The first thing I did was the sketch and the lineart, this time I was only thinking of doing the main character of my story, and a Christmas present, and then I added another element. With the lineart ready, I proceeded to add the base color, although the gift in the story is like a bluish color, here I made it green to make contrast and the background I painted it (for the moment) in gray, to better detail all the colors; I also added the shadows in the hair area, in this part, the shadows I made in a very high tone and then, to the layer, I gave it multiply and with adjustment, I leveled the contrasts and the intensity of the shadows and at the end, some parts in black, to better highlight the figure.

After that, I was detailing and shading the rest of the body, doing the same process with the hair, a high tone, multiply and adjust, it gives a little more subtle shading, in the part of the face, in addition to coloring the eyes and mouth, I added their respective blush.

With the shadows done, I proceeded to give it a few touches of light...

Here it occurred to me to add another character, who is also relevant in my story, a little dog with spots on his face and a top hat, so I added him, but in the form of a stuffed animal.

With the main figure ready, then I started with the background, which would have a Christmas tree as a detail, painting it directly, without making any base line; painting the shape of the pine tree, giving it the shadows and ornaments and its respective star on the top, I liked this tree very much.

When adding a super bright light to the star, I thought of adding some pink lanterns, so that the background would be more eye-catching, but without overshadowing the main figure; so I incorporated some circles in different sizes, I gave it its shadows and lights. At the end I ended up painting the background in dark blue with some gradients and, additionally, some small snowflakes falling; with this ready, I added a new layer in dark blue and overlapped it with a lowered opacity, so that the background would not have so much prominence.

With a few more details, that if snow falling and a white line surrounding the whole figure to make it stand out more the character, here it is finished, what I did and that in my most illustrations I do is to add a layer of texture overlay and lowered opacity, but I leave the two versions and tell me which one you like more, oh and I also made a version without detailed background and with the word Merry Christmas, so I can pass them to my contacts.

I hope you have a great Christmas, where you can be at peace and enjoy every second of life, besides spending it with those you love the most, even if it is not physically, but have them present in every act and word of your day to day.