I finished the painting for this years Christmas card.  For some reason I always end up pushing the bounds of getting everything done in time.  Maybe next year I will start earlier.  It is really hard when you are in the middle of other really engaging projects to break away, even when it is form something fun like this.  In the end, I do like working on a “one-off” as opposed to all my huge projects.  Even this isn’t really a “one-off” as it is page three from what will eventually be a Christmas children’s book about a bear and wild pig that end up helping Santa deliver his toys.

The painting of this one went pretty smoothly with the exception of my using extra heavy gel which seemed to give me more defined and lofty peaks in the texture.  In the end I might have to tweak out some things in Photoshop to get all the panels to match for the end book.  Other than that, the painting went well.  I loved painting those trees and Santa was a lot of fun.  Even the little sprig at the base of the tree was nice to work on.  The huge expanses of snow were a bit of a drag, though.  It was a lot of slow dry-brushing.  Still, I’m happy with the results so it was time well spent.