Inspiration can come from anywhere, especially your friends!
My goal for this project was to one challenge myself, by using a couple different art styles. I have never attempted anything like this before. Each one of these stickers was inspired by those close to me and I really enjoyed that aspect of this project. It was very challenging and exhausting for me to do something this creative and technical. Knowing I was going to show these to those who inspired them was very motivating.
Initially I tired to do my vector drafts using just these sketches and that didn't provide too much let. These sketches were a valuable thought exercise, but didn't give me too much to work with. I ended up using the record, mountain, and mask ideas until the end. I scrapped the other ideas and did new sketches.
I did these sketches to help me see more clearly what I was trying to achieve. These sketches still aren't super detailed, but they were a great jumping off point. As I looked at these my mind was filling in the way I wanted to look inside Illustrator. My friend Kent has a massive vinyl collection, and I wanted to test making cartoony reflections so it worked out. The chip cartoon was inspired by my friend Adam who is always eating chips, we do actually call him Chip-filled Adam, so I wanted to do something fun there as well. The Luchador mask was for my 3 wrestling buddies who live in rural Ohio.
One of the things I was told to incorporate was texture. My first vector drafts all has really flat colors and little contrast. That is something that was challenging to figure out, how to use shapes and colors to create those illusions. I think these principles are highlighted especially well in the Mountain sticker, who was inspired by my friend Shelisa. I also wanted the mountain sticker to have a different color palette compared to the rest. I first met her here in Idaho and she has similar style mountain stickers on her water bottle. The icing on the cupcake too has the icing were I tried to show depth and shine. I think I have accomplished what I set out to do. I also had a motif of using orange in them all. It isn't my favorite color, but I wanted one common element in them all. I think I show a varied of styles and techniques that I have never been able to pull off before, and again each sticker is dedicated to a close friend.
