I get lots of questions asking about custom illustrations, so today I would like to tell you how I make mine.
Unfortunately, I am no artist. So I get most of my images from istockphoto.com. They're pretty reasonably priced for great art and they have a TON of adorable illustrations.
I do have one big problem though. I HATE seeing the same illustrations everywhere! It drives me crazy to see the same cookie cutter images all over the web. If you haven't noticed already, I'm kind of a freak about customizing things. If something represents you, it should have your stamp on it. A one-of-a-kind look.
It's really hard to find a good graphic designer who can draw a custom vector image just for you. If you do find them, they're going to charge a small fortune. As they should. It's quiet a talent.
So this is my way of customizing for a whole lot cheaper. I'm a firm believer in changing things up. I'll take my Leelou girl for example. This is my first avatar that I made 4 years ago.
She is made up of several different illustrations all mooshed together. I wanted to shake things up a bit in 2011 (and my sister kept telling me Leelou had Shrek ears), so I went to work searching through images to find parts and pieces I could use.
I liked the hair on this first girl and the face on the chef.
then I thought I could take the hand from this computer girl to reflect my old Leelou girl.
So once I find all the pieces I like, I moosh them together to see if the vision in my head looks somewhat normal when I really put it all together. I do an incredibly rough draft because I don't want to spend time on something that ends up not looking right.
Kind of scary, but I knew it could work. So I fix the hair, blend skin tones, change eye colors, change shirt colors, ended up getting rid of the hand, added some freckles and wallah:
We get the new and improved Leelou. She is way cuter the me, but I'm ok with that.
And that is how I do my custom graphics folks. It takes a long time, but it's something I offer for free with all of my blog packages so that you stand out. Break that cookie cutter mold and get something custom that no one else will have.
Below are a couple changes I've made to previous orders. Pretty much anything is possible. Changing things like eye and hair colors, adding objects, putting more clothes on, taking more clothes off, digital breast augmentations...I've done it all.
On this order I changed the head completely and customized colors to match the clients blog.
On this order I changed skin tones, added some accessories and hair, then made the screaming girl in the corner from several different images.
This couple was having a hard time finding a picture of an African-American couple, so we found the illustration below of the Caucasian couple and changed skin tones, eye color, added facial hair, took off head hair on the man and completely redid the girls hairdo to match that of the clients.
These images are really fun to manipulate. If you're interested in a custom order,
click here for more info!
