New March Birthday Cards!

Commissioned Handmade Birthday Cards
Surprise! Early March Cards

Well I wasn’t expecting to be posting about cards this early in March but things have a way of turning what you say around ^^;. After posting about the last couple of cards, a friend of mine asked me to create not one but TWO new pieces for an upcoming birthday party. How could I refuse a friend’s request ^_^?.

I had a really short turn around to create and send off these cards. My friend liked the 22 star illustration I did last february and wanted something similar. I try to not do the same thing twice so instead of just copying the old one, I sketched out a concept for a diamond shape with pattern work around the outside. The cards also needed the birthday girls’ names included.

Commissioned Handmade Birthday Cards - Original Sketches
Original Sketches

I spent the next morning drawing out the main pattern during work breaks. Since I needed to turn these out quickly, I decided I would do the same pattern for both but colour them differently.

Commissioned Handmade Birthday Cards - Original Pattern and first tracing
Original pattern and first tracing – my hand ended tracing this same pattern 4 times over, maybe I should’ve done something more simple ^^;
Comissioned Handmade Birthday Cards - Second Tracing
Second Tracing
Commissioned Handmade Birthday Card - Typography names
Simple cursive work with some pattern flourishes for the names. These were then scanned, resized and traced
Commissioned Handmade Birthday Cards - Names now traced onto cards, ready for colour
Ready for some colour!
Commissioned Handmade Birthday Cards - Watercolour painted
Photo doesn’t really do these colours justice!

My hand was really cramping up by this point but I stuck to it for my favourite part – inking!

Commissioned Handmade Birthday Cards - Final Cards
Finished!

The final cards came out great, they arrived on time and they seemed to go down pretty well ^_^. I’m kinda chuffed with myself about the typography for the names as well, they turned out much better than I anticipated. Another card to do this week and then I think my wrist will need a break for a bit ^^;;.

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