Cards: Clubs

Halloo all!

So finally, FINALLY, I had some time a few weeks ago to finish the last suit for N's deck of cards. Clubs!

As with the previous suits, I already had a series of easy templates, so I quickly subbed the clubs for spades or diamonds or hearts.

Again, I moved onto the Ace next, using the Spade and Diamond and Heart motifs...

For the royal cards, I decided to do another set of birds. I had two sets of mammals - rabbits and foxes - so I decided that there ought to be two sets of birds, one song bird - Sparrow/Spades - and one set of birds of prey... owls! 


So after my owly sketches, I tackled the Jack, who I wanted in profile like Sparrow Jack, though a bit less mischievous and more dangerous.

I imagined the Queen to be rather bored with it all, though still a dangerous royal lady, and I modeled her with a decorative headpiece, like the Rabbit Queen.

And finally the King, who like his Lady Owl would also be rather royal, somewhat bored, but still a dangerous old bird.

Like the suits before, I made it a little package, but, alas, I forgot to photograph the actual printed cards. So, until next time!

Chanukah birdies

Hey there folks!

Another holiday process post about my promo piece. In that first post, I mentioned that I did two new pieces for my holiday promo this year. One was a small piece for the back - Christmas with Coco and Oscar - and the second, a new Chanukah related piece. I deliberately made the Chanukah piece slightly ambiguous. When you look closely, you might have an "aha" moment, but then again, you might not. You might just think it's a pretty spiffy winter-holiday-related painting of some penguins and a flamingo.

As mentioned in that first post, I came up with a vague idea for some holiday penguins, and I ran with them.

Here's a quick run through of the penguins and the beginning painting stages:
(Apologies for the crappy resolution/color balance. I'm having some trouble with my camera, and I neglected to scan the piece in-process. Oops.)

 Penguins... check.

And we're done.

Sort of.

I actually ended up doing the entire piece over. First, I wasn't super happy with the flamingo. I thought he could be better. Second, I thought my Chanukah birds just might be tooooo ambiguous. Third, I wasn't thrilled about some of the color choices. So I adjusted the sketch and started the whole thing over. Success.

Happy eighth night folks!

Christmas Process

 Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating!

Today I'm going to share a bit of holiday process work.

For my holiday promo, I did two small new pieces - one Christmas themed and the other (if you're looking closely) Chanukah related. Rather than coming up with all new characters, I decided I wanted to play with two recent and familiar faces.

My first step is always visual brainstorming. This is my favorite part of the process. I try a whole bunch of ideas and see which fits best. My first idea for this little project was a Chanukah Coco & Oscar image.

Nothing really seemed quite right, and I almost abandoned Coco & Oscar in favor of a handful of penguins. (Fear not, I didn't abandon the penguins entirely. They'll make a reappearance in a post next week...) 

Until finally I tried combining holidays and came up with this.

And this...

Bingo!

After all of the brainstorming, I prep the final piece. I take my final sketch and do a really loose version on good paper.

I use those loose guides to do a new sketch on the good paper. At this point, I make any necessary adjustments to the characters and composition.

Once I'm happy with the characters, I can start painting.

Until finally...

Merry Christmas!

Cards: Hearts

Halloo all!

Last week, most of my masterpieces happened in the kitchen rather than on the drawing table. I did, however, have some time to get the third suit done for N's deck of cards. Hearts!

As with the diamond number cards, I already had a series of easy templates, so I quickly subbed the hearts for diamonds.

Again, I moved onto the Ace next, using both the Spade and Diamond motifs...

Next I tackled my Jack, who I imagined as rather proud, like Sparrow Jack, though a bit more mischievous.

I imagined the Queen to be a rather self-satisfied royal lady, and I modeled her with a series of decorative elements, like the Foxy Queen.

And finally the King, who like his Lady Hare would also be rather self-satisfied.

And last but not least, packaging and printing cards -

Cards: Diamonds

Halloo all!

I've been hard at work on the other suits for my deck of cards. First, I spent a while just brainstorming for the additional three suits. I hadn't really thought about the others when I settled on sparrows for the spade cards. So I did some doodling and a handful of sketches and finally decided that I didn't want to draw birds for every suit. Instead I settled on two sets of birds and two sets of mammals. I've been doodling foxes in my sketchbook for a while now, so I thought, why not a foxy royal family?

This time around, I did all of the number cards first. I already had quick templates, so it was easy to sub in diamonds and flip around the colors.

Once I was done with the number cards, I moved on to the Ace, using the design for the Ace of Spades as a jumping off point.

Followed quickly by my Jack, who I imagined to be a wily, mischievous sort of character.

The Queen was a wistful, almost sad, lady fox.

And finally, the King, a concerned and regal sort of royal.

This time I also took a handful of photos of the actual printed cards -

I packaged them in a handy little case.

And finally, the full suit.