2012
For Christmas 2012, I decided I really must produce my own Christmas cards for family and friends. This was a personal project but this was also my first proper go at drawing and colouring completely digitally!
Using Manga Studio Debut 4 to sketch, draw and colour the characters and Photoshop to create the background, border and text, there has been no traditional influence to it at all, and I am so pleased with how it has come out! This is my fourth attempt at drawing on a tablet and my third for colouring. I did get a little stuck when I was putting it all together as it looked quite empty, but I was running out of time to get it sent off and printed into cards, so I used the snow and reindeers from my Christmas Activity Sheet
(see 'Editorials') to fill it out a little. I got plenty of appreciative feedback from the receivers, so I was very happy! Definitely going to do a card every year now!
Using Manga Studio Debut 4 to sketch, draw and colour the characters and Photoshop to create the background, border and text, there has been no traditional influence to it at all, and I am so pleased with how it has come out! This is my fourth attempt at drawing on a tablet and my third for colouring. I did get a little stuck when I was putting it all together as it looked quite empty, but I was running out of time to get it sent off and printed into cards, so I used the snow and reindeers from my Christmas Activity Sheet
(see 'Editorials') to fill it out a little. I got plenty of appreciative feedback from the receivers, so I was very happy! Definitely going to do a card every year now!
2013
Carrying on with the tradition, 2013 is one of my favourite cards to date - that fox is too darn cute!
This time though, I drew and outlined the fox and speech bubble traditionally, then coloured and put together the background all on Photoshop. I'm really proud of how well the fox came out and I like the simplicity of this card.
Foxes were on the brain that year, both artistically and just generally, so I just had to draw one!
This time though, I drew and outlined the fox and speech bubble traditionally, then coloured and put together the background all on Photoshop. I'm really proud of how well the fox came out and I like the simplicity of this card.
Foxes were on the brain that year, both artistically and just generally, so I just had to draw one!
2014
2014 was a little more experimental!
I hand drew the Lucky Cat and then went over to Photoshop to colour and create the background. This wasn't the first time I'd played around with some of the embossed and glow features, but I really wanted to try and give it some depth and gave me an opportunity to mess around and practice with it all.
All in all, I think it turned out pretty good and of course, cute! Reminds me a little of a Chinese take out menu though...
which in a way was kind of the feels I was likely going for!
I hand drew the Lucky Cat and then went over to Photoshop to colour and create the background. This wasn't the first time I'd played around with some of the embossed and glow features, but I really wanted to try and give it some depth and gave me an opportunity to mess around and practice with it all.
All in all, I think it turned out pretty good and of course, cute! Reminds me a little of a Chinese take out menu though...
which in a way was kind of the feels I was likely going for!
2015
2015 is another personal favourite for me, not just appearance wise, but with the technique outcome as well.
I wanted to try more of a digitally painted look, so I sketched it all out and painted on Photoshop, along with the border and text.
I think the whole thing came out very sweet and soft looking, which was exactly what I was hoping for. And I really wanted to feature our cat, Mouse, since we'd just moved and had her back with us! Plus she can pull off a great stink face.
I wanted to try more of a digitally painted look, so I sketched it all out and painted on Photoshop, along with the border and text.
I think the whole thing came out very sweet and soft looking, which was exactly what I was hoping for. And I really wanted to feature our cat, Mouse, since we'd just moved and had her back with us! Plus she can pull off a great stink face.
2016
This year was based off the ginger beast from the
Dress Up Cats series!
Instead of taking the watercolour version I already had,
I decided to draw it out again traditionally and then colour
on Photoshop (it's just so much easier to do quick, bold images on PS).
I wanted to keep this one very simply and humorous and
I feel it came across so!
I'm sure everyone feels like this at least ONCE during the festive period...am I right?!
Dress Up Cats series!
Instead of taking the watercolour version I already had,
I decided to draw it out again traditionally and then colour
on Photoshop (it's just so much easier to do quick, bold images on PS).
I wanted to keep this one very simply and humorous and
I feel it came across so!
I'm sure everyone feels like this at least ONCE during the festive period...am I right?!
2017
This year was keeping to a new theme!
The Cat Mum series!
In 2017, I had entered a greetings card design competition by Ohh Deer, using the theme Mother's Day to create a Cat Mum card. Liking it so much, I decided to create a 4 piece series, which I may develop on in the future (see the Digital Work page under the
'Cat Mum' section to see them all and where to buy prints and extras!). So keeping with that theme, I created a card in the same style.
Again, I drew traditionally and coloured on Photoshop, using a different style method of painting for a fresh new look which I think works very well for this type of work -
despite how 'rough' it looks, I was a bit of a perfectionist about how the colouring laid out and overlapped, so it wasn't super fast but still remained a nice, fairly quick design.
And it's another very sweet piece!
You can buy this card on my Redbubble store using the button below!
The Cat Mum series!
In 2017, I had entered a greetings card design competition by Ohh Deer, using the theme Mother's Day to create a Cat Mum card. Liking it so much, I decided to create a 4 piece series, which I may develop on in the future (see the Digital Work page under the
'Cat Mum' section to see them all and where to buy prints and extras!). So keeping with that theme, I created a card in the same style.
Again, I drew traditionally and coloured on Photoshop, using a different style method of painting for a fresh new look which I think works very well for this type of work -
despite how 'rough' it looks, I was a bit of a perfectionist about how the colouring laid out and overlapped, so it wasn't super fast but still remained a nice, fairly quick design.
And it's another very sweet piece!
You can buy this card on my Redbubble store using the button below!
2018
I went for cutesy again this year! However, I didn't have enough time or money to get them printed and handed out to everyone, so no one has seen this card yet (I was going to save it for 2019 Christmas but I wanted to post one a year without fail! And since I did actually do it...)
I wanted to keep the pencil feel from the line art somewhat intact, especially since I really loved the initial rough I did the most, but it had too many deep errors I couldn't erase, so I had to trace over whilst keeping a rough, looser style like the original. But it still worked out well. I was going for more of a Noel feel rather than just Christmas with a sweet little elf girl, but I wasn't sure how to write the greeting so I kept with the usual Merry Christmas. Again, this was a bit more of a different style but I like it!
I wanted to keep the pencil feel from the line art somewhat intact, especially since I really loved the initial rough I did the most, but it had too many deep errors I couldn't erase, so I had to trace over whilst keeping a rough, looser style like the original. But it still worked out well. I was going for more of a Noel feel rather than just Christmas with a sweet little elf girl, but I wasn't sure how to write the greeting so I kept with the usual Merry Christmas. Again, this was a bit more of a different style but I like it!
