Delft Blue Jubilee Invitation style

Hi guys! Just wanted to share the exciting project I was commissioned recently - invitation and stationary design for Jubilee celebration.

This project shows the idea of compilation Delft blue (Delftware) ornamental style and northern spirit of my native city Saint Petersburg. Here we have rather severe climate so atmospheric variety of the blue shades used in this famous Holland technique suits perfectly.

After browsing through different porcelain pieces some of which were really amazing and studying classical Delft patterns I’ve made several sketches. Wasn’t sure whether the designer paper (watercolor paper imitation) is available for printing so the two variations were made – with pattern and more ascetic and clean one, considering the paper texture will add the special feeling to the illustration.

In the middle of the frame there is an old Palace of Vladimir Alexandrovich in which the celebration is taking part. The view of the building depicts typical Saint Petersburg central view near the Neva river.

I used Canson Montval watercolour paper size A4 and synthetic brush №2.

The style is about one chosen blue color so it was pretty easy to paint through the work. After pieces were finished I’ve scanned them and made a bit brightness/contrast tweaking in Photoshop.

Here are some photos of drawing process and preview of the result. The invitations are in printing house so probably will be able to grab couple of them soon.

This design is also planned to be a part of the gift hand painted on Royal Dutch porcelain box.