Holiday Card '06

"I can't believe you talked me into this." - 12.18.2006

At this point, doing a holiday card has become tradition. After going minimalist for last year's card, I wanted to attempt a full-scale painting again, but keep the humor. Thus, Kate in a santa-girl costume.

Also, I changed my usual working style for this one. While I usually do all my coloring at high-resolution (600dpi+) so I can use aliased linework (which works best for me with my line art work), I decided I'd try working a 300dpi with anti-aliasing for a change. While I'm happy with the results, I found that working at the lower resolution was actually slower, since I had to account for all the blended edges, instead of being able to select solid shapes and run with it. Still, it was a worthwhile experiment.

Once again, I worked from photographs for the background. I painted directly over the picture, for a rotoscoped or paint-by-numbers feel, depending on how you look at it. So, yeah, that isn't just a photoshop filter. In retrospect, I wish I'd had the time to draw the people by hand, though. They look a little off.

One other thing I tried was to eliminate the use of outlines on Kate and Mike to further the painted feel. I'd say it's a guarded success. While it looks okay, I think my cartoon style isn't entirely condusive the full painted effect. It's just too simplified.

Overall, I'm very happy with how the piece turned out, though, especially considering it's only my second digital painting.

(You can read the comic here: www.paradigmshiftmanga.com)