1. MY PROJECT PLAN and BRAINSTORM

For my stamp project, I wanted to go with my country (Canada) but make the theme really personal. I went with Winter in My Childhood. 

I will be using the recommended 1 x 1.5 aspect ratio for the stamp, which makes it possible to use the provided sketching, artwork and stamp mockup templates.

I created this in Procreate.

TIP: Making your theme more about a specific, personal experience like this can make it easier to think of ideas for each stamp.

 

As you can see, I brainstormed my ideas right overtop the Project Plan (above). I landed  on the following concepts for each stamp:

 

1. Single Object - GT Snoracer
2. Still Life - Boots/Shoe Mat
3. Flat-lay - Backyard hockey
4. Figure - My mom in her 1 pc. ski suit, or Snow Angels (I ended up going with Snow Angels)
5. Scene - Shovelling the driveway 
6. Montage - Suburban winter (boring, quiet, night time in winter)

 

3. OBSERVATION MODE DRAWINGS (FROM REFERENCES)

Here are my O-Mode drawings from my reference images. I went a little crazy with the boots and added red. I drew these using the 6B pencil brush in Procreate.

 

 

3. Thumbnail Sketches

Now, here are my rough sketches (Ideational-Mode). For these, I used the Stamp Sketch Template (PSD) file that is available for download on the Projects page.

4. REFINED SKETCHES

Once I made my selections, I went onto refine them. For some I refined more than one. I left my Harmonic Armatures grid visible so you can see how the sketches align to it.

As you can see, at this stage I was not necessarily decisive about which sketch I wanted to go with. In a real world project, by this time, the refined sketch would be approved and I would have to just go with it. Which saves a lot of time and pleases the client, but it's not always my favourite. So since this is MY project, I get to be a bit picker and change my mind as I go!

 

 

 

 

5. FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS

And of course, here are my final illustrations! While I did go through different versions, I will share only the ones that I ended up with here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOCKUPS

Of course, these little badboys were meant to be STAMPS! So here they are in the mockups! I'll start with the individual stamps and then show them as a set (which I ended up placing over a yellow background).