Another personal project that I just had to include. The original illustration for this invitation came from Phil's very talented brother, a fine artist whose professional work bears little resemblance to this illustration (Rev Walsh: www.revwalsh.co.uk). I needed to age the illustration, and thanks to my experience with aging my own wedding invitation, I used the same method here:
- I created the flat black and white layout by tracing the illustration in Inkscape and adding the text
- I then printed the design onto thin paper with a laser printer
- I sprayed tea onto the paper, and leaving pools of tea standing, placed it in an oven at a low heat
- After a few minutes, the sheets were dry, and I rescanned the paper
- I changed the levels of the image in the Gimp to accentuate the different contrasts and grain on the paper
- The overlay colours were then superimposed as halftone dots onto the final composition, creating an off-print effect
After a few colour adjustments of the various layers that had now accumulated in the piece, separate reception and wedding invitations were created. I like to think that the design resembles pages from an antique fairy book, and I'm very pleased with the final output. It was great to start with such a fantastic illustration - please visit Rob's site, he's a very talented artist.
