New Work: Postcard On A Canvas!

Here is a piece unlike anything I have ever attempted to make before...
This painting is a representation of a card for my sister Lily, who married her partner Erin last year. I have studied a fair amount of Graphic Design over the years, but do not consider myself a Designer, per say. (So taking this one on got me out of my comfort zone, to say the least.) Here is the original image I had to work from on the right:

This is a small 72dpi pic sent over on the phone, and I could be wrong, but strongly suspect the original work is a very small 2 to 3 inch graphic, maybe about the size of a Hallmark card.

Next, I took the image into Photoshop and made a stencil out of 8 separate  pieces of 8 1/2 " x 11" papers, taping them together as seen below. The stencil had a lot of subtle 'noise' on it, because the original smaller file was blown up to match the size of the canvas I was preparing to work on. (Normally not the best scenario, but for my purpose it worked perfectly.) I guess the best way to describe it is that the stencil was a rough approximation of the original, much smaller image. Then I mixed a LOT of blue. The back color coats had to be done in one session because I wouldn't be able to match the blue exactly again if my supply dried out before the canvas was done. (Had to be a flat color, no deviations.)

​The actual canvas I am working on is 24" x 30" (See below) : 

Here you can see the composite stencil, before I taped it together, next to the canvas:

After this step, I put charcoal all over the backside of the stencil, and traced the message onto the canvas with a pencil:

And then finally, I filled in the letters by hand below:

The challenge here was to NOT make a SINGLE mistake on any letter, at any time. I had no more blue, and any attempt to match the back color to correct a lettering error would not have been a perfect match, and would be plainly visible to the eye. So, I had to make each letter right, the first time every time. This canvas required that I go over the letters three times, with three coats. So it really didn't let up until it was done. (Whew!) 

This effort was made as a present, btw :)

​As ever, thanks for looking you guys!

​Andy C.