sticky 5 process

Tips and info on my process painting sticky notes for the Sticky 5 show with One More Life Gallery and Gallery 881, in Vancouver.

Visit One More Life Gallery's website for more details on the upcoming show, opening June 12th at Gallery 881, in Vancouver.

Friday June 12th
Opening Reception & sales start: 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Saturday June 13th
Afternoon Show & Kids Workshop: 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Can't make it to opening weekend?
STICKY 5 will be on view at One More Life Gallery, 2111 Main St., Unit Lobby, on June 20th, 27th, and July 4th.

Are you looking to join in the next Sticky show? Curious how another artist made theirs?
Here's my process + tips for how to start.

My initial, casual figure designs, based on friendship and trust and drawn digitally.

First, you might think you have to have some idea of what to draw.

No. This is wrong.

You just need a tiny inkling of some kind of idea of what to draw, not the final result.

Here, you can see the sketches I started with, months before they were needed. They are a bit bland, but they have some concepts behind them. I didn't think I'd use them, but I kept them in case.

Next, pick a few things and make them work together.
For me, it was clowns, friendship and fitting them in the box.

I overlaid clown stuff (see: noses, poufy pants and curly wigs) onto the figures. This was a mistake, but we worked through it. Throughout, I applied my style to the figures, emphasizing the shapes in the clothing.

A photo of the base figure sketches on a light-box. This is a very useful tool, and some can be found for relatively cheap on secondhand marketplaces.

Refine, redefine and finalize and un-find your sketches.

For this project, I printed out my clown designs and used a light box to fiddle some old Japanese street fashion-inspired Cyberpunk character and clothing designs onto the figures.

Switching to this theme made a lot of sense, because someone told me clowns and relationships don't mix all that well. I wanted the bagginess to be part of the final designs, so I found the happy mix.

One of the character designs from my Cyberpunk project, from 2021. I used parts of this design in the Green Rider sticky note.

I used little corner marks to align to the sticky edges. Each drawing had a number, to reference the original, clown figure sketch. I didn't want to lose any details or expression in the clothing.

This one comes down to a lot of intuition. I didn't want to double up, since I had so many individual colours.

Pick the colour of your sticky notes!

I chose based on mood and what the outfit colours could and should be. I also used the name-brand notes, because I've found every other brand's sticky-ness to be less than great.

For each note, I added 2 extra notes, from what the curators asked for. This was exceptionally helpful, because I re-positioned them a lot. Some of them lost stickies, and wouldn't have been usable for the show.

Colours down, I applied 6B graphite (2B or darker would work) to the back of each sketch. I used a coloured ball point pen (red) to transfer the graphite onto the sticky notes. If you trace lightly, most of the pencil can be erased.
Transfer paper can also be used, but it often doesn't erase, and it is definitely more expensive.

I took this time to refine the sketches once more, adjusting any shapes and lining the figures up to the sticky edges.

The sketch stage for Embrace, on of my stickies for Sticky 5. The red line shows where I went over the designs, transferring them to the sticky notes and refining the shapes in one go.

Swatches of acrylic paint on each colour of post-it note I was planning to use, stuck on my sketchbook.

The range of colours I mixed on my palette, starting from the colours of each sticky note and adding white.

Most importantly, I tested the colours I wanted to use on the sticky notes.

I decided to develop the palette off of the different sticky notes I have. From there, I added white. Most importantly, I included my hot pink paint.

I found you could paint directly onto the note paper, as long as you didn't add a lot of water. I was using mostly Liquitex and Golden brand paints, which were normal or thick viscosity. Taping the note down ripped the paper, even when applying heat; using a gentle, painter's tape; and gently peeling away from the paper.

I used a couple small brushes and painted each note.

I didn't take any pictures while I was painting, so here are the finished sticky notes.

Each one was lined with a Sakura Pigma Micron .5 pen, in blue.

Do not use a dark pen to sign the back!
It can show through on some note colours, like the yellow, pictured below. Make sure to test your pen, if you're writing on the back.

The final stickys (stickies?), hand painted and lined for Sticky 5, shown by One More Life Gallery in Vancouver.

printed stickers coming soon soon

You may also like