Under Contract

I'm out of hiding for a just a moment to show you what I've been working on the last few days. A while back someone contacted me about purchasing one of my ketubah prints. And while she liked elements of all of them, she wished she could patch together something that incorporated elements of this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece.  Well this was a project I couldn't resist even though commissions scare the crap out of me. I decided to give it a whirl.

So here's the final sketch she went with, but asked that the tiny village in the corner look less like a tiny tenement. No problem.

The first round is always very flat. Straight color. But then, and this is my big watercolor secret so don't tell anyone, I go over every thing in orange (did you know that orange and aqua make the loveliest shade of green?). And then all the under colors start to glow and turn other colors or deeper shades of themselves. That's my favorite part.

And now I have to go in a add some lime in a few places that are too red. That will bring it down a notch. We don't want it too peppy. It's a marriage contract after all. Serious stuff. Plus the text which will take some maneuvering. Anyone who's worked with Hebrew text in illustrator knows that it can be a little sensitive (type shows up backwards, upside down or both). Takes patience and understanding - ingredients for a good marriage I'd say.