How to make a Baby

Today I am going to walk you through the design process of creating a beautiful canvas.  I cannot begin to express in words how much I truly love, love, love doing what I do.  For me it's about creating something really special that someone can have for a very long time.  But it's not just about longevity, it's about the meaning of the subject of the canvas.  It's about capturing a special moment in time...capturing the essence of a moment or the spirit.  I really cannot explain it in words but I do know that we all experience moment by moment, a specialness and when that moment is with someone or something you truly love, it is our nature to want to hold on to that moment.

Recently, a friend contacted me because he wanted to give a special gift to a friend.  It was a gift to celebrate the birth of her first child. Here is the original photo I received...

It is such a sweet picture of newborn baby Gabriella.  Like all newborns, she had little bit of markings and redness on her face and hands.  The first thing I did was take it into Aperture (I am a converted MAC person after 20+ years using PCs with a degree in Computer Science) to clean up the photo which turned out like this...

Now she looks all sweet and peaceful...I bet that's exactly how she felt inside.  Now the fun part begins for the artist in me.  For this portrait, I really wanted to capture the sweet innocence of the moment.  So  I began playing with different colorings to enhance the image.  I was also excited because I had free reign to do whatever looks wonderful.  The client didn't have specific expectations.  He just wanted something wonderfully created for a gift.  When I work on a photo, I use a combination of actions and manual adjustments.  Lately, my favorite actions are Florabella Luxe and Pioneer Woman combinations. Really, I just play until I like what I see and I have a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Florabella Luxe action - Pandora

Florabella Luxe action - Gypsy

Florabella Luxe action - Ruby

Pioneer Woman action - combination of Soft and Faded and Vintage

I liked the soft vintage feel of the final photo and decided to build upon it -- simply because of its nostalgic nature. I personally think heirlooms are the best gift of all... something that will never really look dated but is classic (time descending) and that was what I kept in mind while working on this canvas.  Meanwhile an image kept appearing in my mind.  I had been wanting to create a 1.5" gallery wrap canvas where the sides of the canvas would be a floral pattern.  The lettering on the baby blanket offered challenges in the design so it needed to go.  The client asked that the name and birthdate embellish the canvas...and tada!  Here is the file to be printed onto canvas...

Here is the final canvas...

Full front view

Name and birthdate embellishment

The floral print has a light whispy texture adding to the innocence of the canvas

Floral print on side of canvas

I always find it hard to take pictures that really capture the beauty of the canvas.  There is something very special about how the ink adheres to the canvas that makes a canvas so much more dimensional than a regular photo.

From this...

to this...

That's how you make a baby! hee hee! well, anyway --  a beautiful, special custom baby gift!

Love and blessings!

Kathy