Hello everyone, hope you had yourself a Merry Christmas. Here is this last bit of content featuring Santa and Elle, two characters who have come quite a long way since the start of this month.
While for most of the things you have seen on my blog to this date, not much of Ithaca any preliminary content, I usually jump straight into the final piece (which is a habit I need to break). However for bigger projects like 'Sbookies' back in October, there were some sketches and drafts. Although in this post I'm going to show as much as possible, so please enjoy reading about how the magic happened.
Materials
Given that I was going to make twenty five of these pictures, I wanted to keep my materials cheap so that they would be easily replaceable. I also had to keep the work minimalistic to ensure that I would be able to reach my deadlines. This would bring the style of black and white comic strips, with the addition of red to draw attention to Santa.
The first issue to tackle would be my source of paper. Luckily, I had stashed away a couple of Crayola drawing pads, filled with blank paper. They weren't huge sheets of paper so time would be saved as well as the amount of materials used to make each piece. The paper could be pulled out of the pads without ripping the paper, meaning every sheet was easy to work on without having to worry about keeping the pad open.
Another Crayola addition to the team was one of their slim markers, quite obviously the black marker. However this was only used as of the second entry in the challenge. This marker was used for the outlines. A separate pen was used to colour in all of the fillings, as well as outline the original entry; this pen was a brush pen supplied in a local shop.
Lastly there is the pencil to give Santa his red. Like with the pens, a different colour was use on the first piece. I never intended to change the red, I just accidentally used a different shade on the second day and preferred it to the original. These were Berol brand pencils that I had been given from an old school's art department.
Designing Santa, Elle And Others
The first thing that was necessary to begin this challenge was to draw a Santa. I was decided on drawing him in the Drawson Style, which you see the blog mascot depicted in. I did numerous pencil sketches, experimenting with the shape of Santa.
For most of his designs, I used a circle for his round body, but something didn't feel right about it.. My problem was largely between the body and limbs, trying to make them resemble the large man that Santa is. This was resolved by changing the body shape into he arch shape you are all familiar with.
For some time I went about Santa's face as being separate from the beard, but making such a large beard we ant either drawing the mouth on top of the beard or covering the mouth with the beard; the latter was obviously not an option given the challenge. I decided to do a Bart Simpson and merge his hair with his head, giving his head the shape of the beard so imply that he has one.
Santa was originally designed to have mittens, but when it came to the first illustration, Santa's pose clearly meant the mittens had to be exchanged for finger gloves.
Elle's design was just as experimental. The triangular body was always there from the start, as well as her pointy feet. Elle was originally going to have a more alien like appearance, with pointy fingers and a pointed head (this was changed to the conventional elf hat). I never inked Elle's final design since she would not receive a colour scheme.
As of the twelfth entry, Santa and Elle was no longer alone in their festive world. Three elves were designed for the party. These designs were given names, so as to be used later on in the challenge. Eldon was developed to become a partner for Elle while Elton was a confident but foolish elf, as is seen in the fifteenth entry. Additionally another elf was created to pose as the criminal, his design was changed from the standard elf drastically so as to make him look more evil.
The first piece of written material that came into mind was the joke from Day One about how the legend of Santa has been around since King Henry the eighth. This sprouted the job interview idea and it made sense from then on for Elle and Santa to go through some kind of story together. While all the stories would be cannon and fit into a timeline, the stories were not meant to be continuous from each other (Days Fourteen and Fifteen being the exception).
There were a few small arcs placed in this challenge which contributed to some of the story ideas, so I'll leave it amongst yourselves for now to decide the order of events, though these arcs you would want to keep in mind:
Elle's New Job - Days 1, 2, 3
Believe - Days 11, 18
Elias - Days 14, 15
Elle and Eldon - Days 12, 16, 22
Farewell Santa - Days 1, 25
For most of his designs, I used a circle for his round body, but something didn't feel right about it.. My problem was largely between the body and limbs, trying to make them resemble the large man that Santa is. This was resolved by changing the body shape into he arch shape you are all familiar with.
For some time I went about Santa's face as being separate from the beard, but making such a large beard we ant either drawing the mouth on top of the beard or covering the mouth with the beard; the latter was obviously not an option given the challenge. I decided to do a Bart Simpson and merge his hair with his head, giving his head the shape of the beard so imply that he has one.
Santa was originally designed to have mittens, but when it came to the first illustration, Santa's pose clearly meant the mittens had to be exchanged for finger gloves.
Elle's design was just as experimental. The triangular body was always there from the start, as well as her pointy feet. Elle was originally going to have a more alien like appearance, with pointy fingers and a pointed head (this was changed to the conventional elf hat). I never inked Elle's final design since she would not receive a colour scheme.
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| Top Left to Bottom Right : Elaine, Elton, Eldon, Elle and Elias |
As of the twelfth entry, Santa and Elle was no longer alone in their festive world. Three elves were designed for the party. These designs were given names, so as to be used later on in the challenge. Eldon was developed to become a partner for Elle while Elton was a confident but foolish elf, as is seen in the fifteenth entry. Additionally another elf was created to pose as the criminal, his design was changed from the standard elf drastically so as to make him look more evil.
Writing The Stories
I was undecided to begin with whether or not I would actually write stories with each picture. I wanted to but time was a problem. However a new addition to my art supplies (a more capable I Pad) enabled me to make more time to edit the blog in general. This meant I could write my stories right after or during the creation of each picture.The first piece of written material that came into mind was the joke from Day One about how the legend of Santa has been around since King Henry the eighth. This sprouted the job interview idea and it made sense from then on for Elle and Santa to go through some kind of story together. While all the stories would be cannon and fit into a timeline, the stories were not meant to be continuous from each other (Days Fourteen and Fifteen being the exception).
There were a few small arcs placed in this challenge which contributed to some of the story ideas, so I'll leave it amongst yourselves for now to decide the order of events, though these arcs you would want to keep in mind:
Elle's New Job - Days 1, 2, 3
Believe - Days 11, 18
Elias - Days 14, 15
Elle and Eldon - Days 12, 16, 22
Farewell Santa - Days 1, 25
Watch
Now this is a rare treat, don't expect videos for quite some time again. Here I have actually recorded myself creating one of the pictures featured in the challenge. So the first video I give to you is the making of Day Eleven.
Now I did intend to take all twenty five entries and have put them in this slideshow video for you. The reason this is not present is because the file size was too big and I can't manage to make one that will be a small enough size. Sorry guys, you'll just have to take a look at the original posts.
Now I did intend to take all twenty five entries and have put them in this slideshow video for you. The reason this is not present is because the file size was too big and I can't manage to make one that will be a small enough size. Sorry guys, you'll just have to take a look at the original posts.
Final Thoughts And Hindsight
I was a little nervous about this challenge when I began. For reasons as to why I have not done an Inktober before. To be making daily content and using the same sort of medium to me seems like it would be the fast lane to a burn out. Also, the fact you are using pretty much one medium (at least that's all I could do for Inktober) doesn't really help you develop in all areas.
I have to confess that post challenge, I did have a burnout, but luckily it was only around for about a day and then I was back to coming up with ideas and creating new content for you to enjoy in the future. I did try my best to make time each day to create outside of the Santa challenge to prevent this, but I suppose this is what comes from creating a set of regulars that you are used do (in this case being Santa and Elle), once it's time to let them go you get a little lost.
Had I have done more in advance, I would have loved to make the story a continuous one but clearly it was for the best that the stories did not try to link together, the story would just be a Jackson Pollock of different plot points perhaps.
I can say with absolute confidence that I do not regret doing this challenge. It has exercised my creative writing, my artwork, my timekeeping, video editing and has also brought more viewers to my blog. I will definitely be doing another one of these next year, though I shan't give anything away as to what to expect in next year's calendar.
And so for the final time this year, I thank everyone who has followed the adventures of Santa and Elle, supported the blog and motivated me to keep going and finish all of this content solely for you. I've been doing this blog for nearly a year now and it's great to see that it's audience is growing. Enjoy the rest of your holiday; as of this point, normality resumes.
I have to confess that post challenge, I did have a burnout, but luckily it was only around for about a day and then I was back to coming up with ideas and creating new content for you to enjoy in the future. I did try my best to make time each day to create outside of the Santa challenge to prevent this, but I suppose this is what comes from creating a set of regulars that you are used do (in this case being Santa and Elle), once it's time to let them go you get a little lost.
Had I have done more in advance, I would have loved to make the story a continuous one but clearly it was for the best that the stories did not try to link together, the story would just be a Jackson Pollock of different plot points perhaps.
I can say with absolute confidence that I do not regret doing this challenge. It has exercised my creative writing, my artwork, my timekeeping, video editing and has also brought more viewers to my blog. I will definitely be doing another one of these next year, though I shan't give anything away as to what to expect in next year's calendar.
And so for the final time this year, I thank everyone who has followed the adventures of Santa and Elle, supported the blog and motivated me to keep going and finish all of this content solely for you. I've been doing this blog for nearly a year now and it's great to see that it's audience is growing. Enjoy the rest of your holiday; as of this point, normality resumes.
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