Monday 23 November 2009

Wedding Invitations


To Have and to Hold | Private Commission

The approach I took to this wedding invitation was inspired by the venue Jamie and Talia had chosen for their big day. The Eglinton Grand is an old theater in Toronto that's been converted into an event hall and restored to its original 1937 grandeur. We thought it would be fun to imitate the sensibilities of a romantic movie poster from the same period.


To Have and to Hold | Process & Detail | ink on watercolour paper 10 x 15"

At the outset I had intended the physical art to be rendered exclusively in ink wash, but after over-working Talia's hair I introduced white acrylic. Once I'd completed the black and white painting I brought it into Photoshop where I colourized the image. This is a technique I've found quite successful at capturing a Technicolor look while retaining the brushstrokes and textures of my painting. With the rendering already done in paint this method of colouring is pretty quick.
The typography on the posters of the 1930's is sometimes the most complex part, often using as many as six different typefaces in a short stack of text. For this I created some original hand lettering and modified existing fonts in other places. Some informational text has been omitted for web.

4 comments:

Julia Minamata said...

Really lovely work, Alex!

Anonymous said...

Very lovely work, look Julia's comment get's added, and mine doesn't. BIASED INTERNET

Alex said...

Hold your horses there Anonymous, all postings have to go through me first;) Thanks for the kind words folks, more is coming soon!

Alex Avelino said...

Dude, I never check the BLOG area, u gotta post this on your portfolio section if possible, REALLY amazing work, I still cant get over your nack for detail, especially in little things like the slight shadows and reflections of light. Now if you will excuse me I have to go learn how to paint again! b.t.w, really funny adding in Bride of Frankenstein to the ¨romantic movie poster¨section :)