What "home" means to me - as a color

If I had to describe „home“ with a color, it would be pink.

For some reason when I think of my hometown (Málaga, Spain) that color invades my mind.

A very typical flower from the south of Spain is the bougainvillea, which you can often find in the streets, yards and gardens. Also, when I was a child, my grandfather took me to the park every Saturday, and on the way there we always passed through an area with this flower.

Fun fact: this summer my sister got married, and this was the color that bridesmaids wore. For all this, both the flower and the color in general is something that transports me home.

What "home" means to me - as a taste

Olives and olive oil are part of my identity. We Spaniards are obsessed with these two things: cooking with anything else seems like a crime to us, in my city when you order a drink in a bar it is common for them to give you olives for free...

The first time I came to Germany I brought 5 liters of oil in my suitcase and now I always buy the Spanish brand of oil even though it is much more expensive because it makes me feel at home.

In addition, in Andalusia there are huge olive groves that occupy thousands of hectares, creating a „sea of ​​olive trees“.

What "home" means to me - as a feeling

A place where I really feel at home, calm and comfortable is the beach. In my hometown, I can reach the beach in 20 minutes by foot. I have countless memories there, both with my family and with my friends.

In addition, it is typical to celebrate the night of San Juan (the summer solstice) there, as well as the night of the fireworks, with which the week of the fair begins.

Creative process

I decided to illustrate an olive branch, a bougainvillea and a shell to reference the sea. The colors chosen for the shell are orange because I wanted to use tones that evoke the sunset.

I tried several techniques: painting with watercolors directly on the paper and without any guide, pencil painting, pencil shading and painting with a flat color on top, and also doing color gradations with watercolors.

Finally, I decided to illustrate with this last technique because I thought that the textures (especially the flower petals) would achieve a more accurate result.

Final posters

Finally, I made a pattern with the illustrations and gave the background some texture, creating a wallpaper look.

As for the product, I decided to create a collection of soaps with the scents of home, in my case: bougainvillea, olive oil and sea salt.