Snow Queen : Finished!

Snow Queen

All done!  I decided not to do anything crazy with the background, because I didn't want anything to detract from her face.  So there's a blizzard going on back there.

I sharpened up her hair and lashes, then stamped the whole mess, hit gaussian blur and set it to multiply to play up the shadows, and then put a Hue/Sat adjustment layer over it with the preset Old Style.  It gives it a nice de-saturated look, and makes the whole thing look like winter.

Snow Queen : WIP II

Snow Queen : WIP II

Today the Snow Queen got her icicle tiara, frosty cheeks, and a neck full of feathers.  (Does it look like feathers?  I fear it looks a lot like fur.  I think the feathers need spines, and maybe to look fuzzier.)

Those icicles were tricky, but not as tricky as I thought they'd be.  First I sketched out with a very fine brush where I thought the base of each of the icicles would sit, then a series of similar circles to the tips.  After that it was a mess of painting and blurring with the blur brush.  At the end I went back to the fine point brush and lightly lined the left hand side of each 'cicle.  I'm not entirely sold on the white fluff at the base of the tiara.  It's meant to be snow, but I don't think it comes across well.

I'm going to need to go over her hair and eyelashes again to sharpen them up.  The tiara is too sharp to leave them as they are now.  They don't match each other.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the background yet.  I've been flipping between having a darker one and this pale one.  I like the drama with the dark, but I also really like how pale and icy this one can get with a aqua gradient map overlay.  I've got a ton of snowflake doodles that I've never used sitting on my computer, so I'll probably fill the BG with them.  Ooh, or maybe some kind of art nouveau frame!  I've been looking for an excuse to try my hand at that...

I'm so happy with how this is turning out.  She's so pretty!

Snow Queen : WIP

I've been working on Christmas cards this week, and this face is the start of what will be the Snow Queen.  I was thinking Narnia, but darker and more dramatic.

I'm going to give her an icicle crown and some kind of neck thing - I'm torn between feathers, fur, or an Elizabethan collar with diamonds.  I've been working on the collar idea for the past couple of hours though, and it's not turning out how I'd hoped.  Feathers could be fun to paint.

In painting this, I finally figured out the secret to digitally painting skin!  You throw down some color, hit Gaussian Blur until you get something you like, then rinse and repeat ad nauseam.  But it works!  I did the same thing with her hair. 

Why is her hair blue, you ask?  Well, in my head she was going to be white blonde, but then I realized I'd done her eyebrows and lashes in black, so I'd committed to a dark color without realizing.  Hence, blue.  She's a Snow Queen, after all.  She can get away with that.

Carnival Ticket Wedding Invitations & RSVP Cards

Carnival Ticket Wedding Invitations

New invitations!  More to the point, carnival ticket themed wedding invitations!

A Bride-to-Be asked me for carnival themed invitations about a month ago, and I wasn't able to get to them at the time - so busy!  But here they are, because they were on my List and I was able to bang them out in a couple of days.  These aren't exactly what Miss Bride wanted (she wanted stripes), so look for a second version coming soon, because stripes are always a fun idea.

Zazzle has a distressing lack of carnival/circus-y fonts, so I had to make due with this simple one.  I think it might look just as good.  More ticket-y.  (But, you know, if you were to buy these far into the future when such a font is available, please put the bride and groom's names and the date of the wedding in that circus font.  Trust me.)

High Points:

• The elephants at the top form a little heart with their trunks.  Adorable!
• The raffle ticket number at the bottom is also the date of the wedding in number form.  Clever!
• Is is possible to be invited to 'crash' a wedding?  Doesn't one cancel the other out?  Intriguing questions.
• These are Pick Your Own Background Color.  So you don't have to have a hot pink wedding if you don't want to.  Though, why wouldn't you?

This invitation set includes 5x7 invites, reply cards, save the date postcard, and thank you notes.

Steampunk Air Ship Mechanic Sketch

Steampunk Air Ship Mechanic

I doodled this on my iPad last night.  (The iPad is the best sketchbook ever).  I'm going to make a manly steampunk pin-up.  There just aren't enough pin-ups of hot guys in the world.

This guy is the mechanic for a steam powered air ship, hence the giant wrench and goggles.  He'll need more hardware to look steampunk-y, and maybe a shirt.  Or maybe just suspenders.  I'm undecided.

No, no shirt.  Pin-ups of the girly variety are all about the legs, so when it's a guy I think it's probably all about the arms/chest.  Though, look at this guys thighs!  They're huge!

The background of this, I'm thinking, is going to be a pain.  I want a sort of docking station of air ships in the background.  I'm still trying to figure out what it would look like. 

Oh, fi sci.  I do love you so, though you make me bend my brain.