The Xochimo Signature Style and Production Flow
In my last entry, I mentioned that I found my production flow and my signature style. Well, I mentioned it a little too flippantly, but I assure you, I did not come to this in a day or two. It’s one of those things I struggled to find. I just had to keep doing and making and trying. I think it took about three years to come to what I now call my production flow and signature style.
Production Flow. I am the kind of person that believes in simplicity. All things simple make me happy. So I knew my production process had to be not overly complicated. I won’t go into all the different things I tried, but I will say I tried many different ways to do what I wanted to do, both analog (watercolors, pencil sketching, color pencils) and digital (scanning, photos, computer, iPad). There are artists and designers out there who share their production process, and for that I’m grateful. It gave me ideas and options to try. I now have a process that is influenced by different styles of work flows. But mainly, I am following a process suggested by Stacie Bloomfield of Gingiber and Leverage Your Art. Basically, I sketch with pencil on paper (fig. 1) and transfer to the iPad to “ink and color” in Procreate with the Apple Pencil (fig. 2). Then I take it to the computer and vectorize each color layer in Adobe Illustrator. And from there I can either leave it as a spot illustration or create a repeat pattern (fig. 3). See? Three (or four) easy steps!! Simple.
Signature Style. Finding my style was hard. As a graphic designer, I approached my illustrations in a meticulous and detailed manner. Things had to look exactly like they did in real life. Placed in the exact way as my photo or visual guide. But I did not enjoy that type of drawing. And I didn’t love the end product either. It was sterile and medical. My drawings didn’t have soul when I tried to do them life-like. I knew I had to loosen up! I started to try to draw from memory and without a photo guide. And well, those drawings were hilariously child-like. Which I didn’t hate. But it wasn’t quite right either. So for an entire year, I just continued to draw and draw and draw. Bonnie Christine had issued a 365-day drawing prompt, and I downloaded it and did that every day for almost the whole year. And again, at first, I was trying to be perfect and realistic. But by the second month, I finally started to loosen up and just pull from my doodling days and just sketch, doodle and draw! (See what I did there? Ha!). But with shape and form. Not just marks. What resulted was sketchy, loose and some days they were cartoon-like. And they were fun (in my opinion)! And this I liked!
I took those drawings and digitized them with the aforementioned production flow, and it was right. And so far, it has stuck. I have nine completed mini collections. They actually look cohesive and like they came from the same artist. Yesss. My signature style is this….
I approach my work with light heartedness and a sense of humor. My work is inspired by a lifetime of fun doodling during boring meetings! haha! My hope is that the viewer experiences feelings of silliness, playfulness, and perhaps even recalling childhood memories.
Copyright update. I took the plunge! I copyrighted 10 spot illustrations and 10 repeating patterns. Each set of ten cost $85. Definitely more cost effective to copyright them in groups of 10 UNPUBLISHED works. I’m still confused as to what exactly they mean by unpublished. And now that I’ve registered these works with the Copyright Office, I wonder if I have to wait until I get their official approval of the submissions (the copyright certificate issued which takes months), or if I can show my work on social media and upload them to POD sites like Spoonflower without jeopardizing the copyright process. In other words, if I show them before I have the certificate of copyright, will they no longer be considered “unpublished” and therefore nullify the copyright submission? I sent this question to the Copyright Office and I’m waiting to hear back. So, again, I am stuck and leery of showing my work. BIG SIGH.
Stay tuned!