I was commissioned by a friend to create her wedding invites for her upcoming nuptials taking place in Sicily. We decided to create a map as well as the invite and information booklet to add a personal touch to her special day.

Following 2 tutorials (Francesca Guasconi and Tom Froese) we selected important locations to highlight and we saved these on Google drive:

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 1 - student project

Required locations:

Catania Fontanarossa Airport- closest airport to wedding venue. Represented as an aeroplane
Vizzini- this is just to show the where town centre is located.· Represented as a landmark
Farmhouse A Cunziria- this is welcome drink location, would like to point it on map but maybe not as big as wedding location venue. Represented with wine and olives
Castello Camemi- Wedding venue.· Represented as the building
Port of Pozzallo- Ferry from Malta. Represented with an anchor and ferry illustration
Caltagirone- this is just to show the where an alternative town is located.· Represented as a landmark

Additionally, I decided to also include the following:

Mount Etna - the most famous Sicilian landmark
Luzzu boats - traditional Maltese colourful boats (the couple are from Malta)
Deckchairs - to represent the coast and beaches
The Triskelion symbol - iconic to Sicily and Sicilian culture
Compass - to add a more 'map like' element
Lemons - very Sicilian and thematic to the wedding (see wedding invites)

Illustrations:

I created separate outlines using an fine tip black ink pen and adding shading details. Then highlighted the areas I wanted to be filled in with colour.

Faber Castell watercolour pens and watercolour paints were used for the illustrations (I mainly used watercolour pens as I found these easier to work with)

Once I had these, I scanned them in and combined them on Photoshop to create the final versions. I downloaded dry Photoshop brushes and watercolour Photoshop brushes and also made use of the blur and smudge tools to further blend the elements together.

I also adjusted the opacity to 80% for all the images so they blended with the background better.

1. Catania Fontanarossa Airport

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 2 - student project Sicilian Wedding Map - image 3 - student project

2. Vizzini -

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 4 - student project Sicilian Wedding Map - image 5 - student project

Vizzini was the first attempt and I tried to create the outlines using a nib pen with ink in a pot, I found it messy and difficult so from then on, I stuck with pen

3. Farmhouse A Cunziria

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 6 - student project Sicilian Wedding Map - image 7 - student project Sicilian Wedding Map - image 8 - student project

When I scanned this illustration in, I realised it was too dark, so I lightened the image on Photoshop and used some of the watercolour Photoshop brushes to create a light purple colour. I used the blend tool and additionally made a label to break up the darkness and add a sandy tone that linked this illustration to the colour pallette of the map.

4. Castello Camemi

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 9 - student project Sicilian Wedding Map - image 10 - student project

5. Port of Pozzallo

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 11 - student project

6. Caltagirone

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 13 - student project

7. Mount Etna

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 15 - student project

8. Luzzu boats

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 17 - student project

9. Deckchairs

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 19 - student project Sicilian Wedding Map - image 20 - student project

Initially I made these blue, but then changed to red to bring in some of the subtler colours and to contrast well with the cooler green/blue tones of the map.

10. The Triskelion symbol

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 21 - student project

11. Compass

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 23 - student project

12. Lemons

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 24 - student project

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 25 - student project

I used the same illustration of the lemons from the invites I created and traced an outline to fit with the other illustrations. I created lemon trees too and then recoloured the lemons to be pink for cherry blossom to add another feature to the map.

CLIENT FEEDBACK:

My initial map in terms of layout looked like the below:

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 27 - student project

I was happy to take some creative liability in terms of the locations, although they did correspond to the Google map, the client wanted the locations to look closer together. I therefore did some amendments to the following:

Text: the hand drawn text looked quite clumpy when put together, so I substituted this for a font we will using for the wedding invites
Location positions: as detailed above, the locations on my initial map were more spaced apart, I amended these as per the clients wish to be closer together and adjusted the decor to fill the space
Title colour: I liked the red but when placed next to the invitations, it made more sense to be a yellow/white combination. I achieved this using a dry Photoshop brush

THE FINAL MAP:

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 28 - student project

THE SET:

Sicilian Wedding Map - image 29 - student project

Melanie Blair

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