For the holiday season this year, I had the amazing opportunity of working with one of my favorite small batch peanut butter companies, Nerdy Nuts! The goal was to create custom artist edition labels for Halloween, Black Friday, & Christmas which meant I was able to put my spin on these nostalgic holidays which are each near and dear to my heart.
Process
The illustration process for these labels was really straight forward, but one which I enjoy. Rather than getting a really detailed brief for each one, I was simply given the flavor title of each label and allowed to create whatever came to mind. I find this process works quite well with things like this because it doesn't leave me completely directionless, but still affords me the freedom to create based on really loose parameters.
With the flavor profile as my illustration prompt, I jumped into the first label...
Mrs.Claus's Chocolate Cake
When I heard the title for this label, I knew almost immediately I wanted to draw the kitchen of Mrs. Claus. Not only did I want to illustrate a cake baked by Mrs. Claus, I wanted to see glimpses of a cozy living room through the archways of the kitchen wall.
This was what I came up with for the sketch. I tend to keep my sketches fairly tight as I end up using them when I'm painting the final piece. The tighter my pencils, the easier it is to paint - but there's a balance needed because if I spend too much time on the pencils and the direction needs to be altered, it wastes a lot of time and can take some of the energy out of the piece.
Painting
Painting this piece was where the true joy was for me. I didn't want to overwork any one area of the scene and wanted to keep the shapes more gestural, iconic, and rendered with specific detail. Once I had everything painted, I added a lighting pass to really highlight the cake and allowed shadows to fall over the areas I wanted glowing (such as the oven or the fireplace in the living room).
Here are a few details where you can see some of the details. As you'll notice, I love using specific textures to define my forms - whether it's wood grain, brick patterns, or shines on pieces of candy.
Gnome Alone
The next label in the series was titled Gnome Alone - a title I couldn't wait to tackle. For some reason, the scene that came to mind was a bunch of tiny gnomes raiding a pantry shelf full of candy, presents, and of course, Nerdy Nuts peanut butter.
Sketches
Sketching these kinds of scenes where there are multiple figures and items can be quite a challenge. I try to break the illustration up into smaller scenes, each with some sort of narrative around the items within. In this case, I wanted to show gnomes getting into boxes, falling into jars of peanut butter, and even one in a food coma. The best part is when this is done right, there's tons for viewers to explore and discover within the illustration.
Color
I wanted to keep the colors warm in this piece with a nice glow that made the scene feel inviting. Using a palletized color scheme helped unify the piece and helped bring it all together. I also used lots of texture on the piece to bring it to life.
Here are a few of the detail shots:
Reindeer Tracks
Next on the list, we have Reindeer Tracks. I thought about showing tracks in a snowy forest but the idea that ended up appealing to me more was to create a ramp out of Santa's workshop which was used to launch his sleigh.
Sketches
The composition for this one was a lot of fun to work on. I knew I wanted to have towering a star filled sky, mountains in the distance, and a workshop perched on top of snow frosted hills. The ramp itself would be used to frame out the logo & flavor name - which is something I try to do often with labels like these.
Color
I really love painting night time scenes because it affords me the opportunity to create a moody piece which is ripe with lighting opportunities. I tried to keep the workshop looking warm amidst the snow covered hills - and the cool night time colors worked well contrasted against the warm colors of the logo (something I always try to keep in mind when designing labels).
And the detail shots:
Caramel Apple Blondie
This label was by far the most challenging to conceptualize and the most fun to work on. One of the owners of Nerdy Nuts gave me a song as a prompt (My Chemical Romance's "The Black Parade") which I absolutely loved. For whatever reason, when I heard the song, I couldn't picture anything other than a bunch of monsters traipsing through a snowy forest.
Sketches
With the rough sketch, I wanted to make sure I had a fun cast of characters in a composition which would still house the logo well but still feature everyone clearly. This is what I came up with:
Color
When it came time to color this one, I knew I wanted to suggest a forest as opposed to painting tons and tons of details in the background that way I could focus time and detail on the characters themselves. The subtle forest background really helped bring the characters forward while still setting the tone of the scene.
And the details... I low key love the Caramel Apple Head conductor of this motley crew.
All Hallow's Eve
The very first label I worked on was not for Christmas, it was for Halloween! I used this illustration as the template for all the other labels - making sure each piece had a nice background, foreground, and middle ground. I wanted to create compositions you could look through and discover details as you go.
Sketches
I knew I wanted to draw a character in costume standing around a bunch of pumpkins just outside of a neighborhood. The sketch came together fairly quickly, and then it was time to paint.
Color
Painting these nostalgic scenes is always a pleasure. I focus on color schemes that make me happy - and are usually based on memories of what Halloween felt like as a kid.
And the details:
Big thanks to the fine folks at Nerdy Nuts for such a fun opportunity! If you all get the chance, you should definitely check out their peanut butter... but be warned... if you're a fan of peanut butter, you will be thoroughly addicted to theirs. Yes, it's that good.
Thanks for following along!
