Last week I got an order from another husband. I just love those husbands who order custom wedding illustrations as gift's for their wife's. It's so sweet! I decided this would be a nice opportunity to write about my process of creating a custom illustration.
After the client places the order with me, either through my etsy shop or by contacting me via email, he or she then emails me photo's from the wedding. Sometimes I receive entire online albums, sometimes a link to their photographers website, and sometimes its just a hand full of photo's. (I've also had situations where the wedding was a long time ago, so no online pictures exist, and in that case they sent me actual photo's through the mail and I returned them with the completed order.)
I also send the the client a questionnaire asking if they have a favorite part of the dress, prefer a specific angle (like a back shot), etc. Once I study the photo's and the questionnaire, I then get to work on what I call the "roughs". I sketch out different poses and different looks tyring to see what looks best and create a nice composition. Once I have a bunch I chose my favorite 3 or 4 roughs and email them to the client to see which one they would like to go with for the final bridal illustration. Which one would you chose? Stay tuned for step 2, which I'll post friday, and you'll see which one the client chose.
