I knew that I wanted to make some stamps, however I wasn’t sure on where I should start. I looked through some early children’s toys and found number flashcards, which I thought could also compliment my earlier ABCD flashcards, and wanted to create a smaller version for numbers on stamps. I found a stamp outline online, where I made some quick mockups of the shapes I wanted each number to occupy in the space. I then looked at some retro children’s toys and began making quick, approximate sketches of what toy I was going to do in each space.
This is the final line art layer with my own stamp border design. I changed the placement of some numbers and shapes as they didn’t work when doing the line art. I was a little unhappy with how some elements looked, but I decided to keep going in the hope that when I added colour it would look better. I wasn’t very happy with the car or the placement of the blocks, but I enjoyed drawing the robots and the marbles, having been inspired by a little robot toy that I keep on my desk. I had to improve the spacing between each stamp as it wasn’t the right shape but i didn’t enjoy drawing the stamp outline, and wouldn’t do it again.
I made a quick colour map with a different pen so that I could colour map each colour more easily, first working on where I wanted the background colours to be placed. If these were cut up, the three and four being red and yellow would have been too repetitive beside the red and yellow of five and six, however as they were separate on the page, I was okay with the distance between them visually. I then worked on the colours inside of the illustrations, trying to balance each colour equally without using the background colour on the inside of the illustration, apart from in the wooden rocket that was supposed to have a cutout section. I tried to use the light green and light blue as minimally as possible as it wasn’t as complimentary for this illustration. I was happy with the final product as the colours were vibrant and although each illustration was small, they are fairly clear and each multiple such as the seven marbles or the five lego bricks were representative of childhood and children’s toys.
