Well well well, if it ain’t my old-time frenemy, Mr. Autumn!

My relationship with autumn is unclear. I am down because summer is over, yet relieved that the cockroaches are gone, but sad that cold weather is coming, though delighted to see beautiful autumn decorations.

So do I like autumn or do I hate it? Not every question needs an answer.

Let’s talk about a good point of autumn – Rosh Hashanah.
That’s the Jewish New Year, and it’s happening next week.

This year I had a fun job for Rosh Hashana. I was asked to create WhatsApp stickers that people can use for wishing each other a Happy New Year.
The brand behind this project was Yad Mordechai, a leading producer of honey and other delicious things. If you are familiar with Jewish holidays then you know that honey is one of Rosh Hashanah’s main symbols.

My job was to create a character that will represent the brand, and then draw 7 WhatsApp stickers with the characters in them.

Here is the result:

These stickers are available to everybody for free. You can get them too by joining the designated WhatsApp group of Yad Mordechai: http://bit.ly/2mxJLPE

The making of the WhatsApp stickers

Before making the stickers, I had to create the character of the bee. It took a while to build up a character with the right look and feel.
The initial sketches were of a more humane, female bee. I played with body types and accessories.

It was decided that the bee should look less humane, and not have a very explicit gender.
This version was accepted:

But after drawing two images with this character, it turned out the the bee looked too childish.
Perhaps you noticed that my usual drawing style tends to be childish by default. It was a good chance to address this issue.

Now my challenge was to spot the elements that pull the character towards childishness.
These were my conclusions:

• The glittery blue eyes with long eyelashes look like baby’s eyes. I should make them solid brown and less glossy.

• Flat colors will look more mature than my gradients.

• No need for the blush on the chicks.

• The colors are too bright. Usually I make my colors very saturated, but in this case less saturation will work better.

• The character’s position on the top right is typical to kids’ cartoons.

It was a bit tricky to make the changes while keeping all the guidelines. The character had to be cute but not juvenile, colorful but still elegant, relateable but not humane, well-defined but not clearly male or female, and it had to appeal to young adults.

Luckily, Yad Mordechai is an established brand with a good view of what it wants, so I received helpful feedbacks throughout the way. And the characters evolved to this:

With the character ready, I added the logo of Yad Mordechai and started sketching our stickers.
Each sticker had a short text (provided by the client) and I had to include it in my design together with a matching illustration.

This sticker says “your life is honey”, which is what you would say in Hebrew to someone with very little worries.

Honestly, I think my life is honey.
This project was fun and I learnt a lot from it. I am blessed to be able to draw for a living.
And on the second day of Rosh Hashanah I will be off to a cool adventure – traveling for one month in Japan!
Keep the internet warm and fuzzy while I’m gone, will you?

See you next time! ♥