Images by Lou Hatton

SHOP our RUBY Diamonds spring 2014 collection online now here x

Inspired by the sunburnt deserts of California, our RUBY Diamondsspring/summer 2014 collection launches in stores this Saturday July 12th. To celebrate, we've teamed up with talented artist and our friend Kelly Thompson who has created a limited edition cactus illustration for us - think Palm Springs!

Kelly's W.I.P series is back, with Kelly sharing her creative process for her RUBY Diamonds cactus.....

I was commissioned to do a pretty illustration of a cactus inspired by Palm Springs. My brief for this project was that the image would be on a simple neutral palette and had to include a pattern similar to the collection's key Baja print.

I began by figuring out with the RUBY team the level of detail needed in the print and the best kind of cactus to use. I sent through some examples of my other botanical work and also a selection of different cacti. Showing clients pieces from your own folio is a really great thing to do at the start before drawing anything, it can save a lot of time on revisions if you know the exact style they are after. From here I worked up my first sketch with some great references supplied by RUBY. This meant I was able to skip a round of rough compositions and move in to a more revised sketch.

After showing these to the RUBY team, simple revisions were made to include a little more shading on the pot and the addition of a second fallen flower.

From here we focused on colour and together decided that only the flowers would be coloured, so I sent through a revised illustration with an extra flower and my first round of pink colouring. To tie in with the collection I based the flower colours around the Ace spot print and created several tonal options ranging from an orange-based lolly pink to a peach.

The peach option won all round and the image was signed off to be printed, completing a breezy design job.

Thanks Kelly! Race into one of our RUBY stores from Saturday July 12th to get your copy of the limited edition print with every RUBY spring 2014 Diamonds purchase x