Hand-drawn illustration of a woman with a long braid sitting beside a turquoise courtyard pool, surrounded by cacti and flowers

From Sketchbook to Screen: How My Designs Are Made

People sometimes ask me whether the designs in my collection start on a screen. They don't. Every single one starts on paper, with a pencil, usually somewhere I'm sitting a little too long because the light is doing something I don't want to forget.

It always starts with a sketch

I've carried a sketchbook with me through every country I've lived in, and it's still where each idea begins. A doorway with a pattern I love. The way bougainvillea spills over a wall. A quiet pool in a courtyard where nobody is in a hurry. I draw these by hand first, loosely, just to catch the feeling of a place before I start worrying about details.

Drawing by hand slows me down in the best way. It makes me really look at a scene: where the shadows fall, which plants lean into the sun, how a staircase curves. That slowness is what gives each piece its character, and it's the part I'd never want to skip.

Then it becomes digital art

Once a sketch feels right, I bring it into digital, and that's where it grows up. This is where I build the color, layer by layer: the warm terracotta walls, the turquoise of the water, the pinks and greens of the flowers. I refine the details, balance the light and make sure every corner of the picture has something worth looking at.

Working digitally lets me keep the hand-drawn feel of the original while giving it the depth and clarity a finished piece needs. The lines still wobble a little in places, and I like that. It reminds you a real person drew it.

Hand-drawn sketch of a woman with a long braid sitting beside a turquoise courtyard pool, surrounded by cacti, flowers and a green arched door

The hand-drawn sketch: a quiet afternoon by the pool.

Why I work this way

I could start straight on a screen, and it would probably be faster. But the sketch is where the heart of a piece comes from. By the time a design is finished, it has been through my hands twice: once on paper to find the feeling, and once digitally to bring it to life.

Hand-drawn sketch of a curving stone staircase draped in pink bougainvillea, with a tiled arched wooden door, a tall cactus and lanterns

The hand-drawn sketch: bougainvillea on the stairs.

From my sketchbook to your wall

The last step is the one I love most: seeing the finished art become something you can make yourself. Each design is turned into a diamond painting kit with up to 200 colors, so the detail holds up, or printed as a ready-to-frame art print if you'd rather put it straight in a frame. Either way, what arrives at your door started as a few pencil lines in my sketchbook.

If you'd like to see where that journey ends up, browse my diamond art designs or the art prints. And if you make one, I'd genuinely love to see it. Share your finished piece here.

Christina

Back to blog