Wow. Still busy as all get out and summer is upon us so we have had family at the house for the last couple weeks. I started work on the next sticker. One of the reasons I like working in a series like this is because I can try different things while essentially doing the same thing. The first sticker was just figuring out basics like size and stock. The second was taking those things and picking a subject that was totally different and working with it so it works with the first. With the third I started playing with specific elements, in that case the variegation patterns on the leaves. This new one…well I might have taken it a bit too far…
As you can see I’ve decided to focus on line work. I snapped a picture of this plant at a friend’s house knowing exactly how I was going to approach it. My technique was a little different than I usually work too. I knew I was going to try to get as detailed and accurate as possible so instead of spending time working and reworking the pencils until they were correct before inking, I instead sketched out the basic shape and immediately started in ink. I tried to be consistent in line width and intense in detail. I was dreading doing a scan and cleaning it up but because there was very little pencil work I was able to get a clean scan. Even though there is far more detail on this, my computer time was actually less than on some of the others.
The problem is I’m afraid there might be a little too much detail. I work larger than the final sticker and I’m curious to see how that will shrink down. I’m thinking the lines will get too thin and the negative space is just going to fill in. I’m pushing forward but I think I might have to spend more time working on the final size and print density than I’ve had to in the past. It was a problem I had to deal with when I was working on the cross-stitch Mario stickers so at least I have some idea of how to handle it.