Instagram account, @sara.rivka.dahan, and realized that I was not happy enough. I realized that it had something to do with the pergola, and I decided that the symmetry with the pergola right in the middle of the page (big mistake always, whoops, I got carried away by the reference photo!) could be fixed by at least extending the white walls off the page, and phew that did help quite a bit.

Here is the final result, and white I love the page on the left more, creating the page on the right was a great way to break out of my comfort zone just a bit, which is really what creating in a sketchbook is all about, creative adventures that fill a book that tells your amazing tale!

So go for it friends, and just remember not every page of every story is idyllic or perfect, and so too an art journal or sketchbook!