Stylisation a la 1910

Both my father and his father have been interested in art and decoration. Apparently, things like those are in the blood. Recently, my father passed me along scans of a book by one J.H. Boot he found in his archives, which must have belonged to my grandfather. It’s a book about stylisation, the art of taking a design from nature and extrapolating its shape to a design with smooth lines. Since the book was probably written between 1910 and 1920, the style du jour is very visible.

tracing of Tropaeolum majus -- Indian cress
tracing of Tropaeolum majus — Indian cress

Being interested in learning Art Nouveau and similar styles, I ended up placing one of the scans in Illustrator to try and trace it. Imitation is the greatest flattery, isn’t it?

Turns out that our modern illustration tools make it even easier to make things rigidly symmetrical. Boot’s art was all hand-drawn, and although he seemed to be a huge fan of his ruler and drafting compass, his symmetry is sometimes a bit off.

Oh, and: Hi! I’m Bakabaka, and a great many thanks go to benteh for inviting to post my inspiration and doodles on this wonderful blog. I hope to entertain you with some of my modest musings among her great art.

8 thoughts on “Stylisation a la 1910”

    • bakabakadesign says:

      Thanks, Matt! I guess that’s because the orange elements on the inside kind of look like citrus fruit. Reinforced by the orange colour.

          • *touches finger to nose and points at you*
            Crunchy and sweet and purchased at a grocery store bakery in the 70s in flipping Pittsburgh of all places. Such a strong memory for me as a boy and my grandmother would buy these for me to keep me quiet I guess while she shopped. Hadn’t thought of that in a very long time. Thanks for that.

  • It is very art nouveau, there is definitely buds in there :) I assume you chose the colour; it works very well. I would have loved to seen this in wood, metal, paint or glass.

    • bakabakadesign says:

      Yeah, orange is my fave, especially to prototype in in Illustrator. With some doodles, I just forget to change it into something else after I’m done.

      • I am a bit of a hobby horticulturalist, and i can clearly see the buds of nasturtiums in there. They really look like that – and that orange is perfect both in colour of the flower and the taste of the seeds.

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