17 novembre 2021

Mila's world

Meet Milena (and her dog Pama).

Milena is one of the artists who contributed two limited edition notebook covers for our recently launched artist series.

We asked Milena to tell us a bit about the inspiration and design process which went into the making of the designs which she named: Lightness & Shape.

"My name is Milena Geier. Friends and family call me Mila. That's why my Instagram page is called @milaswelt (Mila's world). I work as a freelance artist and as an art teacher at the grammar school in Stuttgart - in southern Germany.

I am a long-time paper republic user. When I was asked to design covers for this project, I started out by adding a fresh plain refill in my le portfolio a4. I used this first notebook to collect ideas and color palettes.

I then decided to go to the house my grandfather built - on the edge of the forest with a view of the valley, in the middle of nature.This was the perfect place for me to sketch away in my drawing book which I hold inside my grand voyageur [xl].

As you can see in my making-of video, I made many different sketches until I narrowed it down to the final two"

Lightness

"For me, the Lightness cover (showing flowers) embodies the joy of being in the here and now. I like the simplicity and the ease of this design.

In watercolor painting you are being forced to let go and give up control. The style I used is similar to Japanese sumi-e painting, an ancient technique of Japanese ink painting which is about concentration, meditation, and capturing the essence of the subject matter."

Shape

"The Shape (showing pencils) cover embodies the desire to take a pencil and to start letting your ideas run free.

I love all kinds of pens and crayons... but this is my homage to pencils. There are pencils so good, that it feels like they can draw by themselves!"

Thank you Milena for sharing your story and thanks to @bradthesaint for the photography and video-making.

Greetings from me and from Mila's labrador Pama who loves to take naps on top of all the art supplies. Milena: "My Labrador Pama is my greatest muse, I draw and paint her almost every day!"

Who is your muse? I'd like to hear all about it!

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