- Hi, YouTube.
I'm Alicia Souza and I'm an Illustrator.
My Skillshare class just launched
and it's about finding inspiration
and illustrating for merchandise.
Today I'm sharing an exclusive sneak peek with you.
Stay tuned.
I just scanned my illustration.
I scan it usually at 400 DPI
so that's a high enough resolution
for me to print for something like a mug.
Always scan at a higher resolution
because you never know
what you want to use it for later as well.
So if I want to use the same illustration on say
something a little bigger
I'd want something that's high resolution
so that I won't get, of course, any pixelation when I print.
All right. So I'm opening it on Photoshop.
So that's how it looks.
Here is a bunch of stamps that my nephew stamped on my book.
Here are the line marks that I made, as I mentioned.
And now what I'm going to do, is I'm going to clean it up.
So I'm just cropping the edges out
and I'm going to increase exposure
just to clean out the back parts.
I use a lot of shortcuts.
I'm not going to even get into what shortcuts I used
because I edit some of them.
So I'm not sure which ones are edited.
You can go into preferences
and you can change your shortcuts.
And I always, always recommend it
because it makes your workflow so much more fast
so much more faster.
I recommend making a shortcut that works your hands
and yeah, always, always work for them.
So here I'm going to take out the line art.
You can probably hear all the
making the tone noises in the background.
Please excuse.
And here on the top are
stamps that my nephews stamped on my book.
And we're going to delete that out.
I'm going to take out these line, these marks
and I'm going to keep them on separately
and just make them disappear.
And I'm going to bring this down.
I'm going to color on this artwork
but because these are separate icons
I'm going to move them according to the canvas of the mug
in this case.
Ideally you can even start a canvas
that is perfectly to size and move it there.
So I'm just going to work a little backwards in this case.
Okay? So I'm going to color
on a layer below the line artwork
and I'm just going to use a random color
so I don't really have a palette.
I'm just going to use a color palette that's up here.
I've been using Kyle Webster's brushes for ages
but now it comes with Photoshop and Adobe CC
so that's free for you if you have that subscription.
This is like, a brush that I like
and I'm just going to use this one.
This is the way you can have fun.
And you can like color in how you like
with whatever brushes that you like.
And there's no real hard and fast rules with this pen.
So when I started
I used to use literally every color in the palette.
Now I just use a limited color palette.
Again, no hard and fast rules.
You can use what you like
or what works for the artwork or for the brief.
But I realized that a lot of illustrators end up having
a color palette that is kind of innate to them
and what they seem to like aesthetically
and mine seems to be a little more brighter
on the brighter side.
I love bright colors, so it's just what I use.
And I feel like it goes with my surroundings.
So now I'm just picking up
pretty much colors at random.
As I go from bug to bug
I will clean up, you know, bits of it.
And I'm trying to do one bug at a time
just to show you how it looks
but I'm going to color everything also.
How I work is, I tend to color everything
then I add in the details of it later
and then light the shadows
and then the texture and stuff like that.
I play with opacity as well.
For certain places, it's just easier to work with it.
So you can always make your own texture.
I always of course
I recommend it because then you get
something that's super unique to your own artwork.
And to what you do
'cause I'm probably going to add those
concentric circles and add them to his wings.
That's more of a pattern than a texture
but I think even say you make marks
with a pen that's running out of ink and you use that
I think that looks so beautiful.
And then you always
you can keep these textures and use them
and keep them in a separate folder
and use them for other illustrations as well.
Pull this out.
So I'm going to take two of these
and I'm going to put them
color them white.
I'm going to move them here.
So now they look like little patterns on his wings.
I'll do it with the other side as well.
I think I did four of them.
So it's perfect.
And also a good rule of thumb, is naming your layers
which I never do.
It's quite terrible
but always recommend to name your layers.
I do recommend, I mean I do it
when I send it to print of course
but before that, I sometimes don't.
I kind of know how I work with my file, so I don't
but if it's bigger files, of course, I do.
And then, and I think the sky is kind of done.
And I'm just going to do the rest of them.
(uptempo music)
Also one thing you have to keep in mind
when you're working with merchandise
is firstly, of course your resolution.
Secondly, is the color format
so it's usually CMYK for print and color separation.
So if you're working with something like screen printing
so if you were doing a t-shirt
or something that is going to get screen-printed
there'll be a limit on number of colors
and if they need the color separated
in different layers or different files
that's just something to keep in mind
before you start working.
Now I know I'm going to be working on digitally printed mug.
So there's going to be no color restrictions.
But I will have to keep in mind
how the color is going to turn out
when it finally gets printed on the mug.
I will see that in the sample.
Certain things look duller when they're printed.
Certain things look as on screen
so that usually people
but yeah, just something to keep in mind.
Thanks for joining me for this lesson.
I can't wait to see what you've made.
This is one part of my class
for finding inspiration
and illustrating for merchandise on Skill Share.
Click on the link below.
I can't wait to see you there.