I thought I'd share with you the journey behind each She Said It design! Every design is unique, and our process changes and improves with each new style we create. I'm working on some new artwork right now, so keep on reading to see how our artwork is created today!
First off, we research quotes. Sometimes, we are looking for quotes by a particular woman (this is how I generally search) or we find them based on an occasion. We are always on the lookout for new quotes, so many we have found while reading books, magazines, or stumbling across them on the internet. We also do our best to fact-check the quotes. Some of the ones we use don't have a specific origin; however, if they are generally attributed to the woman and are in agreement with the ideas otherwise expressed by that woman, then we will use them. That sentence was a bit of a mouthful :) In order to legally use the quotes, such that they are in the public domain, all of the quotes featured on our products are from women who lived before 1950. A majority of the quotes are over 100 years old!
For the design, I start out by either penciling in the lettering or just going straight for it with pen, pencil, or watercolor. Nearly all of our older designs are lettered with pencil; however, I've been playing around with some different techniques recently and have started to use pen and paint. Whether or not I plan out my lettering beforehand depends on my mood :)
I then start the watercolor flowers. I generally do this before filling in the lettering that I penciled in because I'm more likely to make a mistake on this art ;) Oftentimes, I will create multiple versions of the same quote and then just redoing the design until I am completely satisfied. We'll see if this design will go into production, or if I will keep working!
I mix my own colors for nearly all of the shades and tints I use in our art. I often find that the colors directly from a palette are too bright or don't go super well together. I like to add a color to all of thoseI use so that they are more unified. Can you guess what that unifying color is in this piece?---->
(The answer is below!)
Highlight this area to see the answer: I used gray! By adding gray to the greens, blues, oranges, and pinks, the colors are much more muted and subtle.
The design below will be done with colors which include a bit of blue. They are very vibrant, bright, and clear.
I finish it off by filling in the lettering! I wasn't completely satisfied with the design, so I did another version. Which one do you prefer? I think I like the second one more... :)
Do you want to know more? Have any questions or comments? Send us an email! We look forward to hearing from you!