2005 has brought forth new obstacles to deal with on an everyday basis and with my new companion (Tinnitus), this has forced me to relearn how to draw starting from the summer. I first started with copying a small photo as I tried to focus (which is still extremely hard), I started to get back to doing my own work from scratch. Unfortunately this year, I had no ideas, thoughts or inspirations for this years card. So I went back to last X-mas and designed a similar themed image. The scene depicts something that might be from the previous card's Victorian home, but this card has elements from many sources as well as from my head. Stupidly, I attempted an ever more complex and detailed idea... maybe to prove something to myself.
I was going to put a ton of injokes and things into the picture but reduced this to 3 paintimgs and a photo.
The cat picture on the wall was a watercolor my dad did of Jose my siamese cat who was alive during my high school years; the picture below was a prior X-mas card I did, the image under that was a picture I did for a video game.
The girl is the same girl in a prior card as well, though I only used her head, the body was made up.
I wanted to revisit some themes and images and hopefully tie it into a familiar yet new setting.
A few people ask why I do dark Christmas cards. Well the Victorian theme seems to go with the dark atmosphere, but also it symbolizes the emptyness of lost loved ones (my Dad, all my Aunts, Uncles, etc) as well as friends that have either been lost, or have not kept in touch with me (JS, DH, PB).
Incidentally, the small photo under the rose-colored flowers is a portrait of my Dad. I still miss him.
The above image is only 1/8 the original size of the master image. I exclusively used the digital airbrush tool in Painter 9.
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