Looking for Emotes?

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If you’re reading this, it might mean you are looking to get some emotes made for your livestream, discord or other services. This guide is to help you understand what I offer in creating emotes and how I communicate with you to find out what you are looking for.


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Sketching Out Ideas
Outlines and LineArt

First things first, we start out with some brainstorming. Whether it be through a voice call or just through text, this is the time to figure out exactly what it is the customer looking for!

Take this sketch, for example. This one was made for the streamer ‘FoxxyTango’ and she was looking for emotes that used foxes as the iconography. No sweat! I have an art style that works with drawing caricatures and facial expressionisms.

From here, I do multiple versions of base models, being a standard smile expression. I then send these sketches to the customer way to see what sticks and some feedback.

I take a “ping pong” method when it comes to doing illustration work; I show them what each stage is, I get their feedback, we talk about ideas, I take the feedback and ideas and move to the next stage.

A healthy amount of dialog helps the project go much smoother as it establishes a work cycle that both the customers and artists can get into so that both parties develop a relationship that showcases the production as a whole.

Alright! Looks like we’ve got a good idea what the client is looking for and we’ve started to make some line art based on the sketches that we’ve done.

So, just like that, we move on to the next step in the emote making process!


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Color Palate

Now, I take notes on any specific colors that the customer are looking for. Sometimes, people are looking for their favorite colors to be made into the design. Totally do-able!

Making sure that they have colors that match either the theme of their stream, showcases an element of their character that they use, or just because they like certain colors and want them implemented into these emotes.

It's about figuring out what colors are going to do what. Some colors are easy to understand, but sometimes, we have to find interesting and creative ways to implement colors in a certain way. Contrasting colors are a great way of showcasing how many different variations we can use by using just a small number of colors.

For these emotes here, I used about 6 colors in total, not counting the black outline for the emotes, of course!


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Putting it Together

We're moving right along! Now we're getting to the fun parts of being able to put all of these elements together. Sometimes, color changes will happen almost on the fly, whether it be by artistic choices that I would like to throw in, as well as making sure that the customer in question is also looking for changes here and there.

Sometimes, they find out that a color that they wanted to use for one element with was something that they didn't end up liking, not a problem! That’s what we’re trying to figure out!

I want to make sure that they, as a customer, understand what I'm doing when I am doing it. I never want to hide anything I'm doing, and if I do any large changes, or even plan on doing them, I want to make clear what I'm doing and why!


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Lined Art Emote
Lineless Art Emote

Let's face it, sometimes an idea sounds really good, and can even come out looking very good. But sometimes, changes have to happen.

In the case of this emote, I realized that the blackout lines that were going around all of the facial features were going to get crushed when they were shrunk down to the actual emote size.

So, I had a conversation with a customer to make sure that they understood that I was going to actually attempt to redraw the project, taking more simplified “line-less” approach.

By doing this, it allowed the facial features to be much more exaggerated, and the colors themselves act like the lines dividing all of the elements within the facial structures of this particular emote.

Now, because of this interaction, I will now do two variations on any piece of artwork from now until forever. I’ll do a version that has a more outline feature, like the top image you see on the left, and then I do a version that is a completely line-less version, like the one that you see underneath. (Note, the black outline doesn’t count; that’s for contrast)

This way, people can pick and choose which one they like more!


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We're almost done! From here, after finding what the customer likes, I take the designs and create a vectorized version of this illustration.

To put simply, a vectorized image is one that can be sized up or size down in any sort of stretch of the imagination. Ever notice how you can make text in a Word document any size, and it never loses any of its quality? That's because text is a type of vector.

By making these images and illustrations vectors, I can appropriately-sized them down to the needed size for the customer. What ever sizes they need, I can size them down for the final product.

>> Twitch Sizes: [112 pixels], [56 pixels], and [28 pixels]

>> Discord Sizes: [128 pixels] and [32 pixels]

(all these sizes are squared; always a good thing to know!)


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The question everyone’s afraid of. But a question none the less.

For 2019, I want my illustration work to reach more people looking for them, so I’m bumping the price down to $17, originally being $35. This means that both streamers large and small can feel comfortable knowing that they can easily get a single emote or a pack without breaking the bank. Making sure people eat is important.

Emotes ordered in a package of six include 3 free subscription badges for Twitch if the customer needs them! This is limited to packs of six orders; it doesn’t work if you order six emotes at six different times.

Got budget limits? Feel free to talk to me about them and we’ll see what we can figure out! I never want to make anyone feel like they can’t talk to me about wanting work done because of restrictions.

I use both Venmo and PayPal. Whichever works best for you!


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After payment is made, the boxing of all the items begins! Everything that goes into the file system goes as such:

  • All of the resized versions of the emotes, sizes dependent on what the customer is looking for.

  • A large PNG file with a version of the emote that can be used for other graphical needs.

  • A detailed receipt that documents all of the information about the single emote or package of emotes that was ordered, with customer name, status of package delivery, the rate for the order (and final total if a pack was ordered) and what service was used for payment.

    All of these items are then placed inside of a folder, which is then zipped and sent to the customer by any means that they wish for it to be sent, the most common being both Dropbox and/or Google Drive.

These packages are compiled for ease of access and can be used for records on both sides. Every emote project I work on I keep for my own records for portfolio as well as for cataloging. Don’t worry, it’s so I can use it as a showcase for the work I’ve done and customers for the respective emotes/graphics in question.


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You can send any questions about artwork creation my way via Twitter; I’m @EPZ379. Feel free to send me a direct message that way so we can start figuring out what we can get started! You can also contact me on my Contact Page!

Looking for other graphical work? I do that too! From Layout Design for Livestreams and Twitch pages to Graphic Design for Youtube Pages. I do a little bit of everything!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Whether we figure out a project together or not, I hope that you find the person who can help you make those creations a reality!


Hope to Hear from You Soon,
=EPZ379