|Christmas card countdown| owl

I love owls :) 

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a nice evening and days to come.

|Christmas card countdown| Faun family

These are three different commissions but I decided to do them as a series. I started of with the female faun. It was then brought to my attention that I hardly ever draw men. Which is true, partly because I'm not that good at it, partly because I think they're just not that interesting to draw as women (the shapes never seem to flow as nicely and there's far less of a straight vs curvy line tension that's so visually appealing) So I decided to have another go at it and added the male faun. Baby faun just seemed like the logical next step :)

|Christmas card countdown| Filou

It's that time of year again! And that means it's time for an overview of all the christmas card commissions I did this year. Kicking things of as always is our little four-legged friend Filou. For those of you who remember, he's my aunt's little pooch and he's been the star of the show for a couple of years now. My aunt and I both enjoy knitting and crochet so I thought it would be fun to incorporate that into the design as well.

|Christmas Card Countdown| Christmas in the air

Tonight's the night, it's Christmas eve aleady. Have a very merry Christmas everyone!

|Christmas Card Countdown| Santa's Little Helpers

Look at those two cuties! Because as we all know Santa needs every pair of helping hands he can get, right?

I especially love how the christmas lights turned out on this one. Christmas lights are perhaps my favourite part of the holiday season and if it were up to me I'd have them out for the entire wintertime, not just December. There's no better remedy for the winter blues than some good old fashioned twinking lights.

|Christmas Card Countdown| Filou, the red nosed jack russel terier

I can hardly believe it's that time of year again already, but here it is folks, the first of this year's batch of christmas card designs. First up is little Filou. He's my aunt's dog and she likes to feature him on her holiday cards each year. This time around, Filou is standing in for Rudolph!

Mrs Claus

Poor Mrs Claus was put on and off my list more than any other lady, although she's been there from the very beginning. I loved the idea of including her but I just wasn't sure I could do it. When I think of Mrs Claus my mind goes to much more cartoony versions, usually of her standing somewhere behind dear old Santa taking up very little spotlight. I'd never done a portrayal of an older woman before in a style that would match the rest of the series, and so I kept putting it off.

But this project was all about challenging myself in new ways and so I finally stopped whining and went for it. I also gave her some much needed spotlight :) This lady deserves some attention, being the strong woman behind a very strong man. Not only am I really happy with how she turned out, I get the added bonus of being able to double her as my Christmas card this year. Score! It always pays to try new things y'all.

And so my little group of twelve is complete. I'm working on arranging them into an actual calendar right now and hope to have that done asap. So keep and eye out for that!

Sleigh Ride

HAVE YOURSELVES A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
♥

White Christmas

I love White Christmas. Few things represent Christmas better for me then Bing, Rosemary, Danny and Vera gracing my screen. So those who've seen the movie will immediately recognize the inspiration for her attire. It's one of my secret life ambitions to one day own a dress like that ;)

Snow Man Hug

I love snowmen! They look so cuddly and friendly. Apart from the fact that they're basically freezing, there's nothing else that stops me from wanting to give each one of them a great big hug. I'd hoped to have made one for myself by now but unfortunately there hasn't been enough snow for that yet. Fingers crossed I might still get the chance!

Warm Wishes

I have quite a few christmas card comissions every year, and it's always fun to share them with the world. Last year I started way too late, and ended up with crazy deadlines. I'm guessing most of you artists out there know the predicament. Inspiration just doesn't seem to come to you weeks before the project is due, when you still have heaps of time left, instead it waits untill the last moment and makes you lose a lot of sleep :) 

But I decided to be sensible this year, start early, and it actually worked! And just as well that I did because I ended up with another job which kept me busy all of October and November. This way everything fitted perfectly in my shedule. It's the Christmas miracle come early :D

I even designed an extra card, in case I got a last minute comission  (there's always one, isn't there) It hasn't been picked up yet, which is a shame because I really like this one. I hope you enjoy.

Christmas Playlist Countdown

I'm back! And what's more, it's December! So it's time to officially kick off the holiday season. Back in October, my brother made a Halloween countdown playlist. Now Halloween ranks pretty high on my holiday list, but the big Kahuna of all holidays is definately Christmas. So another playlist was in order! And this time I decided to do more then just shamelessly share the fruits of my brothers hard work of putting the list together ;) and I made a little animated intro to go with it.

I made this in Toon Boom and then added the light, snow and some other tidbits in After Effects.

You can find the playlist on Youtube [HERE]. We're not revealing the entire playlist at once, but are doing a proper countdown where we add a song each day. I'll post the songs of the day on my facebook page as well, so like of you want to follow along. I'll also be posting an alternate version of the clip up there shortly, where the text reads "Merry Christmas" instead of "Christmas Playlis Countdown", which you can then feel free to share with everyone you want to wish a merry Christmas.

It's the holiday spirit, people, you're supposed to spread it around and I plan to do just that!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Card Countdown #1

Have a wonderful celebration everyone!

Christmas Card Countdown #2

Meet Filou, my aunt's Jack Russel Terrier. :) She asked for a design featuring him as the leading man. I must admit, I seriously struggled with the whole canine-head-on-human-body assignment. It's not exactly my favourite style movement and on top of that I hardly ever draw dogs. But in the end I think I managed quite well. In fact, as more time passes (and I start to forget just how much of a struggle it was :)) the prouder I become of it.

So let's have a drink to cute little Filou as Christmas draws ever closer. We're nearly there!

Christmas Card Countdown #3

Next up is a design I made for a local sandwich shop called "Bon Appetit". They sell bread as well, hence the baguette in the picture and the overall dinner feel of the design. This was one of the last commissions I had for christmas cards so I had to hurry up a bit. Luckily though, this was one of those pieces that fell into place right away. I really like the way the colours turned out, it's a bit different from the usual christmas palette but still very festive I think.

Christmas Card Countdown #4

It's been a while since my last post, I know, but my schedule has cleared up and I'm ready to give my blog some lovin' again. So let's start with a nice countdown shall we? I've been busy these past few weeks designing some christmas cards and I thought I'd share them with you. I absolutely adore christmas and need little encouragement to get into the holiday spirit. I hope you're ready to join me in the festivities :)

First up is this "Gifts" design. It's a nice, playful, simple design that can suit just about everybody and yet is easily personalized by changing the names on the cards. And it's always nice to put a bit of yourself into your cards, isn't it. I made it for my sister but I definately think this one has potential in years to come as well.