Friday, February 13, 2009

Valentine's Day

So instead of going the easy route and just popping into the grocery store and buying some valentines for Amara's preschool peers, I decided to design some for her. I wanted to make the process fun for both of us and I sat her down and asked her what kind of valentines she would like to give, explaining Valentine's Day and so on. If you have spent any time around our house lately you'd know Amara is a BIG fan of the Tinkerbell movie which came out on DVD late last year so fairies were an easy choice. Amara and I started drawing up sketches as shown below.

Keep in mind that I was dealing with the attention span of a three year old so I had to draw as fast as I could. She liked the ones in the upper right but was a little disappointed that they didn't look exactly like Tinkerbell or Silvermist but I was able to move along.After some further deliberation and Amara changing her mind 10 more times before going back to to the fairies concept, we came up with these three fairies.Now, not everybody likes fairies (a concept very foreign to someone who watches Tinkerbell at least once a day) so I added dinosaurs and she liked the three above. We turned to the computer and started to paint these in Photoshop.Painting them was a blast, Amara sat on my knee and chose colors while I painted and talked about color choices and so on. As the images got more fleshed out before her eyes, she would giggle with enthusiasm. I had to do these quickly as she wanted paint as well. I would finish one and she would say "my turn" and grab the stylus and have a go. Below is an example of her handiwork. I felt the cards needed something on the back so I whipped this heart up. You would like this could be blasted out, but Amara sabotaged the process TWICE. Finally we got this nice little heart below.
We were ready to print them out. Here's an example of a pre-cut sheet. The actual cards are business card size 3.5x2".Here they are all printed out. That was a lot of fun, though I really didn't have the time to do it. Amara and I both enjoyed it and honestly I have worked for worse clients. Make your own and just know it's from Amara. Happy Valentine's Day!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Very nice! I like the one in the blue dress and black hair (so cute!) Heh. It all has a nice feel to it.

Hallmark called. They want you to go back...

~Robert M. said...

So cool, Jeff! How cool it would be to get a custom card at that age! Great work, and such a great way to spend time with your daughter.

Anonymous said...

Very nice Jeff...I am a big fan of Valentine's Day and hope you and your daughter enjoy the day.

Bildbalger Concepts said...

.

Impressive! Not only is a home-made Valentine note more sentimental, this is the type of project on which you and Amara will reminisce fondly.

.

Naomi Meyers said...

Hey Jeff,
Time well spent.
I love the dinosaurs.
Have a wonderful day tomorrow with the family.
Happy Valentines Day!
-Naomi

Fabian Molina said...

Such a great Idea!

Hope your valentines was fun filled!

Ill have to try this with my niece once she starts pre school next fall.

Jeff Jackson said...

Hey everyone, thanks for your comments. It turned out to be a great day, I hope yours was as well!

Anonymous said...

That's really sweet. And I like them all together like on your FB profile. :)

Elisa