Pop-Up Holiday Cards

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2013 dear readers, students, and parents!  Just giving you a glimpse of the Pop-Up Holiday Greeting Card samples making process.
1. Created a coloring template of 9 characters on a 8.5" X 11" sheet of card stock.
2. Used my favorite coloring tool (you could use crayons, colored pencils, or other markers) or you can even leave the characters in black and white, so that the recipient could have some fun coloring them.  I like using Copic Sketch markers and a Pentel silver outline pen for highlights.
3. Carefully cut the colored characters and affix them to the pop up tabs of a 6" X 9" colored card stock folded in half to yield a 6" X 4.5" card.  Glued a second card for extra support and to cover the void left by the pop-up tabs.
3. Rounded the card edges and they are ready for customizing and mailing them out.

For some of my templates that you could print and customize for your own use check this previous post.

Greeting Card Coloring Templates and Samples

Just finished a few coloring card templates and colored samples.
Used assorted markers (Copic Sketch, Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens, and Crayola Super Tip markers) and watercolors to color a few of the card templates. They will serve as examples in upcoming card-making classes for Elementary and Middle School students.
Feel free to print out the blank coloring templates below (I would recommend using 110 lb white card stock) and color them with markers (or your favorite coloring media) to make your own holiday greeting cards with your kids or students. You could also add decorative touches with metallic gel pens and silver markers. I would just appreciate a comment or e-mail with feedback on the reception and usefulness of these templates for your group.
This template could be printed on a sheet of card stock and cut in half to make 2 simple cards.
Basic cut out card. Print on a letter size sheet. Fold in halves twice leaving the Santa on the cover. Colored the outline and draw any additional elements you might like. Use sharp precision scissors to cut the outline of the Santa peeking around the wall. If up to the challenge, you could also draw and color the back of Santa inside the card.
This one was designed mainly as a coloring card with some blank space around to allow some creativity in drawing background environment like some snow and a few pines.


These Santa and Snowman designs lend themselves well for cut out cards and as blank canvases to exercise your individual creativity by adding your own background details and decorative marks.



The Maneki Neko cards feature a traditional Japanese Lucky Cat sporting a festive holiday hat.

A few more Comic Page Thumbnail Templates

This additional batch of thumbnail comic page templates features a few digitally applied screentones, so additional elements can be overlaid right on top of the patterns and backgrounds by drawing them on a sheet of tracing paper taped to the template. Once a pleasing result is achieved, the drawings could then be transferred to a thicker sheet of paper and then cut and pasted on top of the screentones.

A couple of reference backgrounds and panel templates for a School Manga story

Tweaked some photos of the school on Photoshop, so that they could be used as practical reference for creating the backgrounds on a Manga story taking place in an American school.
Courtyard.
School entrance.

Hallway leading into ESOL classroom.
Art Classroom reference 1.
Art Classroom reference 2.
This first template with a background establishing shot of the the bus loop could be further enhanced by pasting some characters and vehicles directly on top of it.

Blank version that can be use to draw your own wide-angle establishing shot for your story.
This last template could also be flipped over to have a wide angle establishing shot at the top and the two vertical panels on the bottom.Ditto.
The blank templates are letter size when printed on regular copy paper and can be used to quickly try out different comic story layouts and design ideas as oversize thumbnails. This preliminary stage can help you explore the structure of your story visually and plan your work flow more efficiently. If you were planning to draw a regular American size comic story, the originals typically are drawn on more expensive and heavier illustration supports (like 2-ply bristol board) that measure 10" X 15". Thus using the sketching templates to work out the early structure of the comic is both time and cost effective.