Some (Very) Personal Work

By Paolo Rivera

Le Mariage au Hill Bleue (Wedding Invitation). 2013.

Ink on bristol board with digital color, 11 × 17″.

I'm back to posting at Muddy Colors after a month-long hiatus, during which time... I got married! I created a few pieces of art for the event, and I hope you don't mind if I share them here. As you can see, my professional art doesn't stray far (or at all) from my personal work.



My wife grew up reading (and loving) Tintin so we decided on that style for the invitation and save-the-date. Despite never reading the series in my youth, I was always aware of the character and had great respect for Hergé, its creator.

You may recognize many of the characters who, like our guests, are very dear to us. Although I split the crowd in half according to our personal favorites, there's quite a bit of overlap. My favorite part is featured above: Ripley using the Power Loader from Aliens to hold her bouquet.

Photo by Paul Bates

To push the idea further, each of our guests was given a Lego character for their seat assignment — nearly 100 in all. They didn't all match up with the invitation, but we tried to pair the right character to the right guest. My wife designed the name cards (as well as every other piece of graphic design).

Le Mariage au Hill Bleue (Save the Date). 2012.

Ink on bristol board (with digital color), 11 × 17″.

Our wedding was held at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, which takes pride in growing and serving their own food. It's a beautiful, bucolic setting — the Rockefeller's former dairy farm, in fact — and the weather was perfect. Our Save-the-Date features the main entrance, which is where we attempted a live-action version right after the ceremony.

Photo by Tory Williams

I also did the bachelorette t-shirts, which were based on Le Lotus Bleu, another Tintin adventure. Pictured below is the wedding cake topper, which I baaaarely finished in time. Most people probably know Wolverine by now — that's Psylocke on the left. This was before I added three claw marks to the cake with a knife.

Psylocke and Wolverine. 2013.

Super Sculpey, wood, and acrylic, 4 × 4 × 6″.

Photo by Paul Bates

And finally, my Mom commissioned one of my good friends, Maris Wicks to create a portrait of us. I love it. I was a huge Ninja Turtles fan growing up, Raphael being my favorite. My wife's name is April, so I think it must have been destiny.

Maris Wicks. April and Raphael. 2013.

Ink and watercolor on bristol, 9 × 12″.