In June 2022, I was approached by Impression Originale, a French company specializing in luxury gifting products. They make all kinds of lovely wrapping paper, ribbons, wax seals, tissue paper - basically everything for the art of gift wrapping. 

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The brief shared by them mentioned that they were looking for a rich, colorful botanical-themed artwork for a line of gift bags. They shared a photo from their photographer for inspiration and were happy to let me choose the medium I wanted to work with.

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Right away, I knew I would like to do this artwork in watercolor and colored pencils. Mixed media is not my preferred way to go for fine artwork but I have found that mixed media is great for commercial artwork.

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If you look at the design, you can probably tell that it was heavy work with all the details. I spent countless hours painting it and if I'm being completely honest, there were many many moments of self-doubt. In the end, though, it was all so worth it because the gift bags are absolutely gorgeous! And seeing my artwork on a product was an insanely proud moment for me!