Stephanie Fizer Illustration

Delightful New Paper Goods

Oh it's definitely been a Monday!  I'm glad it's almost time to relax for the evening, with a cup of tea and a bit of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory.  

Here are some new things just released in the shop: 

 

Teacups in the Little Forest Sticker Set

Kokeshi Darling Flat Notecards

Limited Edition A Crispness In the Air Flat Notecards (available through December 31st, just like the print)

Teacups in the Little Forest Flat Notecards

You might notice that the new notecard sets are being printed on a pretty heavy stock now.  I just found it recently and the weight is just perfect, it's sturdy but also very smooth and holds color well.  I think you will really like it and plan on eventually switching all of the stationery over to it.  

And a quick note on shipping, this week I will be adjusting my international shipping rates just a bit.  I keep my shipping rates as low as I can, because it personally drives me crazy when I find something that I really like and it ends up having outrageous shipping.  That said, as my business grows and the size of each order also increases, I can no longer maintain a flat shipping rate for international orders.  

From this week on, international orders will be charge a flat rate for the first time and then a small extra charge for each additional item.  For example, if you live in Ireland and you buy a print, you will pay $4 for shipping.  If you also buy a set of notecards in the same order, you will be charged an additional 75 cents for shipping.  And so it will continue for each item on the order.  

I'm certainly hoping this doesn't deter any buyers and I don't want anyone to think that I am trying to make extra money from raising shipping charges.  I'm just trying to cover my own shipping costs while providing the lowest shipping cost I can to my customers :)  

I plan to start updating shipping tomorrow, so consider yourself warned.  And I will still be offering Free Shipping on all orders from time to time.  Domestic shipping won't be changing.  

PS-Don't forget I'm going to be in the Etsy Virtual Labs on Thursday at 4pm EST giving a lecture on customer service.  

And Now With Bigger Prints!

Wow, I really enjoyed reading all your lovely comments on the Autumn Blog Giveaway post.  It really is a magical time of year, with all the brilliant, rich colors and the crunching leaves.  I find that I'm always inspired during this time of year.  

So random.org helped me select a giveaway and lucky #18 turned out to the lovely Celine who will soon be receiving her limited edition print along with some other fun stuff from my studio.  Congrats Celine!  

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This week I finally got around to doing something I've planned on for quite awhile:  making larger prints available!   Now keep in mind, that some of my work was originally created on a small scale, so not every illustration will be available in big sizes.  But now you can request prints in 11x14($38) and 13x19($52).  

They are printed on the same beautiful, texture fine art paper that my smaller works are printed on.  

And to celebrate here are five new prints for the shop: 

 

Yes, that is three new robot prints along with a large robot print featuring all six.  And a large print featuring all 12 of the Teacups in the Little Forest illustrations.

If you're curious about the availability of other large-size prints, please don't hesitate to ask.  I'll be rolling out some new large prints soon, but would love any suggestions or requests you might.  

And now for a little extra bonus for you, my darling readers, Buy 2 or more Get 1 Free Prints today and tomorrow only!  

How it works:  Place an order for any two prints through my Etsy shop.  Then tell me the name of the third print you would like to receive for free in the Message to Seller section of the order form.  Also make sure to mention the code FREEPRINT11 in the Message to Seller section of the order form.  

Restrictions:  Please only one free print per person.  Your free print must be of equal or lesser value than the items you are purchasing(so you can't buy two $10 prints and request a $38 print as your freebie).  

And you have until tomorrow at midnight EST to take advantage of the offer.  

Enjoy!  

It's An Autumn Blog Giveaway!

I just love Autumn so it's time for another blog giveaway!  This time you can enter to win a 5x7 limited edition print of A Crispness In The Air along with a pack of surprise goodies from my shop.

How to enter:  Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite thing about this time of year.  You may enter up to two times, but please leave two different comments :)  

Deadline:  Friday, November 13th, winner will be announced the following week.  

Enjoy!  

A Little Shop Update: Cards and Bookmarks

Well, I'm hoping you had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend :)  This evening I've got a few new items added into the shop that I wanted to share:  

 

Bookish Owl Personalized Notecards  After tons of custom requests for these, I decided it was a good time to actually make them available for everyone in the shop.

 

Kokeshi Doll Calling Cards  These were previously available in my Digital Sweets shop--which by the way is officially closed today, you can find a small selection of printables in this section of my regular shop.  These calling cards, however, are already printed for you in packs of 50.  Calling cards seem to be gaining popularity these days, especially among busy moms, so I'm testing the waters with these and might be adding a few additional designs soon.  

And last but not least, 

 

I've added a few new bookmarks to the shop as well.  You'll be happy to know that I've reduced the price of bookmarks from $5 to $4 now.  But please note, I currently have about one of each bookmark design available, so get 'em if you want 'em.  From now on, I will be adding new bookmarks to the shop in batches and will add new batches every few weeks.  If you would like to order custom bookmark designs, or large quantities, feel free to contact me through my shop or by clicking the contact link up at the top of this page :)

And that's all for the quick update, darlings!  Now I'm going to try to relax a bit for this last bit of the weekend :)

A Brief Digital Illustration Tutorial

As promised, today I am posting a tutorial on the creation of my newest print, A Crispness In The Air.  I get a lot of questions about my method and although I won't spell out every single detail here, this will give you a general idea of how I work.  I've come upon my particular style from a couple of years of tinkering around with Photoshop and Illustrator, just figuring out how things work and learning bits and pieces from other tutorials or books.  

So here we go:

 

I start out with a rough sketch from my recycle brown paper sketchbook.  I scan this into Photoshop, adjust the opacity of the layer so I can draw on layers below it but still see the sketch to work from.  I save my work every few minutes or so because I've had some sad days where I worked for hours, forgot to save and then experienced some crappy computer problem that made all of my work go away.  

 

I usually start working the background first, being careful to keep each piece of the illustration in a separate Photoshop layer.  Here, I've added brown tones to the background sky and the ground. I've also drawn in the tree, leaves, streamers and a pile of leaves.  I work with graphics tablet to achieve a more organic, hand-drawn look, although sometimes I use Illustrator to block out my shapes.  In this illustration I used Illustrator to block out the tree shape and the streamers, then I brought them over into Photoshop. 

 

Here I continue to work with the background.  I add some texture to the background and ground, then I use some watercolor style brushes to shade the tree, streamers and leaves.  I take a lot of texture photos that I later use in my illustrations, I snap shots of everything from concrete and marble to fabrics and have built up a large library of textures to work with.  I love working with textures, as they really bring a certain depth to an illustration.  

 

Now I add even more details to the background pieces.  I decided to add a light dot pattern to the background and also added textures to the tree and streamers.  Then I add individual leaves to the pile of leaves and work on shading them and later adding more texture to them.  

 

Now my background it pretty  much finished so I block in all of the colors for the kids.  I always tinker around with these colors quite a bit before I really start shading them etc.  

 

Now I spend more time shading the kids and their clothes, adding little details like buttons, flowers, and strands of hair.  

 

And now for the final step, I add some patterns to the clothes and add some textures to the kids and their clothes.  And then for the last step I add a light texture over the entire illustration to really bring everything together :)

And that's that.

Now, I hope you find the tutorial a bit educational, but please remember that this illustration, like all of my illustrations, is copyrighted to me so you may not steal or borrow it.  

A Crispness In The Air

Oh thank goodness it's Friday!  What a busy, busy, exciting, fun week this has been!  Exciting things are brewing around here, that's for sure :)  

For right now, I have a new print to introduce.  The Boo Crew was such a popular limited edition print, that I've decided to create a series from it.  Each month I will release a new print featuring a darling group of kids.  The print will be a limited edition available for two months, through the last day of the month following its release.  

Then after all 12 prints have been released, I will release the entire set at the end of next year as a 2011 calendar.  And as an added bonus for those who want to collect every print, you get the calendar for free if you have all 12 limited edition prints.  For those that missed out on the Boo Crew this year, I will rerelease it next year to complete the set.  

And without further ado, here is the newest print: 

 

A Crispness In The Air is available as a signed and numbered 5x7 print now through December 31st.  A new print will be released at the beginning of next month :)  

PS-Later this weekend I will be posting a brief tutorial on the creation of this illustration.  I've been getting a lot of questions about my method and although I won't go into exact details, I'm going to give you a little peek into my process :D

Setting Goals and Making Lists

Anyone who knows me, knows that I like to make lists.  Like probably isn't even a strong enough word because it's almost a compulsion.  I make lists for everything:  groceries, home improvement projects, music downloads, books to read, business goals, new art/product ideas, marketing strategies.  You get the point.  

There's just something very tangible about making a list.  When I feel too overwhelmed with work, I take a break to make a list of everything I need to finish and then suddenly once it's down on paper and I cross things off as they are finished, I feel less crazy, less likely to cry at any given moment.  

The problem with making so many lists is that I tend to have them scattered about.  I recently go into the habit of using little notebooks to avoid having a trillion loose sheets of paper floating around, so now I just have a bunch of notebooks hanging out in a little container on the corner of my desk, within quick reach:  

 

I've got a good system going here.  The one in the back is for notes on home stuff, things I'd like to do, color ideas and some reference material.  The next one is for business stuff like writing out goals and plans.  Then I've got a journal to keep track of long term art ideas, things I don't have time for right now, but want to work on in the future, ideas for new series of work.  Next I keep two small notebooks for just random things like grocery lists, workout lists and book lists.  And then that last little green notebook is full of current art and product ideas, things I'm working on right now or things I hope to start working on soon.  

It seems like a crazy lot, but it helps me stay organized and really cleanses my little soul to have everything written down and just hanging out on my desk.  

I was browsing through the second notebook today, the one for business stuff and I realized that I've actually met all of my goals for 2009:

-I've almost hit the 1500 sales mark--I'm only one sale away!

-I've achieved a more cohesive look in my work

-I've expanded my business to include my freelance work and have even done some wedding invitation design this year

-I've already sold WAY over 300 holiday cards

-I've tried out a few personalized items including party invites

-And I've picked up a few new wholesale clients this year.  

Honestly it all seems a bit surreal.  A bit over a year ago, I was still working on dreaded day job, just dreaming of being free to pursue something that I loved.  And now I'm in the lucky position to do what I love every day.  

I've exceeded the goals that I set for myself and have far surpassed the monetary goal I initially set for myself too.  What a great feeling to finally see the results of all the hardwork I've put into my little fledging business.  

I can't wait to see how I grow and change in the coming year!

But for now, I'm off to make more lists ;)

What I Wore Today

There's a fantastically fun group on Flickr right now where you post drawings of what you are wearing today.  How fun, right?  

I did my first one today and it's just a fun warm-up exercise for a big day of illustrating and being creative:  

I'd love to say that I'll be doing one of these every day, but it's probably more realistic for me to shoot for once a week or so :)  

Have a good week!

It's Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  

So today is officially the last day you can purchase this limited edition print:  

 

The Boo Crew currently has free shipping, actually everything in the shop has Free Shipping until tomorrow evening :)  So enjoy!  

Trick or treat was Thursday night in the town I live in and as we recently moved into a new house in a nice neighborhood, I figured we would have a slew of tricker or treaters.  Assuming such, I bought a boatload of candy.  

But guess what?  No trick or treaters at all!  Not a single one.  And now I'm stuck with an enormous bowl of Halloween candy and very little willpower.  

Wish me luck!  

New Polarity Collaboration: Alice in Wonderland Locket

Happy Friday!  

Look, Cat from Polarity just released a new locket featuring three of my Alice in Wonderland illustrations: 

Cute, right? :)