I created so much in those days leading up to Christmas...and actually did a wee bit of creating on Christmas day too while all the delicious Christmas food was cooking for dinner...om nom nom!
To begin with the Bearded One and I planned out our Christmas card and I set about drawing/colouring it digitally in CS5 with my tablet....ahhh how I love my tablet it makes sketching so easy sometimes...though I do find myself trying to Ctrl + z when using normal pencil and paper which some might say is a sign of madness or at least that I use my laptop a bit too much....but oh well...
I'm a very visual person so sometimes concepts or descriptions don't benefit me as much as say a doodle or drawing...after discussing the card with the Bearded One and setting about sketching I began to feel a bit frustrated...I couldn't picture in my head what I needed to draw...although I knew what we wanted I couldn't yet see it...and for me a lot of my drawing goes on first in my mind....the idea grows and forms an image in my head that I then draw on paper/screen but it just wasn't happening this time...so the wonderful Bearded One made me a doodle...yes! He quickly made a sketch of the position and basic colour of things and we talked a bit more about it...
The Bearded One's doodle of of our Christmas card.
This helped enormously as the concept was originally the Bearded One's and so my head had not really been able to grasp the concept until it had something visual to work from...and so furious drawing and colouring began...and now I shall share with you my sketching process! Behold the pink stage (yes I do all my initial sketches in pink because I like pink)...
As you can see its very messy and rough but has all i need to start inking!
Look at that epic beard! and that elf like mischief maker! and the food! hahaha now all is in place I can begin inking which I must say is my favourite part of the whole process...I use a new layer and the Pen Tool and instead of using the tablet I switch to the mouse and double up my paths and fill them instead of using the stroke and simulate pressure...I just find this gives me way more control over the thickness and weight of each line...I will also use different layers depending on whether it is background, middle ground or foreground to make it easier later when colouring :)
The inking is finished and you can see that I added lots more detail and even moved/resized parts slightly to fit better.
Now the inking phase is done I can start colouring...weeeeee...eee...I'm trying to sound excited but colouring is my least favourite part so I trudge forward mouse with Polygonal Lasso Tool in hand and on a brand new layer start the slow process of selecting the areas I want to colour and fill them...I will occasionally use the Magic Wand Tool and with the Refine Edge option adjust the edge to grab more of the outline otherwise I can find myself left with little white gaps along the edges when not quite everything was selected...I prefer clean and neat so little white gaps as small and unseen as they may be to others will bother me greatly...
Base colour added and a sign at the back as I felt the wall was a little too bare.
The colouring is almost done! Now i cheat just a little and duplicate my base colour layer and down the brightness and just cut away sections to leave the shaded areas...I used to make a new layer and add shading and highlights by hand until I discovered this faster method...
Finished Christmas card for 2012...Merry Christmas all!
The Bearded One face palming at me yet again bringing some pinkness to our Christmas holidays (this is a running joke with our annual Christmas cards)....
It is complete! It took a few evenings working non stop at this and many many cups of tea made by the awesome Bearded One to keep me motivated but I finished it and for the 9th of December too! That's pretty early for me compared to past years! The cards were then printed and posted off to their new homes on the 10th December which was such a relief as I could then focus on all the gifts we still had to make :D
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and hugs to all!
