The Journey of A Custom Wedding Invite

When Meghan contacted me to illustrate her entire wedding party for her wedding invitations, I was super excited for the project but also a tad apprehensive since I've never fitted an entire wedding party on a 5x7 file before! ( It looks easier than it is, trust me ;) 

We first worked on the layout combining Meghan and my ideas, keeping in mind that all wreaths had to fit into a small rectangle. 

Next she supplied with me with head shots of the wedding party, their outfits and the flowers for the wreath. We also agreed on a color palette and a font.

The third step was creating all the pencil sketches, having them tweaked once or sometimes a bit more ;) and finally approved. 

Once all the portrait drawings and the floral border were ready for color, I scanned them and place the files in Photoshop.
(Side note,  I hardly ever paint digitally any more. My love of digital shifted to becoming a full-fledged watercolor and ink gal. But that's what my client wanted.) 

The fifth step and the most time consuming for me when painting digitally, is redrawing the portrait on photoshop using my tablet and adding color.

Lastly I opened a new 5x7 file added the top banner, laid out all wreaths. I then added all the wording and inserted the heads into the wreaths.

And viola the wedding party wedding invite is complete! 

xx
laura