Friday, October 15, 2010

Santa Panda's Sleigh

Now don't pay too much attention to the color, I actually did each of the reindeer on it's own layer in illustrator so that way, once it's colored, I could still move them around and even use each deer individually, if I want to...

But composition - whatcha think?  Oh, and the blue ones for the reins are all very simply done and aren't finished...


This is the same thing with better color:




I think the trees will be a little more green with snow on top...I'm working on putting a sort of square feel to everything (even the trees and bushes), so each drawing I do will probably have a different bg look, while I try out different looks (for the different bg elements).

And this is it in Photoshop with all the revisions but without texture and fully rendered color:
nuts...I just noticed an ear tangent...

And here's the final illustration:

5 comments:

pete said...

awesome image, isaac! bring on the licensing! i can just see christmas specials with these guys on tv!

what strikes me most, right away, is the perspective - meaning that it's great! i really like the s-line you created with the reindeer and sleigh. The angles are right on the money. the overlapping is effective and no character gets buried too much which must have been tricky.

rudolph's shoulders don't seem to be lining up to me. maybe move his left arm (the viewer's right) up a bit to square them up??? if you ran an imaginary line between his shoulder joints, then they might read as slightly slanted.

nit-picky at best, for sure. the drawing is really well done. the antlers have a really great stylized feel to them. i can't wait to see the final color version. anything planned for the night sky?

pete said...

i like the new color theme - feels cold!

i like your idea of squaring up everything. Had you considered squaring "santa's" toybag and maybe having some square gifts poking out? that's about all i can suggest. the drawing is solid and the color is well on its way.

way to go!

Unknown said...

well I'm happy that Pete is still on this board! Thanks for the comments Pete! I tried to address the shoulder comment...and hopefully got that taken care of.

I'm going to try and incorporate more of a children's blocks (the letters and numbers on blocks that kids play with) look to all the background stuffs as I move forward with illustrations...not this one, but further along...

As for now I just have to add the reins and I'm done. I already have them drawn out, and just have to wait til monday (because my file is at work).

Oh - and I liked the idea of the square toy bag and gifts poking out - I could see it with toys streaming out behind it...maybe in the next illustration...

pete said...

yeah, where the heck is everyone? we're only getting like 3 or four out of the total 15 members even posting anything anymore. too bad, i'd like to see what they're up to.

anyways, i noticed that your removed the front square lines on your rear 7 characters. i really like they way that looks. have you considered removing those on the front two, as well, to see how it looks? i don't know - those back ones look more dimensional to me.

the finished product looks great. give old santa a way to steer and you're set!

Unknown said...

Sure everyone knows how Rudolf had a red nose...but most people don't know the original story where he also had a line deliniating the front of his body from the side...

Sigh...I don't know why that line is still in there - but thanks for pointing it out - I completely missed it! And that's why it's good to post on this board - I wouldn't have caught that!

Also - it's important to print out the illustrations, as I realized that in my fervor to give the eyes dimension the second and third reindeer have really bloodshot eyes. And that just looks terrible...so I have to change that too...

thanks pete!