Illustration for the invitation of the wedding of Bart and Maaike. Maaike is my niece. And when she got married she asked if I would illustrate the invitation. A long time ago I stopped accepting such assignments. Especially if the briefing is as detailed as with this project.

I like to have as much freedom as possible

However, although they had a thoughtful, thorough briefing and offered little freedom in that sense, I was happy to take on the assignment. Because Maaike was my niece but also because I was intrigued by the subject of the illustration. Namely the special wedding car of Bart and Maaike; their own Volvo 240 ‘Polar’ station car.

Creative strategy

Contrast between background and foreground
By keeping the car and the newly married couple in color and the two cities (Leiden and Puttershoek) as a black and white line drawing in the background, the image was kept interesting. It focussed the attention on the main subject; the car and the couple.

Process

Authentic, humble and friendly
I wanted the overall look and feel to be authentic, humble and friendly. Just like the newly married couple. Therefor, the pencil sketches are hand-inked, embracing the little imperfections. Then I scanned the image at high resolution. Opened the scan in Adobe Photoshop, retouched it and added color. I also added the text.