This sweet custom piece was created using watercolor florals and a hand-lettered prayer. I love creating such meaningful artwork for families. I usually write out the words in pencil first to confirm spacing, letter choice, etc. Then I go back over the words using a brush pen. For this piece I used a Tombow Fudenosuke hard-tip brush pen. This is one of my overall favorite brush pens, and also one of my most used for commissioned artwork.
So, what do I mean by "letter choice" you ask? When a long piece like this is created it is important to have cohesion throughout the artwork. For example, if I want to do loopy, swirly letters, that is great...as long as I continue it through the whole piece. So picking my "letter choice" is choosing things like the type of "s" I plan to use, how I will loop the "y" and "g" letters, how I will loop (or not loop) the tall letters like "h" and "d", these decisions are all brought into consideration before my brush pen ever touches the paper.
When a customer comes to me with an idea for a custom piece we first talk about the tone and feeling of the artwork. Then I always create a mock-up so they know exactly what it will look like. I like to have the customers input throughout the whole process so that they are fully involved and know exactly what they are getting.