It has long been a goal of mine to include different contributors in the Lunch Note Sketch family. Contributors are individuals who simply want to add much needed creativity to the sketches LNS offers. One reason for including others in this endeavor is to add variety to our portfolio of sketches. Another reason for adding contributors is to allow parents a chance to showcase the work they create for their own children.
Dominic Aratari and his beautiful family.
So, without further ado, I am extremely honored and excited to introduce Dominic Aratari as the first-ever official Lunch Note Sketch contributor! Dominic is an amazing artist, designer, and family man who currently resides in the Pacific Northwest. He is an award-winning Creative Director who has worked with organizations like CNN and Sports Illustrated. To add Dominic as a contributor to this site will only enhance the creativity LNS has to offer. I am also excited to say that Dominic has agreed to provide one sketch per week for the next 8 weeks!
Dominic’s first sketch is titled Stand Tall. After receiving his first sketch, I asked him a few questions to learn more about his work.
LNS: Why do you want to participate/contribute to Lunch Note Sketch?
Dominic: I wanted to participate in LNS because of how inspirational it was to see the love and dedication Luke brings forth to make his children’s day a little more special. The sketches do not take a whole lot of time and the payoff is priceless. It brings another form of imagination and positive messaging in a simple visual form. Contributing will allow me to add this same value and dedication to my children’s day and offer them this great gift of creativity.
LNS: How did you come up with this first sketch?
Dominic: After our recent relocation from NYC to the Pacific Northwest, it seemed a fitting theme. We’ve spent a lot of time as a family exploring nature and state parks here. It’s amazing how time outdoors ignites the imagination and free spirit in my young children, and I want to balance nature in our very tech focused society. I think this theme will inspire the first few, but I will look to evolve it based on the activities we do and just good life messaging like Luke has done so well with LNS.
LNS: What was your process for this first sketch?
Dominic: I broke one big rule on this first one: I didn't have any post it notes yet, but I did acquire a huge pile this week. For Stand Tall, I began by drawing a series on squares of paper and sketched out a few layouts before I arrived at the look I wanted. I then placed another piece of paper over that drawing to redraw it again, to clean up and define the lines more. I then took a photo with my phone and brought it into Photoshop. This is where I made paths with the pen tool over my drawn lines and stroked each path with a brush at various sizes to give a sense of depth. I left all my stroked lines on a top layer and added the coloring/shading below. It took about 3 hours total for this piece.
I want to thank Dominic for participating! Please show your support of his work by liking and commenting on his sketches when they get posted, or welcome him by adding a comment below.