Design a series of at least three postcards (final size A6) that say something about who you are, your interests in graphic design and your wider cultural influences or interests.

First, I drew up a mind map to get my thoughts together on the fundamental mood and personality I wish to convey to my tutor.  I want to explore extensively and look beyond the obvious to capture my personality, interests, and cultural influence in a series of postcards.  My objective is that my audience will instantaneously get an idea of who I am.

I discovered that I am rather conventional due to the choices I have made during my life and decided that I would portray myself that way.  I decided to also illustrate my thoughts and how I feel.  I am communicating a conventional mood by embracing some of my favourite artists as an influence, William Morris (1834 – 1896) and Alphonse Mucha (1860 – 1939).

William Morris sought refuge from the modern by making handmade crafts.  This made me decide that the foundation of this illustration should be handmade.  Morris influenced the Art Nouveau movement, so these two movements should work well together.  I created a few mood boards to set a visual tone of what has been brewing in my mind.

I then drew up some thumbnails to get ideas down on paper.  I did this with pencil on paper and then scanned it digitally to continue the editing process until I had a few solid ideas. 

The first sketches were developed by starting with the woman’s chin in her hands.  The name of my practice is Peachybrushes, and I want to include a peach in a way that makes sense and is interactive with the character.  Peachybrushes convey “happy” brushes from the saying “life is peachy”.  My practice is where I am most creative, and I attempted a few options in my sketches.  I further took a picture of myself in a better pose and expression that is more in line with the mood of the drawing and used it as a reference.  I continued with this process and tried new ideas until I came to the mood and personality of the illustration I wanted to convey.  

Next, I had to see how the illustrations would be used in a series, so I tested some ideas.

I decided to go with the final draft as it is most in line with the mood and personality I want to create for this series.

I then tested colours until I was happy with the colour palette.  The green symbolises growth and development.  I am choosing concentrated watercolours for this illustration.  I can now mix and test my colour palette with concentrated watercolour.  I tested the colours until I had the right colour, tone and saturation and made notes so I can get the same colour again.

Now that I have the texture and paint strokes of traditional methods that I desired I scanned the illustration into Photoshop for the finishing touches.

The postcards are designed to use as a greeting card.  The 3^rd page/frame is for writing a message and the 4^th page is the back of the card.  

The greeting card introduces me as innovative person who loves to learn from historical illustrators and artists.  I live a conventional life as a mother and wife, but originality and authenticity are essential in my practice going forward.  I am from South Africa and included our national flower, Protea as part of the botanical design.  I also included leaves that I collected on my walks through the park.