"A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol " Poster.. from Start to Finish

Hey guys!!  I thought I would post all the progress shots I took from working on my latest poster art for our community theater!! This poster is for the upcoming Christmas show, "A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol", and I'm also going to be running the light board for this show!!

I was asked to draw up some concept art before I sketched out the poster design, and as I did with the "Charlotte's Web" poster, I talked with the director first and made sure I had clear ideas as to what she wanted to see. 

Above are some of the concepts I came up with, with an idea for the poster art on the bottom. I sent this rough sketch to the director, and she approved and set a deadline, and I've been piecing it together since last weekend. 

 I decided to try doing the colors with watercolors, because the director asked for a subtle color scheme, and also didn't want too much of a "Christmas" theme in the poster. I felt that watercolors would show up better once scanned and pull off subtle better than pencils or markers would. 

First things first, had to sketch it all out, then start inking! I love inking, and I took some time to do this part one afternoon with a cup of coffee and our portable DVD player on my desk too... xD 

The inked version!!

No matter what medium I use, I always start with skin tones first. After that, I laid down a light red for the base of the mouth coloring.

I think my favorite part of the poster is this... the three little pigs hunkered down as they pop out of the book.    =-) 

Close to being done!! I had laid down a lot of base colors in one afternoon. I recently purchased a smaller sketchbook from Canson, and the paper quality is incredible for water colors. As long as you give it time to dry so that it doesn't warp, it's magnificent!! 

And this is what the final version looks like... I had something holding the page down as it drys completely. Yay!!!   


Here are a few other creations from this week... 

I finished up a custom order of "Finding Dory" notecards, and ran off a print that the customer also ordered for framing. 

I have a set of "Disney Princess" notecards started, and I managed to color Merida and Pocahontas... but I'm just sharing Merida today, because her hair just makes me smile. It's so loud and crazy looking.   =-) 

And a Howl that I sketched while catching up Miyazaki Mondays... I also have a Sosuke (from Ponyo) and Arietty pieces inked, but I haven't had time to color them as of yet. I colored Howl with pencils and did a wash of watercolor in the background and then tried to splatter a bit of purple watercolor over the whole thing. But I'm pretty new to that method, and was afraid of going crazy and ruining the picture, LOL....   =)

So! That's what has been accomplished this week. I had hoped to do more, but my afternoons have sort of gotten away from me... That's OK! With my upcoming "disconnect" month in August, I should hopefully have a lot of time to focus on some major art accomplishments!!!  

Until September, I'll be doing lots of this....  

Have a great August!!!   =-)

-Stasia-Chan '16