SV01: Starry, Starry Night—Concept

i'm finally starting my first sailor valentine! this will be a graduation gift for my girl, kayleigh. she graduates early june, so its a race to see who will finish what, first. she and i have often worked together over shells and she makes these beautiful abstract shell designs inside of larger, iridescent clam shells. i put several of her designs into their own shadow boxes for her room. to celebrate her graduation, i'd like to give her a valentine, as she has watched me work my shellin' skills up to this point.

i'm taking my inspiration for her valentine from van gogh's starry, night.

last night i broke out illustrator and worked out my template, see below. i'm grateful for adobe illustrator cs3. i made several cardstock templates for my moleskine notebook--they are handy for sketching out initial ideas. i trace around the template, mark the guidelines and start drawing. the moleskine is awesome with the back pocket to store the template. i only made a couple of sketches for kayleigh's design, since i have a strong theme and have been designing it in my head over and over. i'm leaving a 1.5" border from the box edge. i'm going to get an archival quality illustration board, cut it out, transfer my design and work my shell art on the board. then it will just be a matter of adhering the board to the box.