A couple of Christmasses ago, I made some illustrated Telegram stickers showcasing a couple different elves in different situations, and a couple of traditional Dominican Christmas treats.
This year, I decided to bring this pastelito (a fried dough pocket with beef, chicken, and other savory fillings) and this little elf to life, thrusting them into a familiar uncomfortable situation: Eating a pastelito and finding a raisin inside. The topic of whether chicken or beef pastelitos should have raisins inside is a contentious one, and while I stand firmly in the 'they SHOULD' camp, I find a malicious bit of glee bubble up whenever I see someone spit out a raisin. More pastelitos for me!
As always, I started out blocking out the shapes in Illustrator in order to get a good sense of what I should do once I opened Cinema, and from then, it was a fun exercise in fleshing out the details. I was originally going to make this a bust, but this is one of the rare instances where I'm having way too much fun to call it quits, and I found myself wanting to add more details in order to keep it going.
One of the most fun parts of this personal project was playing around with the hair tool. It was a challenge to figure out a balance between realism and something that was going to show up at that distance and size, but ultimately I went for a towel-y type texture that I feel ended up working quite well
Though originally the pastelito was a sad, raisin-filled one, I feel like I imbued the render with my own feelings surrounding this heated debate, and I ended up giving the pastelito a more friendly demeanor.
I of course had to make sure the clay render looked nice and smooth.
And after some quick color correction in Photoshop, work was done! :) Thanks for reading, guys, hope everyone has a fantastic holiday season.
