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Small and fun projects

04.01.2018 by Kristen Kiong //

So once in a while, especially on long weekends, I try to do things that are fun. Today, that involved drawing on an egg. I did a stop motion of parts of it but for some reason my phone is throwing a tantrum and for the life of me, I can’t upload all the photos I meant to use. So there.

Meanwhile, to tide us all over, free wallpapers and prints in various colours of our first #30daysofbiblelettering post!

Categories // Freebies Tags // calligraphy, Design, hand lettering, Kristen, painting

Behind the scenes (Part 1): Designers’ Dilemmas

09.26.2017 by Kristen Kiong //

Yesterday evening, I was fixing back some of the frames that had fallen off the wall onto the sofa. This one in particular stood out to me – I Guess it’s all the memories associated with this image.

This, was my wedding dinner invite. I also had another design as my afternoon ceremony invite. I remember toying with different Color palettes: yellow and grey, jade green and maroon… The idea of a Peranakan themed wedding only came up when one of my bridesmaids said “I’ve always wanted to wear a kebaya.” My response? “Let’s make it happen.”

4 years ago when I started doing calligraphy, my goal was to write and design my own wedding invites. By the time it came to mine, I had probably designed more than 10  invite suites. But was it easy? Nope. Not at all.

Why?

  1. I didn’t know what I wanted! Flowers were in trend. They were gorgeous. But at the same time I wanted to do something different from the usual flowers. I wanted something specific to my then-fiancé and I, but what?
  2. I wanted everything. Since I was designing my own suite, I wanted to have a Programme card, a guest card, invite cards, a thank you card, etc. Etc. But how would I even start if I didn’t have a design? Ambitious much.
  3. Pressure. I was stressed about the fact that as a designer myself, my invites had to be the best they could be. I don’t think those were expectations others’ put on me but it was something I had taken upon myself. I remember writing my wedding verse multiple times…and then not using it. And then drawing and scanning multiple pieces, putting them together and deciding.. it’s not spectacular enough.

It was stressful then but I remember the idea came when I was least expecting it. That’s a story for another day. Bottom line though, is that everyone goes through that phase, normal brides and artists brides both.

In Part 2, I’ll talk a little more about the design steps and processes.

 

Categories // Hand lettering, Wedding Tags // Bespoke wedding, calligraphy, Design, hand lettering, Kristen, Watercolour, wedding, Wedding stationery, Wedding suite

Draft lines: can they be invisible?

07.05.2017 by Kristen Kiong //

Drafting: do you draft in pencil? Yes I do. Many people always ask me “is the pencil erasable after?” Not completely, but sometimes that’s the beauty of watercolour – having traces of the drafts left behind. Some people also ask whether there’s a way to completely eradicate draft lines, and I’m going to give you 2 tips I’ve tried myself:

1. Watercolour pencils 

The problem with our usual graphite pencils is that graphite isn’t water soluble. However if you use watercolour pencils, the lines melt away when you apply water over them. Some words of caution however – try to use a pencil as closely coloured to the intended paint colour as possible. You won’t want brown pencils staining your pale blue patches.

Cons: watercolour pencils don’t erase away like graphite pencils do. They leave an ugly almost-gone-but-still-here-to-bug-you stain. If they’re really light, you could apply some clean water on them and then wipe the water off with a cloth, but it probably won’t work for big mistakes. What this all means is you can’t experiment too much with these watercolour pencils. Though, a way of getting around this could be to use graphite pencils for the rough draft, do your final-draft outline in watercolour pencils, erase the graphite pencil sketches, and then paint in your work. A little tedious if you ask me!

2. Erase as you go!

I sometimes just need to plan the overall layout and then I should be able to imagine bits of lines if they weren’t there. So I often draft the entire work; make sure everything Is in place first. I then erase bits of my pencil drafts mini sections by mini sections, or even, word by word as I go on to paint. Not the most convenient again, but better than nothing.

I hope these 2 small tips helped, but if you’ve got more brilliant ideas, or you’d like some videos, let me know! I’d love to find out what works for you!

Categories // Calligraphy, Hand lettering Tags // Drafting, Kristen, Pencil, Watercolour

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