How do our stickers start? How do we draw them? What tools do we use? How do they get printed? Where and how do we sell them?
Our stickers are drawn free-hand digitally. I have a very old Wacom tablet back when I first started playing around with Photoshop about six or seven years ago. I didn't even realize just how old my tablet was until I went to look for an extra stylus for it today (since I keep on losing mine, I'm good at that) and nibs to replace the one nib I have left. Not only are the styli completely different, so are the tablets!
My tablet is a Bamboo Fun. It came with a pretty basic looking stylus with a pen-tip end and an eraser end, and Photoshop Elements 6. I've had a couple questions on what stylus I prefer, and to tell you the truth I have no idea. I have a pretty limited budget on the tools I can utilize. Nibs and an extra stylus are sort of a necessity now, and now that I'm searching for one I'm finding it a confusing experience and wondering which I should choose myself. Hmmmm... hmmmmm..... Guess I'll just have to dive right into it.
The program I prefer is Photoshop CS3. I've used 7 before that, and find CS3 pretty similar but with a few extra tools. The reason I choose this program is because I learned how to use 7 when I was in college. All the shortcuts, tools, how to use them, where you can change the opacity levels, etc. I know it by second nature. I know that not everyone can get a copy of Photoshop. It's a pretty darned expensive program. I was lucky enough to get it for school and paid in part by extra scholarship funds.
A pretty comparable program, from what I've gathered is GIMP. It's completely free. I have tried to use it myself, however I had a huge problem using the program because a lot of the commands, shortcuts and placements of tools was completely different from what I was used to. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to do one thing. For me it's just easier to use PS.
Before I begin doodling a sticker I look for models. I google images, ask friends and clients for models, look on YouTube for videos to see how the animal moves and behaves, and look for a few things about each model that I like. Some of my doodles have a mixture of models' colors and patterns. I usually spend about an hour prior to doodling just looking at the animals. Then I save poses that I think might work for the finished sticker and use them as a reference. Sometimes I draw line art and redraw them if I'm not happy with the outcome.
It's definitely a process.
Once I'm happy with the line art, though coloring comes pretty easy to me. I started out in October drawing. One squig was taking me about 16-24 hours. I had to remember all my shortcuts in PS, get well-acquainted with the tools again and frankly I needed practice drawing since it had been so long since I did any artwork at all. Years, to be exact.
Now, though one squig will take me only two or three hours to complete from start to finish. Each squig consists of about twelve layers on average, depending on the intricacy of the animal. Every color or two is a new layer. They start with a top layer of the line art itself, a base layer that's filled with the base color (typically lightest and highest percentage color of the animal) and then all the layers leading up to completion. Arms, head, body and tail are all separate layers, typically.
Without my tablet I wouldn't be able to do any of this work at all. I really love the pen tool in PS. It's amazing and easy. I use this tool to sort of make a clean, smooth line art after the initial sketch of the animal. Then, the rest of the doodle is colored in with just a soft brush. That's all I use. Just a soft brush with a multitude of different sizes as I see fit. I do smudge a bit to make things blend well, and sometimes will take out my blur tool to make things evenly soft. In the beginning of my doodle escapade I was using a wet paint splatter brush, but have since moved away from that. I didn't like how the finalized item looked.
After my doodle is done and ready to be ordered as a sticker, I save it in a transparent background format in PNG. That way the printers can die-cut the sticker and print it out nicely. I send my drawing to the printers, what size and quantity I need, proof and receive them in the mail two to three weeks later. We're working towards becoming a self-sustained company where we have our own printing, cutting and laminating tools out of our home, but for now we're utilizing outside sources, and are currently switching to a PACNW local and eco-friendly company to create some great-quality stickers. Sticker making tools have proven to be rather expensive, as well as the supplies that go along with them so as a new business it isn't feasible to get that deep into debt when I can have someone else cut them out and print them for me.
Once we get the stickers delivered to us, we put them up for grabs in our shop on Etsy. Stock expands right before shows, but while we're away on business we put our shop into vacation mode. I just love shows. They're awesome. You can connect with so many people. My favorite part of shows, though is when someone comes up to our table and tells us that they found us on Etsy before they ever even knew us by seeing us at a show. I just want to hug each and every person who says that. Hopefully we'll be able to do one or two shows a month. At the moment we only plan on attending about eight shows this year in the Pacific Northwest including Seattle, Puyallup, Portland area and some places in Northern California. By next year I hope that we can go to more places like San Francisco, LA, Reno, Las Vegas and even some shows in Arizona.
We do wholesale orders, too. We've finally ironed out wholesale pricing and have a standard for folks that want to maybe have our stickers in their own store fronts, pet shops, vet offices, or even to give them away as freebies to people who purchase their animals. Volume and wholesale pricing starts at JUST 50 stickers.
As we grow, and as our shop expands we do plan to open up commissions. We were hoping for this summer, heck we were hoping for March, but now it's looking a little bit later than summer as our demand grows in our shop. We also want to bring out some t-shirts and sell those in our shop, too. And although we'd like to do that RIGHT NOW, it's a little unfeasible for us at the moment.When we do open up for shirts, though we will probably toss messenger bags and other fabric items in there, too.
Until then, thanks so much for following us. For reading blogs, posts, and liking and sharing our items and statuses. We love the feedback. It keeps us moving, rolling, drawing and keeps us wanting more!
~Rachel
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