Recently I started making designs for lapel pins and I’m going to share with you how you can do one too, using your hand drawn designs , a iPad , Adobe Sketch App & an Apple pen .
STEP ONE: SKETCHES
Okay. Step one, let's get your sketches into the computer. I had my artworks scanned or photographed and airdropped them straight from my phone to my IPad Pro . Sometimes I get them scanned from a local business then they Dropbox them by email for me. Then I imported them into my adobe sketch app by adding a graphic layer .
STEP 2- OPACITY SETTING
Okay, so the next step is to add a opacity to your image. I like to set the opacity of my sketch to about 50%. Then I lock that layer and create a new sketch layer.
STEP 3: ADDING COLOR
Now I begin by adding blocks of Colour over my drawn sketch with my Apple pen . Your color layer doesn't have to be perfect because it's hidden under your outlines that you do later.
The main thing to consider when choosing colours is that when it comes to enamel colours they only use PANTONE colours. So check the colours and try your best to match them. It doesn’t have to be exact at this stage !
Extra tip: create a new layer for each colour .
STEP 4 : OUTLINE
Then I use my Apple pen to trace over the hand drawn sketch, creating crisp black lines around each area of colour. It’s important to have lines around each seperate colour . I like to make the lines of medium weight so they aren’t too thin. The Apple pen is my main tool, with a bit of practice it feels like drawing with a real pen ! The reason I do the outlines last, is mainly because it’s so much easier and you will find it covers the edges between the colours perfectly and saves you lots of time .
I also do lots of details with the black at this stage! Have a bit of fun !
send to manufacturer
Now, just save the file as a jpeg , indicate your Pantone colors & send your design to your manufacturer! My manufacturer approves this template and sometimes we need to make a few edits but its pretty much complete !
I then decide if the black lines in my design need to be made into gold or black. I like to have my manufacturer send both for comparison. Then choose . Often the black or gold lines are raised and the colours are added into the pockets made by the gold or black lines .
I hope this was helpful!! Go makes some pins!!
