McCabe Drawings

I particularly enjoy making drawings for friends and family getting married, and I have posted a lot of these in the past. Most of the time I draw or get creative with letterforms, typically the beginning of the couple's last name. My friends Colleen and Paul got married on October 15th, and I needed a unique idea. The couple already have several "M" decorations for their married name of McCabe, so I abandoned the letterform idea. I was fortunate to be a bridesmaid in their wedding and was elated, and because of this I got a lot of details on how Colleen was planning her wedding, including the flowers in the bouquets. Recently I have been drawing some flowers with micron pens primarily, and the idea struck to do a series of drawings of flowers that would be in Colleen's bouquet. The three flowers I decided to choose to draw were a sunflower, a white rose and a white ranuculus. All were done with very thin micron pens at 8"x8". I added some boulder details with a thicker pen. I debated adding some color with chalk pastels but ended up being so pleased with the black and white prints that I kept them as is. They were double matted in white with a dark brown frame that reflected some gold when looked at in a certain light. Below are the final drawings and a photo of my bouquet from the wedding. Colleen and Paul had a gorgeous wedding, had a full on dance party at the reception and I am so happy to have been apart of the celebration. Congratulations to the McCabes!

The Houck H

I'll wrap up this delicate wedding theme with one final wedding gift I had created this month. Below is an ornamental, hand drawn "H" I have made for my friends-Ryan and Rachel who just got married this past Saturday. I wanted to create something unique and refined. I decided to go with a thinner font and the letterform developed as I took pen to paper. The final was 8"x8" matted and framed in a 12"x12" double matted frame. Below is the evolution of the "H".

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Houck!

The Tiller Gift

I'm going to keep going with this wedding season theme and show another side project I created last month for a wedding I attended Labor Day weekend. I had been invited as a guest to a wedding for a couple that had quite a poetic story. She was from Pennsylvania and he was from Michigan. Without necessarily needing to make a gift, I came up with an idea for them shortly after I had been invited. Traditionally I enjoy hand drawing letterforms for the couples, however, for this one I took it in a slightly different direction. With the two home states as a personal connection, I resorted to using map textures. I found a "T" for the last name of Tiller and got to work in Photoshop.

I found maps in a similar style of both Pennsylvania and Michigan. I wanted the maps to be apparent but also not busy, so I desaturated them. Adding the T into the equation, I applied the Pennsylvania map to the gray T and the Michigan map to the background. This made the map textures subtle and right away, it isn't very apparent they are two different maps. The thought behind this arrangement was that the Pennsylvania girl was becoming a "T" and they were within Michigan, where they moved together as an engaged couple. Check out what I mean below:

State College, PA is in the center, the bride's hometown, with the Michigan highlights of Flint, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids surrounding the T. The next step was to print it. I made the print 8"x8" and found some textured/colored paper to print it on. With a white mat and black frame, it was complete! With the mat the piece was 12"x12".

Due to shipping, I had to get creative. I ended up purchasing a slightly different frame and shipping it to Michigan. I rolled up the print in a tube for my carryon. Therefore, the final looked slightly different, but overall quite similar. I was happy with the final product, and luckily so was the happy couple. Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Tiller.

Colleen's Bridal Shower

One of my favorite ladies is getting married October 15th and I have the honor to stand up there with her as one of her bridesmaids. This past Sunday we held Colleen's Bridal Shower at the Lederach Tea Room. As one of my small gifts I wanted to design a Snapchat Geofilter for the event. Per usual, it all started as a sketch. I wanted to make it delicate and feminine and fit the tea room theme. I included the date of the shower and "The Future Mrs. McCabe". Below is the sketch (please forgive the poor photo quality), the vector art, and the final filter put to the test! What a huge success for such a small design.

September 1st

How has it become September 1st? It's wild to think that it's Labor Day weekend and summer is ending. I've had so many adventures this year, and I am not quite done yet. I've traveled to well over 15 different cities in at least 11 different states within 7 months and I am currently on my flight to Flint, Michigan to run around the state with one of my favorite people. I've been looking forward to this trip for quite a while now. There's just something intriguing about playing dress up for a wedding one day and then waking up the next day to go play in the dirt at a race track. This weekend marks the pivot point from my hectic adventurous summer and begins wedding season. Stay tuned to see my fun creative wedding gifts I've been working on as well as updates from the notorious Baja Brawl.