The Holiday Dove Process: Final

Here he is! I was very happy with how it turned it. For those of you on my holiday card list, you'll get your very own! I'm probably going to do a bigger print run this year and sell any extras.

Flickr stream is now updated with the step-by-step photos!

The Holiday Dove Process: Color Studies

Once my sketch is complete, I do some rough color studies. They don't have to be perfect -- just enough for me to get an idea of the colors that I need to work with.

I consulted a few illustrator friends for a critique, and overwhelmingly everyone liked the cool, blue palette the best. The other one didn't read "holiday" to anyone. This made more sense to me anyway, seeing how I didn't want to use the same palette from the angel last year.

The Holiday Dove Process: Sketch

The artwork for my holiday card is finally done. This is the first pastel piece that I've broken down step-by-step, and I'll be posting the pictures later to my Flickr stream.

I wanted to do feathers again, since I had so much fun with the angel last year.