In this week’s Substack post I wrote about how excited I am to be working on the new Winter Sticker Collection. One thing I haven’t been able to do much of in the past several weeks is draw. I know I could’ve taken my sketchbook to the hospital, but it feels a bit tactless to sit beside someone in a hospital bed and ask if you can sketch them. Rather like asking to take photos—at least in my family, we wouldn’t dream of it when someone is at their worst.
So I didn’t draw. And this week I finally got to return to it. The sticker illustrations have been a joy. Who wouldn’t have fun drawing a bunch of winter animals playing bluegrass?
They’re not ready yet—there’s still plenty to do—but I’m sharing these early scans. This is the raw material. First I draw them, paint in the backgrounds, then layer colored pencil on top of everything. After that, I re-ink the lines because colored pencil has a mischievous way of swallowing them whole. It takes about four or five hours to get one illustration to this point.
Then I scan them into my computer. My next step is cleanup—usually in Photoshop, sometimes in Procreate. Cleanup means removing stray marks, scanner dust, odd shadows, or anything that looks out of place. I might boost a color or adjust a line, but colored pencil usually scans beautifully on its own. That’s one reason I love using it, despite the extra time it takes.
Once they’re cleaned, I sort out the final composition. If I’m adding text, this is when I figure out how it fits. For this set I already know the small text on the Blue Ridge sticker isn’t quite working, so I’ll shift it around or redraw them.
The last step is choosing the sticker shape and border—usually with some convoluted alchemy in Photoshop, finding the outline that feels right and the color that frames it well. After that the illustration is complete and I build the sticker sheet. I print a test page on plain paper, check alignment and color, make any tweaks, and export the final PDF. Then a real test print on sticker paper, twenty-four hours to dry, laminate, trim, done.
To be honest, I don’t sell many stickers. I make them because I love them. I put them on sketchbooks, computers, water bottles—any surface that needs a bit of art. Whenever I travel, I always come home with at least one sticker as a souvenir. They’re small, inexpensive, and when I look at them later, I remember exactly where I was when I found them.
I’m really happy with these bluegrass animals so far, they have a coziness to them. I love how I can make this tiny warm thing, and it glows back at me. These little guys aren’t finished yet, but even in their rough scans they carry that faint spark of winter cheer. It’s the quiet comfort of knowing that a story is taking shape, one colored pencil line at a time, after weeks when life pulls you away from your studio.
