Creation of the Santalope

Every year for Christmas I create a concept piece and make a limited print run for my immediate family and friends. I had quite a few questions this year about my workflow and how I paint, so I thought I would put up a post that shows the progression of this pic from start to finish.


I always start by finding reference photos and pictures. I wanted my Santa to have a classic, old timey, pre-Coca Cola Santa feel, with robes and a hood instead of a hat and coat ensemble.

 

This year I also wanted to give Santa a twist and create a new Christmas icon. So, I crossed him with a Jackalope and created the anthropomorphic Santalope! The Jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers.

I like to begin every piece with really rough loose sketches to figure out the general forms and pose I want for the pic. Not worried about details at this point.  Just getting a feel for the character.      

                   

Once I have the general idea of what I want I will do another tighter sketch that includes most of the final details. This drawing is all done traditionally with pencil on paper. Once I like the line work, I will scan it in to the computer, usually at 300 dpi.

 

Then I start painting digitally in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet, still just by hand. I begin by laying down the base colors for the piece. Once these are established I pull out the original line work and everything you see is painting from there.

After I have the foundation colors I start to build up the lights and shadows, adding value and defining general forms.

I continue defining forms and finer details, painting more light and building up the background some.

Eventually final details are added, the background is finished and  everything is looked over and given final adjustments. For the final prints I upped the painting to 600 dpi and had them professionally laser printed.


There are only 33 in the original print run.

I hope you enjoyed looking through the progression and workflow of this piece. 

Merry Christmas to all!