I just hired a Marketing Nomad by the name of Daniel. He and I are going to spread the Alyson Whitney Brand to the world together.
One of our meetings led to a convo about Customizing a Pillow.
I said, “oh yeah, we need to change the copy under customizing a pillow.”
Daniel said, “ok so what’s the process, do you digitally draw these?”
I almost vomited.
But instead, I said to him, “Yeah, no, absolutely not, (like in a disgusted way) they are all hand drawn. Allllll HAND DRAWNNN. No, there is no digitally drawing here.”
I’m sure he could see the steam coming out of my ears. I could feel it.
Daniel asked, “then why doesn’t it say that?", we should clarify the hand drawn aspect of them. It made a difference for me!”
This basic marketing 101 was right under my nose and I didn’t see it.
I thought everyone knows they are hand drawn.
Dually noted.
Here’s what I know about my process and you now know.
I love a good pen and paper.
The kind of pen that isnt too fat or thin and when it hits the paper it creates the smoothest lines.
The paper is vellum-like. It has a slight texture that captures the ink without a bleed. It’s my paper happy place and I don’t waste it. I treat this paper like gold.
2-3 cute, good resolution (hi-res) dog or cat photos to study their smiles and eyeliner.
Now it’s time to get out my Inktense Watercolor Pencils that smell of wood when I open the aluminum box and displays over 70 colors placed in rainbow order.
Just looking at the colors brightens your day.
I fill up my water brush pen with water, squeeze it a few times to wet the pen, pick a colored pencil and brush the tip of the pencil to grab some color. My brush hits the paper, drawing down the first curvy line of color. I see confetti!
And then I go into color fantasy world watching all the colors meet and blend with each other as I color the inked silhouette of someones pet.
The end.
P.S. It’s by hand for gods sake and peace out there to all the digital artists!
-AW