Picture Story: bear ride

I needed an illustration for January for my calendar. We have the four seasons here in Michigan, so, January is usually a picture of something cold and snowy, because that's what it is. Somehow I decided on a girl and a bear trekking through the snow for the picture...

And so it was sketched:

Then sketch was scanned in photoshop, converted to a blue page. That was printed, 

inked, scanned into photoshop and cleaned up and converted into  a file...

That file was filled with color and then printed off to be colored by hand.

 Once the entire page was colored it was scanned into photoshop.

 Where I began to add other elements, like the snowy ground and the sky...

The sky needed a little more visual oomph, so, I added a layer of a 

scan of one of my paintings: sunkissed alchemy phantasmagoria

There was snow on the ground, so there should be snowflakes in the air. 

The issue was to leave them behind or on top of the girl & bear...

 I decided to leave the snowflakes on top, so, I selectively deleted some of them...

And there it is: bear ride

You can find "bear ride" at sarahkdesigns or sunshinesight