Santa’s Card

     I’m supposed to be doing other pieces of artwork, but things keep coming up, sidetracking me, like this.  But I guess it’s better to be busy with art assignments than to not be, so.  A few days ago, Artbistro.com contacted me through email about a challenge being issued for holiday cards.  I decided to put my work on the backburner, again, and try my hand at this.

     Once I decided to do the challenge, I did this preliminary sketch, planning on doing it ASAP (I had someplace else to be).  The idea was to have Santa Clause riding his slay on a moonlit night, with his reindeer passing by in the background.

     This is what I got once I started doodling in Sketchbook Pro…

and here’s Santa, once colored in Sketchbok Pro.  Like always, I color everything separately, that’s why the slay isn’t present.

     Here’s the slay, done separately in Paint.net…

and here’s Santa & the slay combined in Photoshop.  The proportions were off initially, but I knew I could fix it later digitally.

     Now, with that done, I started work on Rudolph.  This is the initial illustration I started in Sketchbook Pro.

     These are what I decided to use as a catchall body for the other reindeer, instead of illustrating the eight others individually.

     This is the head I used on those bodies.

     With those done, I combined them in Photoshop…

and colored them all in Sketchbook Pro individually.

     Long before I got to this point, I knew I didn’t want to use the moon as a backdrop anymore.  So, I started looking at other things to use, and decided on a snowflake.

     I changed my mind again and decided to use multiple snowflakes, and place them throughout the background.  So, this is what I’m submitting for the competition.  I’ll be submitting it to various card companies as well as selling it independently.