Guard Your Heart floral lettering piece

I liked this course very much and watched the episodes while I spent a week at Valencia, Spain. I did not have my drawing tools with me, but enjoyed to attend the class and think about my creation while being on holidays in the beautiful city of Valencia. During this week, various ideas crossed my mind.

So back at home, I was quite sure to use this wonderful quote "Guard your heart" but combine it in a completely different way. I wanted to surround my quote by a bush of roses. Nonetheless, I sketched out various styles of writing, but the first draft (vintage letters) really won my interest to keep on working with it. In the beginning, I really drew a heart shape behind my letters. But as you see: It was finally replaced by various plants that grow as if they would leave some kind of heart-shaped place.

The rose bush didn't really work out nicely, but I was sure that I would like to develop something that reminds the viewer of an arts and crafts illustration. My colour scheme is derived from many patterns I found of William Morris and his company. The rose bush was finally replaced by drawing peonies, lots of leaves with manifold details and adding contrasting little flowers in desaturated tones of blue.