Hotidays

With the temperatures  peeking at about 80 every day, its hard to convince one's self that Christmas is coming up this weekend. Despite the weather, I have been busy getting ready for the holiday. Smokey has been eagerly awaiting the season, and was thrilled when he saw the tree come into the house. He took the time to get up from his nap on his Christmas blanket to go check it out. Sadly its looking a bit like a "Charlie Brown" tree this year. Smokey has yet to bed down under it as he often does, since its a bit smaller this year than our usual trees. I also have not yet placed any packages under it for him to try and dig into. The outside is decked with glowing lights, next to which Smokey has made a little nest in the mulch to keep a watch on.

Holidays are exhausting

With the bustle of the holiday, sadly Smokey's card line has taken a temporary back-seat. Though many have gone out as Christmas cards to family, friends and some patients at the office. My digital work has been replaced by tons of crocheting work. Lots of hats, scarves and blankets to be given as presents this year. Of course Smokey is helpful with this activity, making sure to lay on my balls of yarn and attacking the moving yarn as I try to work with it. Wet, cat drool yarn is not my favorite to work with.

He has also recently taken up residence in a basket near the stairs, just to make sure he keeps an eye on all the comings and goings.

Crazy Antics

Trying to get anything done seems like a snowball effect (or an avalanche?). You start with one thing, then it turns into another and another, until you have SO many things to do, you want to scream. I get that quite often, too often!

Halloween came and went in the blink of an eye. Smokey did come in to the office with me and was just as well behaved as I could have hoped. While he spent the majority of his time sleeping soundly at my feet under the desk, he would follow me around whenever I got up to file, or get water or what have you. He was also happy to get a greeting from the few patients we had in that day. I don't think it was till about 10 to 5PM when he decided to check out one of the other rooms in the office where Wade spends his time. This was short lived however and he came running back to the desk to get in a few more winks before we headed home.

Being TOO adorable while I was trying to get work done.

He was also a great help when it came to getting out the Halloween decorations, but was less help when it came to actually putting them up. He spent Halloween night with my mom and me on the couch watching really bad, scary movies (in between my running up and down the stairs to greet trick-or-treaters.) He did manage to avoid putting on his costume until my boyfriend stopped by, at which point he felt like showing it off. And his giant paws.

A break from the trick-or-treaters.

Smokey showing off his costume.

Thanksgiving is coming up, not Smokey's favorite Holiday, since there aren't a lot of boxes to get into, ribbons to chase or wrapping paper to attack. However he does enjoy a piece of turkey should someone be kind enough to share with him, or perhaps a little gravy. His dislike for the holiday comes through in the card I'm STILL trying to complete. While it was one of the first sketches I had completed, its probably going to be one of the last cards I get done. (Along with New Years). I've found coming up with ideas for the other holidays wasn't too hard, there are lots of things one can use for pretty much any holiday to add some pizazz.  Now while granted you can use turkeys, cornucopias, corn, pumpkins, or... I'm sure something else, putting them together to make something worth looking at is a completely different story. In the end I imagine this card will bare little resemblance to the one I have posted below. In this case I think I might have to turn to my boyfriend for some creative input.

I have since removed the pie, but I'm still stuck on the right direction.

For the time being I've been trying to get my Easter card completed and I'm maybe 95% of the way there. Granted its been giving me a bit of trouble as far as how it looks and just the technical details I still need to work through, like his face. Like my previous cards this also started as a sketch that went into Illustrator and then exported to Photoshop. Like my completed Christmas card (which I'll post), I have been introducing some real textures into the piece. I feel some may be a little more successful than others.

Close to finished, but as you can see there are still some technical
issues I'm trying to resolve, some textures to add, etc.

When I finally get this completed, I'll have a totally of 5 completed cards, with 3 more to go. My holidays are quite out of order. Completed we have: St. Patrick's Day, Easter(95%), Fourth of July, Halloween, and Christmas. Which leaves me with New Years, Valentines Day and Thanksgiving. I've got the line work and color done for two, but New Years is still in the sketch phase. As Will had suggested a kitten might be more appropriate because of the new years baby, or something.

While I had hoped to have these completed before this Christmas to put on sale, at current it doesn't look promising. Perhaps I will sell the ones I've done as individual holidays until the full set is ready. When they do get completed they will most likely be available via etsay, through here or at local stores (if I can find any who would be willing to sell them). Fingers crossed, Smokey isn't a cheap cat!

Completed Christmas Card
Thanks to Will for the suggestions on layout and colors.

Gearing Up (10/15/11)

While Halloween is coming up, I actually find myself working on cards for other holidays. I'm currently working on redoing my card from last Christmas. I found that next to my more recent cards, while I like it, it just didn't hold up. I've gotten a little input as well from my boyfriend on how to redesign it, as well as advise on how to give it a more unique look from a friend.
I started by taking it into Illustrator as I've done with the last few cards. Here I created the line art, and added the flat colors. I then took it into Photoshop to add the background and details. I've begun adding in realistic elements to give it a slightly different feel. I think it definitely adds something.

With the holidays comes a changing of the seasons as well, of course. While we may be in FL, there is a change in the air. You can start to feel the subtle changes in the tempter, its almost chilly in the mornings and at night. Of course for Smokey this means more time to be spent out-of-doors. Rarely will you catch him just lazing around the house now (except for his nap time between 10-5). He enjoys napping most with his best buddy Will. I think these two could sleep the day away if given half a chance.

Smokey is gearing up for the house to be decorated for the holidays as well. He loves to help with putting up the decorations by being under foot, sticking his head in every box/bag/container, and chasing after strings of lights when you're not looking. He will also be making an appearance at my office for the Holiday. I'll be the witch with my little witch cat. I'm excited to have him in. Nothing is better than a warm cat at your feet, supposing he doesn't wander around the whole office making friends with everyone who happens to come in!

(Sorry this post got SOOOO delayed. Been super busy with work and life to have it up sooner!)

Celebrate Your Way

Got this finished in time for the 4th of July. (Although as its not too holiday specific, I guess it could vary for  any patriotic holiday.) I probably had the most fun with this piece so far. When I started I had hoped to complete the whole bit in Illustrator, as I enjoy how flexible vectors are, verses pixels. However, I realized the fireworks weren't going to work out and so moved to Photoshop.

I did make a bit of a step by step of how my process worked for this one. Its simple, but very effected.

This was my starting sketch, very small, quick.

I put the sketch in Illustrator, here I added the lines.

 

So long as all lines connect, you can use Live Paint Bucket

to add solid color.

I then exported the life to Photoshop where I added shading.

Add a background color (separate Layer)

(New Layer) Add in your fireworks- these came as brushes.

Make them look convincing.

 Step two, creating the line work, is what will take the longest. Depending on how precise you want your lines to be. After that, its all pretty much fun work and goes by pretty quickly. As long as you remember to do your separate layers, always the most important point! without those layers, you'll drive yourself crazy trying to make any changes to your piece. I think I ended up with about 20 layers for this card.

What matters is you have fun with, its art, its your own style, so nothing you do is wrong. There is never a boundary, like staying in the lines. My style, while a bit catroonish, is fun and expressive. I don't want my works to be too serious and weighted. I think this certainly shows it.

Long Time Coming

When life starts happening, its really takes off! The last few months have been a whirlwind of life, leaving me behind on my holidays. No worries though, I've caught up, and I've still got my kitty by my side! I throw in this bit of info, because in the past month I found out that my little gray companion, has diabetes.
He gave us quite a scare, and after spending mother's day weekend in the ER Vet, he is doing splendidly! He was getting insulin shots 2 times a day, every 12 hours, but now he'd down to just once a day in the morning. I don't think I've seen this much spunk in his step in quite some time!

Home from the ERVet

About a week ago

Since his birthday, gosh, 6 months ago!, Smokey has also made friends with, Will (look-out Ben!). By friends, I mean he's got him wrapped around his paw. After all, who doesn't love this cat?

Smokey and Will.

Back to the holidays... While I have yet to complete them all, I have sketched them all out. And it wasn't until just recently that I realized while I'd done a card for Halloween and Christmas, I hadn't done Thanksgiving. Which was weird because I made the sketch for it. Its amazing how things get lost in the shuffle.

I had also been working on a step-by-step I was planning to put up for my new years card. However, that never got completed either. I will try and do one for the next card I do, to show the process I go through. No matter what, I always start with my sketches. Nothing can beat a good foundation. (Of course having a fully shaded piece to go by helps as well, but this is a step I often forget.) So without further delay, here are the sketches.

Thanksgiving Sketch

Valentine's Day

Guess I have less of those sketches than I thought... I'll have to find where they've wondered off to. Fortunately I do have more of the completed cards. My two most recent ones, St. Patrick's Day and the upcoming July 4th, are not yet fully complete, but what the hey. I tried something different on these two. Normally I've been working in Photoshop, leaving my layers just slightly transparent to allow the sketch to show through. But with these, I took them to Illustrator first. The St. Patty's card is at the moment, still completely vector files, while the July 4th card has become pixilized. These two cards have a much different look from my previous cards, but I rather enjoy how they look. Its probably a technique I will stick with.

Valentine's Day

St. Patrick's Day

4th Of July

Now while I'm sure you're saying, "Hey, they valentine's day cat doesn't look like Smokey", you'd be right. I did that one for my boyfriend, but do plan to modify the card to be Smokey, or go back to my original plan of using him with a box of chocolates. We'll see, I am fond of the "Be Mine". 

Once I have my Holiday Collection completed, I'll begin work on my Special Occasion Collection. This will consist of Birthday, Graduation, Mother's/Father's Day, etc. If you know any you'd like to add, please let me know. I'd like to have between 5-10. Not sure I can come up with that many 'special occasions'.

Happy 10th Birthday Smokey!

For his big birthday, he chose to spend most of the day lounging out on the back porch. After enjoying his fresh air and sun he came in to have his birthday "cake" (a tasty loaf of kitty food). His presents consisted of a new collar and tag, and a scratching post of his very own. No more rug scratching for him (hopefully!). Of course h can only scratch when no one is looking. Which he did while laying in his bed in front of a warm fire. Now he is once more enjoying being outside, watching the ducks in the pond till bed time. I think he had a great birthday.

Very Merry New Year

 Smokey and I hope you all had a pleasant and happy holiday season.
Despite being surrounded by those who love him, Smokey found himself in quite the tizzy while my brother, nephew and their dog Tessa were here. My nephew adores Smokey, however Smokey is a little less enthusiastic about little kids. Although I feel he did enjoy taunting the dog, since he knew he was safe enough on the other side of a glass door. But with my nephew around, he had to open his presents alone, this be no means took the fun out of it for him...

Replaced a bag this year with his stocking

About to rip into that bag!

With his wonderful personality, it made easy to finally decide on my card choice, even though I had plenty of ideas to begin with. It was trying to decide which I would like the best and want to use. Sketching is an important process, not only does it help keep me in practice, but its a good way to get problems worked out with arrangement, etc before making my final card (or drawing, painting, etc).

Smokey and Snowman

Holiday card Ideas

On my second set of sketches, at first I had planned to just do a quick coloring of Smokey wrapped in the Christmas lights. The one of Smokey with the Snowman was the card I had originally planed on using. As I'd done one similar last year and it didn't turn out too well. Had it not been for a critical error when saving my files, I'd hoped to share my process in rendering.
For rendering my illustrations digitally, I prefer to use CS3 (but whichever CS you have the all work the same). The number one rule, which was especially important with this piece, is to save often! You never when something might go wrong. Number two, always remember to use and name your layers! By using layers you're able to apply more effects, or to change one thing without having to change everything else.

 

 

Final Christmas Card

Not only have we just celebrated our holidays, but we've entered a new year, 2011! What a crazy date to be writing down. With the coming of this new year, brings in the beginning of a new journey and Smokey's 10th birthday! Which is tomorrow, 10 years have gone by so quickly, but I'm looking forward to as many more with him as possible, till 2021 perhaps? Having been working so often I haven't had much chance to work on a birthday card for Mr. Smokey (but surely will), I have however been working on New Years cards. Sketches mostly, but plan to solidify one ASAP to send out.

Happy 2011 Everyone!