And through decayed leaves the spring arrived

And through decayed leaves the spring arrived… ?

Farewell faded leaves and yesterday´s memories, because the wood anemones are already blooming!

With this floral dress I was trying to capture that moment when the spring finally arrives through last year´s faded leaves... The spring themed dress was created with layers of decayed leaves that were then combined with fresh blooming wood anemones and wood sorrel flowers. Those faded gray and brownish leaves gave that extra sense of layering to this floral dress.

Creating this floral dress took me into the Finnish forests and right into those moments when the spring wins. For this flower dress I picked up those very first nordic wildflowers of the spring. Especially the wood anemones are that special sign of the spring and upcoming summer. For this floral dress the beautiful white flowers of the wood anemones were important, but also the green leaves of the anemones were giving that sense of spring and powerful growth.

Another special choice for this spring themed dress were those fragile wood sorrel flowers.

There´s that enchanting moment in the Finnish forests, when the wood sorrel flowers are blooming for a short period of time before the another plants are taking over the forest. For that brief moment the forest treasures that beautiful carpet of wood sorrels.

And it feels every time so magical, searching for the first wood sorrel flowers and walking around in that fairy tale forest. Being surrounded of that spring light and witnessing how the nature wakes up. 

And that change happens so suddenly... When the bilberry plants are starting to flourish and begin to winn the forest over with a different shade of green. 

Those Finnish bilberry plants with that vibrant green color are so strongly reminding of that special spring moment, when there´s new beginnings everywhere. And for that reason I wanted to add also few of those bilberry plants and unripe bilberries to the spring themed floral dress.

So I searched for some bilberry braches from the fairy tale forest...

And on the way one more certain sign of the spring and summer was those Finnish mosquitoes... They sure were keeping my company in the forest... Telling (anxiously) of the secret places where the bilberries grow.

After picking from the forest all the right flowers and elements for the dress, the drawn character had then her spring dress built.

Below are few moments from the creative process.

Especially the unripe berries and beautiful green leaves gave a nice contrast to the floral dress, when they were combined with the white wood anemone and wood sorrel flowers (below).

Also the colors of the drawing were adjusted to match the floral dress. For example green eyes for the character was an obvious choice in this drawing. But also the character´s hair with green shading was designed to match with the green elements of the floral dress.

In color choices also the white highlights of the character´s hair along with that pale skin was styled to go together with the white flowers of the floral dress. Even  the color of the character´s  lips was chosen based on the color of those gentle pink stripes in the wood sorrel flowers.

One more small detail was to include a touch of yellow to this work. That was reminding of the first sunbeams of the spring, when the sunlight feels warm and promises already about the upcoming summer. Also in the center of both of  the anemone flowers is seen that refreshing bright yellow. In the drawing I used few yellow color layers here and there to make those small touches of yellow to appear in the character.

Also that another special shade of  color can be found in the fragile stem of the wood sorrel. That color mixture was an inspiration, especially for parts of the character´s hair color. Below in the pictures there´s few details where one can see also that more yellow toned green layering in the character´s hair and also the parts where the small stem was a color reference for drawing.

As a result the spring themed floral dress was built of all those small little pieces of spring.

This character with the spring themed floral dress stays now in that moment that otherwise goes by so fast. That special moment when the nature awakens after winter.

Wishing you all joyful moments and breezes of spring!

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