KnitWiz

Character illustrations for a knitting startup

Illustration

A startup company based in Longmont, Colorado wanted to develop two characters that they could use as brand characters on their website, promotinal material and
a brochures. The client wanted the feel of the characters to be light, childish and resembling the drawing structure of Charles Shultz’s classic cartoon character Charlie Brown from Peanuts.

Developing the wooly mascot flowed through stages set around a fluffy body and thinner legs to accentuate the cotton ball-like figure. Puffy joints and horns made the character too gendered so I removed them and gave it a more “sheepish” appearance with a sideways glance and small lid lines.

The client requested a graphic element that could be used throughout her printed materials, like brochures and booklets. A sting of wool was used to draw connection between two characters and can be used to connect two different pages of text as well as direct the reader’s eye to the next appropriate space.

The sheep character was given a little color and texture with mess coils for the body and color on the hoof and mouth. Coloring was not bound to the lines of the character to give it a more playful and relaxed feel. I searched through the Peanuts characters and Pig-Pen stood out to me with puffs of dirt coming off of him. I wanted to create that same feeling that the dirt was still an attached part of his person/character but with my sheep’s wool and the yarn.

Jane started out as a shorter, stouter character and evolved into a more balanced, 1 to 3, head to body ratio. This change gave Jane a more universal age feel and not someone that felt distinctly like a child. Red was used for the hair for a pop of color and the same eye creases were added to tie together the drawing style with KnitWiz’s mascot sheep. Lastly, I mimicked the sheep’s wool pattern in Jane’s hair to again tie together the illustration styles.