Creating custom artwork with Fifi Flowers

When I was designing my dining room makeover (you can read about it here), I wanted a Hollywood glam look. But I also wanted some colourful & fun elements in the room so it wouldn’t be too stuffy or serious. And I knew just what I wanted to get the look I was going for – artwork by Fifi Flowers!

I e-mailed Fifi and asked her is she could create a set of three 12” x 12” custom painting with an old Hollywood theme for me. Fifi loves Hollywood and she loves painting, so she was quick to say OUI OUI! YAY! This is how Fifi and I worked together to bring the paintings that I had in my mind to life.

First, Fifi asked me to send her images that I liked and that had elements I wanted to incorporate into the paintings. Fifi sent me some images that she found too.

Once I narrowed the choices down to my very favourite images, Fifi created some mock-ups putting together the different elements.

 

Next, Fifi created small thumbnail sketches based on her mock-ups.

 

I gave Fifi feedback on the sketches, and she modified them till they were just right. For example, take a look at the Montmartre Cafe sketch above – as you can see in the sketch below, the couple on the right side was replaced with a sax player.

And then Fifi changed the perspective of the sax player from looking up at him from below to looking at him from the side.

Once the sketches were done, Fifi created a thumbnail of each one and added all the black.

I told Fifi what colours I wanted, inspired by paintings from her portfolio.

We started out with pink, green, purple, and blue.

   

Very nice! But I thought they needed a little more colour to add some pizzazz, so I asked Fifi to use ultramarine blue and orange as well.

   

     

And then we hit on the perfect colour combinations :-)

Fifi’s final step was creating the 12” x 12” paintings. Just a few more bubbles in the glass of champagne…

 

And the final result, framed in Ribba frames from Ikea.

I ♥ my custom Fifi paintings! They’re exactly what I wanted – they bring the colour and whimsy that I was looking for into my dining room, and nobody else has paintings like them :-)

Merci Fifi!

Custom artwork isn’t as expensive as you might think, and the final result is truly unique, one-of-a-kind art that you won’t see anywhere else. If there’s an artist whose style you love, why not contact him or her and ask about getting your own piece of custom artwork done.

I’m linking up to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. The blog party gets rolling at about 9:00 tonight – don’t miss it!