Sketchbook and Process: How I created my Canine Christmas range

It's November and it's officially FESTIVE SEASON!

And so my new Christmas designs are finally here. These have been a work in progress for a few months. From sketching, to final designs, working out how to foil (shiny! gold!), to photographing them. I thought it would be nice to share the process and some sketchbook behind the scenes of how the final designs start and end up on this little shop.

Background: As an illustrator - usually the process for a collection is in line with a clients standard process. For example a client might send you a mood-board, they will send a brief, and some of their ideas. The client will also then be in charge of final artworking a lot of the time, including any processes needed to print or for printing techniques they want to use. Eg. Until I ordered these foil cards myself, I had never truly prepared my files for foiling, despite having had different finished products created by clients. I always supply layered PSD's but after that - it's usually left up to them to work with their printers directly. This generally was the case working at a brand too (when I was at Sanrio), if you work with licensees - the licensee will be/or work with a manufacturer with your artwork. 

Working on a range for your own shop, for yourself, is basically the same as the above but you do all the steps including the research, your own brief, illustrating, artworking, finding suppliers, getting costings, working out your margins, photographing the range, promoting it etc!

First steps...

For context, everything on this shop for me is about FUN and what I like to make! The reason I created this store was to have autonomy to create & curate things without too much pressure, no commercial pros and cons from anyone, or a third party telling me what to create.  

And so... I wanted to make something dog & Christmas related.

I used my own Welsh corgi dog, Ted, for inspiration, as well as the vast world of Pinterest. I do love a vintage Christmas graphic or illustration. 

The process for me starts like the above image, lots of inky (or pencil) drawings of things related to the subject I'm working on. This gives me a feel for how something might be worked up into a final image and gives me ideas for those.

Once I've done a few pages of this, I will generally move onto thumbnails (though sometimes this process can be the other way round, there are no rules!!)

This is where I tend to work on composition, colour ideas and layout for a final product.

From here I will take my sketch into either a final ink drawing, scan and then work digitally, or draw in Procreate. I do prefer drawing by hand and then scanning usually as the lines are less 'perfect' and there can be more happy accidents this way! 



With Procreate I will then colour and work up. I will also use Photoshop in the same way, depending on 1. how big the file needs to be (Procreate is not great when you need large files for printing as it's limited with the amount of layers you can use..) 2. What sort of effect I want the artwork to have, though I've worked out ways of doing the things I like in my work on both programmes so it's definitely personal preference. Drawing/colouring on the iPad is a lot more fun and easier than on a computer though, in my opinion!



For final files and artworking, I will always use Photoshop (as above screenshot). This is because usually printers request PSD files, or similar (yes you can export Procreate as PSD too..) - but being able to finalise artwork on a computer means it's easier to test print to check colours, change colour modes (if needed for a supplier, to switch from RGB to CMYK), you can then tweak the colours with more precision than in Procreate. Also bleeds. Make sure to add the correct bleeds or your artwork will get chopped in the wrong places at the printers!

For something like foiling where your foiled layer needs to be black (though I have had a printer who requested it as white, too!) you can use the Greyscale + Duotone modes to switch a layer from a colour to Black or White - or any colour! 

From there.. I would speak with a supplier or printer directly and check how they want the files supplying. Different suppliers can have different requests.

Suppliers

In terms of finding suppliers... this is such a big topic but TL;DR: It depends on what your requirements are, what sort of MOQ's you are happy with (minimum order quantities), pricing, environmental concerns or country you'd like things manufactured in (eg. often you need an EORI number to receive goods from outside the UK). Honestly, your biggest asset to finding a suitable supplier is Google, you can find anything on Google... or visiting IRL shops and then working out what suppliers products you like are using. 

Once files are sent to print - it's a wait to get either print samples, or final pieces!
That's the exciting part.

Then it's time to photograph the items...

Again I will go to Pinterest for some inspo. If I need to get some props I will go to the local haberdashery, Etsy, eBay or an art supplies store. 

These days iPhone cameras are great and you can get some lovely photos but I personally prefer to use an actual camera. I'm a Fujifilm girl (love the colours of the photos & love the cameras), so I use a mix of lenses and most recently an XS20 body.