THE ONLINE SHOP IS OPEN

The Etsy shop is now open ! Feel free to check the link : 

 www.etsy.com/shop/MaudBihan 

BEHIND THE SCENE : Working on my online shop

Another behind the scene type of post for this week. I personally really love to read this kind of posts and I hope you enjoy it too. As you may know I am planning to run an online shop. But before anything I have to create and prepare the thing which is, clearly, a big job.

 + THE SHOP.  

I admit, I didn't dug very far on this question, I chose the easy way, Etsy. I wanted to have a shop that would be convenient to use for me and for customers. When it comes to buy online, I feel pretty safe with this kind of platform and I really wanted people to have the same feeling, because I think it is really important. Maybe later I'll change for something more personal but for now it is perfect for what I need. Do you guys have any experience regarding online shop platforms, Etsy or another ?

If you're new to the business, as I am, you should know that building an actual shop is a huuuge work! I would never have thought it would take so long. I should be used to this kind of stuff by now but, weirdly, I always tend to think everything is going to be super quick to do. Ahaha! Nope. Man, it is taking freaking long, and I only sell like 7 products. I quite feel like a potato right now.
But anyway, I guess it's better to take a bit more time to make things properly instead of redoing them later.

 + MATERIAL. 

Appart from the online shop, I also had to prepare all the materials I need to run it and send the orders.

1. Clear Plastic bags:
   Very important when it comes to protect the product against humidity during the shipping. I bought mines at eco-craft.co.uk. They are made from corn starch which means that they are entirely bio-degradable.
2. Envelopes:
   Also very important, right ? I used to bought bubble envelopes but I noticed that postman sometimes fold it in the letters box. Bad postman. So I ordered cardboard envelopes. More rigid and Eco-friendly! I bought them at paysdesenveloppes.fr which is a french supplier.
3. Cardboard sheets:
   Are a freaking nightmare to buy in France. I had to contact a factory in UK and I am still waiting for their answer. But anyway, it's really handy when it comes, again, to the product's safety. I bought them mainly because I still have some bubble envelopes I want to use but I don't want the product to be damaged. The safer = the better.
4. "Please don't bend":
   Speaking of safety. I used to write this by hand but it's quite long actually. I decided to make a sticker of it, so it's a bit more personal and faster. Plus making those kind of labels is really affordable. I made them printed by my usual printer printnet.co. I really love how they turned!







5. A little extra:
   When I was running my first shop, I use to write a "thank you" note with a little drawing. I kinda like those little personal details when it comes to tiny shops. Unfortunately, I know that with all the client work, I will not have time to do that anymore. So I printed a card with an illustration on the front and a note on the back. I only show you the front so maybe, if one day you order from my shop, you'll discover the back.      

         

 + WHAT TO EXPECT. 

Right now, I don't have a lot of products to sell but I am working on it. If everything goes as I planned, finger crossed, the next update will be around end October. Because I really want to make new things for Christmas season.

Also, one of the things I am digging to do is freebies! I am planning to give a sticker for every order made in the shop. And the sticker will change each month and will be exclusive. Let's see if I can manage to make it! Do you have any suggestion concerning those stickers or another kind of gift ?

 THE SHOP WILL OPEN ON SUNDAY 23rd
 AT 7 PM (UTC+2) 

But don't worry I will post here and on social medias! Have a great week-end, see you on Sunday! x x x 

BEHIND THE SCENE : Process for homemade stickers

I though it would be interesting for you to read about the process for making those. Yay! Story time!  Or "how it took me 3 months to produce stickers from start to end"...

 + THE CONCEPTION PART. 

So 3-4 months ago, I decided I wanted to open a shop and attempt to illustration fairs. As a big sucker for stickers, I wanted to make mine. I wasn't sure on the path to chose to actually print them but I was pretty sure about the design and the size. I wanted sticker sheets small enough to fit in an A5 sketchbook, because this is what I use as a planner and where I put all my stickers. And I think it's convenient to be able to keep them inside. I don't like when your sheet is all folded because the format is a bit to big. What is your preference concerning sheets size, guys ?

So I have this notebook where I wrote down all my projects ideas, I've made a list of which themes I would like to have as stickers. I try to think my products so they can please to everyone but before anything else, to me. I learned the hard way how much it is important to love your own products.

I always paint my illustrations on procreate with watercolor'ish brushes from Georg. Then I import the painting on Photoshop to apply a watercolor texture on it and tweak the colors if needed. 

For stickers, I paint visuals focusing on one theme. I don't really plan my sheet as a composition and sometimes I don't even use all the visuals.

Here are 3 little illustrations I didn't end up using because I didn't liked the final result.

You can also see some process videos on my instagram and twitter, I try to upload one from time to time and there are some from my breakfast sticker sheet illustrations.

Anyway, here is the final result for the three sheets I've made.



 + ATTEMPT ON HOME PRINTING  

As I am starting as a merch seller, I don't really know if all of this is going to work. To be honest, I have this super scary though where no one is interested to buy them. So to prevent this I decided to print them in a very small quantity. And finger-crossed, it is going to work.

The thing is... when you want to print small quantity of something, the price is insane! I tried a lot of different websites to find somewhere to print them without selling any of my organs. But every time, it was really expensive and I can't really afford to buy stickers that price. Plus I don't even know if they are going to sell. 

So I decided to print and cut them myself. And oh boy... that was a big adventure I wasn't prepared for.

It happens that my friend has this big and very good quality printer. And she kindly accepted to let me try to print my stickers on it. So I bought some sticky paper and we've tried. A lot. We've spend literally hours trying to print them with the right contrast balance and colors but in the end the colors where really dull. I still don't know why but it seems the printer has issues with black...

 + PRINTING 2/2  

So I ended up printing them with the usual printing company I work with. They don't make stickers but they can print on sticky paper with some fancy varnish (I chose a glossy varnish but I would love to try the matte one too). And it stays really cheaper compared to actual printed + cut stickers. This is also why it took me so much time to get them. I waited to have enough to print so I could order not only the stickers sheets but also some cards and labels for the shop. 
I've organized my stickers sheet on a A4 size so it's more convenient to cut and there are less paper loss.
And I have to say that the result has exceeded my expectations! The quality is just beautiful and I am so happy with the colors. The only thing is that the paper is a bit bendy due to it's thickness and the varnish.

 + CUTTING THE STICKERS. 

The cutting part was all planned since the beginning. In June, I ordered a Cricut, which is a home cutting machine (mine is mint... so pretty!). I didn't tested it at the time because as the perfectionist that I am, I wanted to wait to have the stickers printed so everything would be immediately perfect. And also, with all the videos I've seen on Youtube, I thought it would be a piece of cake. What a fool I was!

I think the machine is really easy to use if you actually print from it (you can chose to print + cut or just cut). But if you print your visuals elsewhere.. it's a freaking pain in the butt! I had a very hard time trying to align my printed design with the cut file. Plus, my prints are not really perfects. My designs can be 1mm offset and it changes everything. My firsts test were a total mess guys, look a this!

Luckily for me there are some very good tutorial on the internet. Thank to this clever guy, I manage to cut my stickers correctly. But there's always a little part of "no perfection" as you can see here. Some are more aligned than others.

As I said, I am huge perfectionist, and it can be really annoying because this kind of stuff drives me nuts. But I guess I'll have to live with it and... I'll just secretly cry about it.

Another thing with the cricut is that it takes forever to cut. And because of the fact that I use Die Cut + Kiss Cut, I have to switch between both for every A4. The advice that I would give if you want to cut stickers like this is to have more than one mat. While the machine is cutting a sheet, you can prepare another. I ordered just one and I regret it now.

Otherwise, the machine is super pro and the cut is very clean. I was really surprises about that.

 + FINAL PRODUCT. 

Whatever I say... I am super proud of the result. I'm in love with the size of the sheet, and I really like how the stickers turned out. I was super scared because this is a product I really don't want to mess up. I want to keep making more now. Even if the process is really long.

 + THOUGHTS. 

In the end I love the product. Sure, the process is very long but for now I prefer to work more but spend less on it.
Because if I make the maths, the machine + the whole order I've made to my printer, is less expensive than just the stickers all printed and cut out. So if I sell all my stickers stock, I'll have refunded the machine entirely and the stickers will practically cost me nothing to print again.
For now it's a good solution because I am starting and I want to keep a small production but for someone who sells a lot... it may not worth it at all.

DRAWING CHALLENGE : End + thoughts

This is it guys. The challenge is over. 7 days of drawing an illustration a day. It was very short but I am proud to say that I made it. And I will do it again as soon as my schedule allows it, plus I have tons of ideas! But first, let me show you the illustrations I've made.

You can see that even in a week, I had time to experiment a bit. The first two paintings were very detailed and took me a while to achieve. So on the 3rd day, I tried something looser and so, quicker. For the challenge, it worked very well but for actual client work, I may have to work with a bit more details. But anyway, it was a good experience!  x x x

DRAWING CHALLENGES : How to be prepared ?

This is a question I asked myself lately. Right now, I am overwhelmed by work and I can't show anything because it's client work. The problem is : I don't want to look "inactive". I want to be able to contact potential new clients and say "hey look, I painted new things!". Or show my work on social media, or to you, here, on the blog.
And there is only one solution to this problem : Work. More.

In my mind, challenges are a very fun way to work even if they are also very hard. There are a lot of different challenges but the one I decided to focus on is : a drawing a day for "insert the number you want" days.

During a week, I decided to produce a painting every day, and I chose to work on food illustrations. So I sat at my desk (with the usual cup of coffee) and started to think of the best way to approach this challenge. And here is what I found :

 + WHY ? 

The first thing you need to think about is what are your motivations to make this challenge. Even if it's for 3 days, you'll need to draw every single day so it's very important to have a good motivation to star with. For me, the challenge is more something that motivates me to work in a way I can have fun, so it's a bit tweaked. But it can also be...

• For practice. Focus on something you want to be better at. For exemple, I really suck at composition so I could totally make a challenge about this. But it can be perspective, drawing people, animals or bicycle (they are so hard to draw!).
• To test. Challenge is also a good way to try new things and explore your creativity. You can pick a theme then test techniques and different media.

 + FIND SOMETHING THAT INSPIRES YOU.  

It's very important to have a little something that will motivate you to work every day. I chose to work on food for my first challenge. It is something that I love, so it's not very difficult for me to be motivated.

But if you have to draw something that is not very... inspiring and is a lot more challenging, you maybe will need to find something that makes you feel inspired and consequently, motivated. For exemple if you decided to draw people, you can focus on people you like : friends, family, your favorite band etc...
Or maybe you need a kind of "immediate reward" that will motivates you. In that case, you can go work somewhere else. Changing your work space may be a good motivation to work every day. You can go to a coffee shop, to a work space, a park, at a friend home etc...
You can also take part to a challenge that is already existing like the Inktober, created Jake Parker. Or make this challenge with friends or even open your own challenge to anyone who wish to enter. Being part of a group in a great source of motivation and inspiration!

Anyway, the thing is to find a little plus that will help you to create and be motivated every day.

 + DON'T GET GREEDY.  

Challenges, in any shape it can come, is a very demanding task. You don't want to stop in the middle because you've seen it too big. Being consistant is already really hard because, as everyone, you will have days where you don't feel like drawing at all. But being consistant during a long period is even harder! Be realistic on your capacity and the time you can assign to make a drawing on a daily basis. Starting small is a very good way to grow your confidence.
I have to tall that I use to suck AF at challenges. Every year I was like " Yeah ! I am totally doing this month drawing challenge !". And guess what ? I failed. Every. Single. Time. Because I wasn't prepared at all and I wasn't really determined. And to be honest, after all those fails, the idea to start a challenge again freaked me out.
So for this challenge, I started little. I think one week is a good amount of time. It's not to much, but enough to produce a consistant work.

 + PLAN YOUR CHALLENGE.  

In my opinion, being organized is a very good key to go through a challenge. If you prepare your challenge before to actually make it, it will be much easier. Star by defining a day to start and a day to end it. If you want to share it on social media, you can actually start a day before in case you really can't make it one day.
One thing that really helps is to plan your illustrations. You want to know which illustration you're going to work on, for every day of the challenge, so when the day comes, there's no surprise. For that, you can write ideas or pitchs in your agenda or make a list. You can also prepare some references, if needed, so you don't lose any time (and motivation) at the moment of actually make the drawing.
Planning your illustration is also a good way to keep you motivated because of course some illustrations will inspire you more than others and you will be happy to make them.

 + TAKE IT SERIOUSLY.  

It may sound stupid but I think it's very important for a challenge or in life in general. And this is something I realized few months ago. You have to take your work and yourself seriously.
And it's a big help during a challenge, trust me. I don't mean this in the way "hey, be serious!" but more in a way "be consistant".
Of course, no one will blame you if you miss one day. But you'll break the pattern you've spend hard time to build and I think that having a working pattern is so good for self-satisfaction! I mean... I am super proud of myself each time I finish my painting. I go to bed knowing that I've done it and that, my friend... is the best feeling! Each day, it helps me to be a bit more confident.
So if one day of your challenge you feel down, which is totally normal and ok, you can be nice with yourself and make it very quick simple. And even if it's not your best piece, it will be something because you've made it.
Something wonderful with daily challenge is that.. it changes every day ! So please don't worry too much.



And I think this is all for now. So far, I applied all of these advices for my actual challenge and for now it is going pretty well. If you have any other tips, please feel free to share. I would love to hear about your experiences as well!

I will post all the illustrations at the end of the challenge. Meanwhile, here is one, plus some steps through it. I wish you a wonderful week-end! x x x