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I could never imagine or expect myself to do this kind of artwork. I thought this chance would never come and if they do, I always think that it is impossible to complete until a friend of mine asked me to do one for her wedding. I was surprised at first but I know that opportunity rarely comes by, and thought that I should just give myself a try.
Alright, my mission is to make a Fingerprint/Thumbprint Guest Message Tree Board.
Instead of going for the traditional guestbooks, young couples nowadays are in for a unique and creative alternatives. In her case, she had done a few research in advance, and proposed this idea to me. If you google online, you will find countless of unique guestbook ideas, so many different kinds. Some does not require the use of guestbook at all.
My artwork and ideas are definitely not the first of its kind : )
But whether to choose the tree-theme or others, we ourselves were spoilt for choice! So what I did was to come up with a few drawings and WhatsApp-ed her for her and fiance to choose. Most of them were more to simple and cute designs which don't really require alot of hardwork when it comes to drawing.
One fine day, I'm not sure why but I decided to draft out the ones shown below. Well, the idea of using a tree as a centrepiece is definitely an inspiration coming from what I have found in other websites. And the silhouette too. I'm not sure about the background at the bottom but I know I just drew it out based on what was in my mind that time.
I've done the tree, the couple and most of the outlines, but I was too engrossed on it that I decided to shade them. I showed my friend the completed draft below. I got the fright of my life next when she and her fiance decided on this option instead of the rest. Yes, it's trouble for me but I'm definitely in for the challenge.
The taxing part is the soul search for the perfect stuffs to get it done. You can surely find a template online and if you don't mind on how it will turn out, you may print them in any sizes you want. But as for me, I believe that, the artwork means alot if it's hand drawn. It's more sincere, meaningful, lively and your hardwork will be much more appreciated by many (maybe). So how to convert the drawing from an A4-sized (above) to an A2-sized? I drew it myself all over again, no OHP needed. So there it is, the completed outline of the tree on an A2-sized texture art paper in off-white.
The bark of the tree, the lines and the differences in the line thickness, the contours, are the most difficult. I personally feel that it's difficult to draw the branches too. Everything is difficult for me, nothing is easy but I continued and painstakingly drew them. I let my technical pens do the talking and Copic markers to do the final magic! Tadaa!
The couple silhouette is easy. First is to outline the figure with pencil, then with a felt-tip pen or technical pen then you fill it in with black marker all the way. And no, that does not include the bottom background. You need more black markers for that and it definitely won't look nice. I used a black art paper for the background instead. I cut out the heart shape and place a white paper as an underlaying piece and glued everything on the main paper. Quite a tedious work but when this is done, you are 98% into completing the whole thing...
Because...the last thing left are the heart-shaped flowers!
Now what? The main headache is...how to give it to the bride? I can give her the artwork just like that, but it can get crumpled easily. I don't have a car too. We came up with an idea to have a board or 2 to sandwich the artwork in between. I went to a nearby Popular bookstore and saw mounting boards of different colours. They are bigger than A2-size. I bought one in pink. After much thoughts, instead of throwing the whole board and the artwork into the plastic bag, I decided to make a temporary slim frame, shown below. I shall not want to elaborate further on the frame-making process (lazy to...) -_- but when it's done, I binded the edge with a Black foil paper. Last but not least, I complete the letterings by using silver-glittered 3D alphabetical stickers. You can find these in scrapbook stores. I used small gold numerical flat stickers with crystal hotfix for the wedding date.
Here is the completed artwork without the thumbprints.
Her wedding was held at Furama Riverfront Hotel on a special and auspicious date, 11.11.12.
This is how it looks like when the tree is filled with guests thumbprints!
Labels: guestbook, thumbprint, Thumbprint guestbook, wedding guestbook
signing off on... 11/13/2012 03:50:00 am
