I  just finished up this great holiday piece, so I thought I would share with you all how I actually DO WORK.

1. THE IDEA

My first step is the idea stage. I quickly jot down my ideas in a written list form and then I go for the one I think would be the most fun. For this piece, my idea was Santa delivering packages, but I didn’t want to go with the traditional sleigh. My husband LOVES vintage Volkswagen Vans so I went that route.

2 & 3. THE QUICK SKETCH

I guess I do sketch – just not in the traditional sense. I like to do a quick sketch of the stars of my piece. For this piece, I did my quick sketch of SANTA & the VAN to see how things might go.  If I can’t come up with a quick sketch that I like, then I scrap the idea and move on. Here are my first two idea sketches.

4. OTHER CHARACTERS

Once I have my STARS ready to go, I start working on the supporting characters. For this piece, there are two elves and also a tree/presents. Sometimes I know ahead of time that I am going to add certain characters, such as the elves – they were always the plan. But then I needed to fill an empty van window (tree) and then I knew I would be needing some color on the top of the van (presents).

5. THE BACKGROUND

Once I have my characters mapped out, I start on the background. Starting on the background also allows me to start thinking about my color choices. In this case, Santa had a white beard so I knew that my background was going to need to be AT LEAST a medium shade to knock-out his beard. I was also set on him driving down a snowy road and then decided on the trees as a way to add interest without distracting from my characters.

6. THE DETAILS

I generally work on the base of my characters and the get the background to that same base level before I start working on the details. I also choose colors at this point so that I know which colors I am going to need to work throughout the piece. Details are mostly things like adding shading or patterns. It is generally the details that really spice up a piece.

7. FINISHING UP

Once I have the majority of the details filled in, it is time to start finishing up. Finishing up includes things like checking for supporting details that are overpowering the main characters or changing the shade of the background if it is too light or dark. It could also be adding a little more detail to spots that seem boring

8. CREATING PRODUCTS

Most of my illustrations are created for stock imagery (for designers) or for items to be added in my shop. For this piece I decided to create a poster and also a gift set series. You can see these and all of my other 2012 Holiday Designs in my Etsy Shop!

Hopefully this gives you some idea of how my ideas come together. Do you sketch? If so, does your original sketch generally end up being a big part of your final piece?

Credit for these lovely images by row (left to right): 1. Kusafune (Featured Image Above), 2. VivaTerra,  3. Marie Chou via Etsy, 4. MissBumbles via Etsy, 5. Pomber via Etsy

Hope you had some cute fun! Would love to see your cute finds as well!

I wont’ go into details but it was a huge pain. For the last year, I have been working on figuring out a way to shoot new work and finally found this great wood background to use and made my own light-box.

With this new set-up, my new product photo’s were completely different from my old ones SO I have spent the last few weeks re-shooting the majority of my shop photos. I can’t say that I love how every product turned out, but for the most part I like them. Here are the old & new to compare.

4BAR MUSTACHE CARDS (NEW ABOVE/OLD BELOW)

A2 FLORAL NOTES (NEW ABOVE/OLD BELOW)

A2 FOLDED GREETING (NEW ABOVE/OLD BELOW)

8×10 ELLIE PRINT (NEW ABOVE/OLD BELOW)

RECIPE CARDS (NEW ABOVE/OLD BELOW)

NERD HOOP ART (NEW ABOVE/OLD BELOW)

Photography has been the biggest challenge for me – I am NOT a good photographer but I try. I truly should have taken a photography class in college but never did. Hopefully you like the new photo’s or can at least see the color improvement that the SLR made. You can see the rest of the photos in my SHOP. What do you think?

The squirrel print is also available as a set of postcards – great for sending out an inexpensive hello to family you might not be able to gather together with on Thanksgiving!

I have to admit that I am totally in love with my squirrel couple. Squirrels are one of my favorite animals – even though my husband says they can be mischievous and a bit mean. I will never believe it!

I have seven sets of 6 designs so far. The necklaces include 4 designs and the magnet/pin sets will include 6 designs. They also work as refrigerator magnets when you are not wearing them as a locket. Here are a few faves!

Image Credits: Brandi Powell Illustration/Sweet Harvey LLC

Photography has been a bit difficult as it always is with shiny objects so I have only got photos of the pendants for now but I will be listing the magnet/button sets this month. You can get them via my Etsy Shop HERE!

So how about these necklaces? Awesome, right???

Petey is also available as a wall art print featuring the happy saying “Today is Going to be Peachy!” Get your Petey the Peach print here!

What do you think of this weeks theme? I noted some amazingly clever submissions this week!

What tone of color do you prefer for your work? Do you find it a challenge to work with colors outside of your comfort zone?

Image Credits: myfonts.com

Get this typeface by Guisela Mendoza via myfonts.com and is 50% off until October 13th! There is also a great coordinating glyph package, which I can never resist!

The original logo design was dark, more formal and quite busy. The new logo is bright, cheerful and wonderful typography. Love how the design itself looks like an actual label.

Image Credits: The Dieline

Just one more piece of packaging featuring great typography. I find that making large blocks of type look both interesting and neat is a huge challenge. Check out more images of this great packaging project HERE! What do you think of the transformation? Are you working on any interesting packaging or branding projects – would love to hear about them!