"Christmas is coming" - a Christmas card

Okay, maybe a little early but it's not like I'm mailing them out now! Just posted to show I'm ready. :)

This will be our Christmas card of our dog and cat. As you can see, Boss is psyched. Rosie, well, she just feels silly.

-Bob.

Great characters!

Is Rosie buying all the presents?

Happy Holydays!

Wayne

Bob,
I love your stuff.
Zee

You've got a great cartooning style and those who aren't so into Christmas cheer get the rest involved, despite how Eeyorish they may be, right?!?!

Yep.... that is another thing to do... christmas cards... At least the wife has lots to send out if I do make one good enough for her. :rolleyes: :D

The Boss has the same set of choppers that Wallace of Wallace and Grommet has.

Gary

Bob,

Your characters are so expressive! This one is a lot of fun!

Is the line work (mostly) scanned ink? It looks really good! :cool:

Thanks for your comments :)

Risto, the line work is all done in Xara. Nothing was scanned. I did want to create a look as if it were done with a brush pen. The line work is a combination of thick and thinner "sketchy" lines.

Don't know if this is a useful information or not, but the line work is not always a continous line but several lines. As you can see in the graphic, the eye is created with several lines. You will have to edit or shape your lines from time to time, but they don't have to be perfect. It really gives it that look like it was drawn by hand and not by computer - if you're going for that look.

The majority of the line work is with an ellipse shape line stroke. I also use a drawing tablet. Can't draw with a mouse.

-Bob.

AMAZING :cool:

Bob, this a wonderful, happy card/artwork.

May I ask you 2 questions about your work ?

(1) I have heard that artists create their original art in a
larger size (such as 4x or 2x that of the "final"/presented
version) . . . so that any potential flaws would be harder to
notice. I am definitely not saying your art has any flaws.
I'm just wondering if you typically make your orginal art larger
than that of your final, presented work ?

(2) How do you typically set up your layers ?
Do you usually place your "outline" strokes topmost, with
the filled shapes in seperate layers below ?

Thank you for the cheer and do keep sharing.

Ken

Very beautiful! :)
If I had your talent, I'd be a human card factory and constantly sending e-cards to friends :D

I can only add my admiration Bob :). Great art again and thanks for the close-ups too.

Thanks for the comments! :)

Thanks, Ken.

(1) While I would say that is true, I don't that applies when working with vector graphics. Since with vectors, you're able to zoom in and adjust an eyelash if needed and if the image is enlarged, the line work will scale. It's not like enlarging a bitmap image where it will lose some of it's quality. Because you can work in great detail, you also have to keep in mind what will even show up in your drawing when printed. For example, I have another card where the dogs name is on his tag and I had to make sure that when printed at the required size, that name was still clear to read.

(2) I'd say it depends on how complex the drawing is. Sometimes I would do the line work on one layer and the fill shapes in a separate layer below. Background objects in other layers. Foreground objects in their own layer. The final graphic may be composed of several layers, but at times when finished, I also select and copy all layers and paste them in a new document and use it then to create the card layout. The drawing is now all in one layer and treated as a single object. Still keeping my original file with all the layers.

Whatever makes it easier when working on your drawing is the way to do it. These cards, the line work and colouring was done on the same layer. But when you create a shape, you need to bump it back so it is behind the line work. If you have a lot to do, it's easier to have the line work in it's own layer and work underneath.

-Bob.

Thank you, Bob, for the added details.

Ken