We like old school. Not that we don't enjoy modern touches, but there is just something extraordinary about hand-crafted art (art created with digital tools can have that touch, too). Each of these design sets started as an idea. Shawn is hilariously creative. Those creative juices needed a good outlet - Just like how God wouldn't have given you maracas if He didn't want you to shake 'em. God wouldn't have given us the skills if we weren't supposed to go with it.
Since Shawn and I began dating, one of the things we loved to do was to make all of our Christmas gifts. Last year, Shawn created a drawing for most of our relatives: some funny, some scientific, and each a reflection of the individual it was made for. It took three months to do, and they were terrific. My favorite he did was for his dad, Dale. If I remember correctly, it was the first time he pulled out the white Posca pen to add highlights, which changed everything. He then went back and added more highlights to other drawings. It was the icing on the cake. It might have been at that moment that Boom Shark Designs split the seed to germinate because Shawn's style began to emerge. After that, it we decided, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
The first set, Brew Boos, was all sketched long hand on paper from start to finish and then photographed to become digital creations to send to be printed. We upgraded to a scanner for the next set, the Working Dead. Then, the scanner wasn't all it was cracked up to be, so we have been flopping back and forth, depending on the series, between photograph and scan to move the final image to digital production. The initial long-hand sketches and doodles have now been moved to a boogie board (aka still sketched by hand but now with less paper waste). It's all a process that starts with that hand-drawn design.
In the end, my role in this story feels a lot like saying, "I carried a watermelon," Oh well. Hope you enjoyed this D is for Design Process look into Boom Shark Designs with a hint of Dirty Dancing on the side.