Sticker Character
- die cut sticker
- keyline sticker
- vinyl sticker style
A character with a thick white keyline around it, cut out and stuck on.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
A white keyline separates a character from any surface it is stuck to, which is a real manufacturing requirement that became a look. It also forces a simple silhouette, because a complicated one cannot be cut.
How it works
A thick white keyline traces the whole silhouette, often with a thin dark line outside it. The artwork inside is flat and bold, with heavy outlines and few colours. The silhouette is simplified until it can be cut in one pass. A soft shadow under the edge and a slight peel at a corner sell the physical object.
When to use it
Use it for sticker packs, merchandise and anything that has to survive being small and being placed on an unknown background. Avoid it for detailed illustration, which the format cannot carry.
Told apart from its neighbours
Mascot is a design brief rather than a finish. Outline Weight is the line rule without the keyline. Cut-Out Animation is a jointed paper puppet rather than a die cut shape.
Where it is used
It carries a sticker pack, a merchandise range, a packaging detail and any character meant to be placed on somebody else's surface.
- Messaging sticker packs and merchandise
- Laptop and packaging decoration
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
<character>, sticker style, a thick even white keyline following the whole silhouette with a second thin dark line outside it, the artwork inside flat and bold with heavy outlines and a small number of saturated colours, the shapes simplified so the silhouette reads instantly at a small size, a soft drop shadow beneath the keyline as though the sticker were laid on a surface, a slight peel lifting at one corner
What goes wrong
A character with a rectangular white border comes back. Say the keyline follows the silhouette and the shape is die cut.
Leave out
fine detail, thin outlines, gradients, a transparent edge, a complicated silhouette, muted colour
Watch for
The keyline follows the silhouette, not a rectangle. A sticker is die cut, so the white border traces the character, and a rectangular white border reads as a printed label instead.
Questions
Draw it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
