Christmas Cards 2017

I was pretty busy when it came time to design this year's Christmas cards, so rather than come up with a new theme, I recycled last year's theme - I had several unused concept thumbnails all ready to go, which made it very simple. I chose to change the colours, so the cards really belong to the same series, but not the same set - they compliment each other well though:

See more below the cut:

As with last year, I used Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes for the halos. I have two colours, so I did a mix of both. I got glitter everywhere, it's very floaty! Personally I like the yellow flakes (Autumn Leaves) better than the darker flakes (Mulled Wine), but they are family cards and my mother likes the latter. What do you think?

Here's a look at the entire set - red this year, gold last year. We got them printed at Moo, they do such a nice job.

Here's a look at the digital files. The colours are a bit odd, I have a new tablet and exporting caused the colours to go very yellow indeed. Or it may be the new Photoshop CC 2018 that's doing it. (I got the two at pretty much the same time) It's odd, because they printed pink, pretty much as they were meant too. Still working on ironing out the exporting process... At the moment, it's working fine for print, which is the main thing for a jobbing illustrator... but I would like accurate colours when I export for social media as well.... Is anyone else having this sort of trouble?

Here's a close-up of the gilding. It's a lovely mix of colours that catch the light as you move it (head over to last year's blog post to see how I use it)

Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/2018 on a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 / a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 

*****

And to finish, here's a Christmas manicure that I'm currently sporting. I think it matches the cards rather well (not intentional)! I do my nails myself, these were done using MoYou London stamping plates and a variety of polishes.