Illustrated Family Tree Pregnancy Announcement

About 10 years ago when I realized I will never become bored of making stationery and working with paper and embellishments I also realized if I wanted to call myself an artist I needed to learn how to draw and paint.

And so I did. I still have a long way to go. Between custom invitations and family it's hard to find time to practice. However, my current long term objective is to be able to provide custom stationery based on my own illustrations. Here is an example.

Denisa, one of the brides I worked with for her wedding invitations wrote me to ask for a special pregnancy announcement. She wanted the box in a box idea and showed me an example but I thought I needed something more original than a paper diaper in a little box. So she came up with the family tree idea. Of course I could have used a stock image but I saw this as a challenge to paint it myself.

Here are the stages this project went through:

# 1.  SKETCHING AND PAINTING

# 2.  SCAN AND DIGITAL EDITING

# 3. BOX CONSTRUCTION AND FINISHING TOUCHES

I think this would make a great scroll invitation. First time I actually embrace the idea of a scroll invitation so if anyone (e.g. Elaine) is interested din scroll invitations from Invitatii Couture, I finally have a signature design that I don't feel like it's somebody else's concept.

I hope you enjoyed this insight into my process.
It was a time consuming project that has taught me a lot, although the final result might not look like something very complicated.
When you make the effort to draw your own illustration you really start appreciating all the artwork there is on the web and have much more respect and consideration for the artists by asking permission and/or buying a licence for using them. This way you encourage them to make some more and help them make a living out of their talent.

More on art as a profession with another occasion. Have a great Sunday!