Xmas approaching fast - hommage to J.C. Leyendecker

**jester** · December 17th, 2002, 11:11 AM

Today I finished this year's motive for my annual Xmas card to relatives and friends. I copied a picture from J.C. Leyendecker about six weeks ago and ignored it for that period of time.

Today I redid the line work and colored it in painter.

I esp. struggled with the shadows and highlights - and the little boy's face. What can I change to make it better?

Jester

**MindCandyMan** · December 17th, 2002, 12:09 PM

First off the drawing is great jester! It reminds me a lot of rockwell...good work. I think the problem you are having with shading (coming from an absolute complete rookie) might be that you are making the highlights too light and darks too dark. Sample the color of the boys face with the eye dropper then ever so slightly make it darker and try shading the shadow areas of the face. When do you the highlights...on santas clothes and even on the boys face be careful of going too far to either side (light or dark). Something that is metal has a real stark difference between the shiny and dark parts of it...but fabric doesn't bounce light back the same way...it soaks up a lot of it...especially black fabric. Try being more subtle with the colors and see if that works out. Hope this helps...take this with a grain of salt from a complete newbie. Looks good man.