A wedding invitation… sure, I’ll try that!

When it comes to creating custom art, clients will usually start off asking questions like …“I’m wondering if you can do …. “ or “Have you ever done… . I love it when a client asks me if I can try something because usually it means I haven’t attempted it yet. My comment back to them is always, “I’ll try”. As a custom artist its rare if I replicate something I have done in the past. Every project is different. From understanding the time it takes to produce what they are describing to reviewing material needed (as its not always canvas and paint) to figuring out different ways an image can be defined etc to finally creating the idea. All of it is challenging and so rewarding in the end when I can say…I tired and it worked!

So when a friend of mine asked me to help her with her daughters wedding invitation, I said I would be honored to try! I had never done anything like she was describing, but we worked together, decided on the image idea and I went to work creating it.

The couple wanted an image of the wedding venue in the background with an almost watercolor painted effect in the foreground inevitably having the formal invitation information printed somewhere on the image. Here is how we did it.

I stated with an image of their venue, Fiddle Lake Farm, in Thompson PA. I have never been there so I had to go off images I could find online. It seemed rustic, simple, beautiful and casual. A perfect venue for this couple!

This is the original image of the wedding venue.

The image was perfect, but it was too dark. Remember, we needed the image to be seen as more of the background so I decided to use Photoshop to gray out the image making it seem foggy or dull.

This is the venue image after I applied a gray scale.

Once I had the perfect image I transferred the image to a small linen canvas. Image transfer is relatively easy, but it does flip the image so be careful. To transfer you apply a gel medium to the canvas coating it fully, place the paper image on top of the gel and flatten until there are no air bubbles. Let dry for 24 hours! Then, carefully rub the paper away with a lightweight sponge until all that is left is the ink of the image. Very cool! Now, I had the image on canvas, and when you rub the paper away to get the image you are left with a rustic looking image, meaning, the image is not perfect, it has a worn effect.

I transferred the image to canvas a few times and practiced painting different ideas. We decided on a more whimsical idea, which entailed adding teal, purple, pink and blue flowers with bushes in the foreground using a watercolor technique with acrylic paint.

Once we had the image created we needed to create the space above to allow for the printed verbiage, which simply required more blue sky when doing the image transfer. Once image was done on canvas I had it high resolution scanned into a jpeg.

Then the client took the jpeg image to a graphic designer who added the verbiage and Voila! A custom wedding invitation!

I am so honored and humbled that Sydney and Matt included me in a small portion of their big day. Now I can say Yes, I can help you create a wedding invitation!