A wedding invitation, from watercolor to print

Two friends of mine are getting married this year, and it made me want to offer to do their wedding invitation in watercolor — that’s how this little project began :)

It was also a chance to level up on the “post-painting” side, with a new tool, Affinity, a free alternative to Photoshop: handling the scan, working the colours on the computer, then the printing. And to work as a team: making proposals, sharing progress, deciding together. A real little commission, and a great pleasure.

The sketch, then the design

We talked it through first, on the phone: what did we like, which little references could we slip into the image? The wedding venue — so, the château; the couple from behind, dressed as on the day he proposed, on the white picnic blanket with the flowers; their dog, and the aeroplane right at the top, for the back-and-forth between France and Mexico.

First pencil sketch of the invitation: couple, château and aeroplane — The very first sketch, in pencil

Digital clean-up of the sketch on iPad, with reference photos — Then a clean-up on iPad, to picture it

Once we were happy with the composition, I took a more detailed sketch and began the watercolor.

The watercolor, step by step

Watercolor in progress: first values of the sky and green — 1. The sky and first values

Watercolor in progress: the trees and château take shape — 2. The trees and the château

Watercolor in progress: the couple and details arrive — 3. The couple, the details

Finished watercolor of the flowering garden, couple, dog and château — 4. The flowers, down to the foreground

Once it was finished, I showed it to them — they loved it.

Front, back: the names and the ornaments

At first I imagined putting the two first names on the front, in calligraphy.

The first names Natalia and Antoine, in green-ink calligraphy — The first names, in calligraphy.

In the end, we decided to move the text to the back. For the back, Natalia wanted a few flowers: I first tried a lily, but it no longer pleased me. I went instead for flowers as small ornaments.

Study of a “smooth” white lily, ultimately set aside — The “smooth” lily — set aside

A garland of small white-lily ornaments for the back of the invitation — The small ornaments I kept, in a garland

From screen to paper

As I mentioned earlier, I worked in Affinity, which I’d discovered for the sign painting, and this time tamed for colour, cropping and formatting for print.

Then came preparing a print-ready file: the bleed, the little marks so the front and back line up properly. I then had the sheets printed at a print shop, and cut them myself on a guillotine — cutting them myself was far cheaper than having the printer do it, and the quantities didn’t make the work too long given the savings.

A large printed sheet gathering several invitations — The large printed sheets, ready to cut

Printed and cut invitations, on a cutting mat — Cut one by one, on the guillotine

The result

The finished watercolor and the stack of printed invitations — The watercolor, and the stack of invitations ready to go.

The paper was gorgeous and the result just as I’d hoped. One tiny detail, if I’m being a perfectionist: the colours aren’t exactly those of the watercolor — the little tower came out a touch redder than the original’s orange, and I could treat myself to a better guillotine… but honestly, you can hardly tell.

I’m truly delighted with the result, and I hope I’ll get the chance to do a project like this one again!!