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Yuletide Fun
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For many years I have designed Christmas cards for friends, colleagues and clients. I am quite ambivalent about Christmas itself, but for some reason I have always found making the cards satisfying.
At first, all the cards were handmade, and I experimented with various graphic styles and techniques, including cut-outs and collage. However, as my mailing list grew, I confined myself to drawings in ink and Caran D'Ache coloured pencils which could be scanned and printed. Inevitably, I progressed to images created on a computer which could be directly e-mailed. Somehow it's not quite the same, but that's the world we live in. |
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"Christmas with the Bears"
ink drawing, 1992
Have you ever wondered what became of the Bear family which features in the fairy tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"?
Baby Bear has since grown up a bit, and prefers to be called Junior. He's pretty excited about Christmas and hoping for a gameboy or a new skateboard. In fact he's so excited that he hasn't even finished eating his porridge, which as we know is the family's favourite food. Perhaps it's too hot. Junior now has a younger sister who is in her room playing with her Barbielocks dolls.
Mama Bear sits by the fire dreaming festive dreams while knitting a vegetarian Christmas turkey from soya wool. This is a great relief to their neighbour Tom Turkey who is passing their window on his way home from the office party.
Pappa Bear is still at work. He's just got a new job as security guard at Santa's toy factory, and at this time of year there's always plenty of overtime. |
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"Santa's Christmas cheer"
ink & Caran Dache drawing
"It's a funny old world," says Santa sniffing at his glass of Chateau Lapland, "during the year I hardly ever drink. Just the occasional beer with the elves when they have one of their quiz nights.
And then on my busiest night of the year, well-meaning parents all over the world leave out a glass of wine, sherry, port, brandy or even vodka for me. And in my profession it's considered rude if you don't take at least a few sips. Sometimes I wish they'd leave some coffee or some mocca ice cream.
By the time I get to Hawaii, which is one of the last stops on my round, I'm already merrier than the law allows. Would hate to get breathalyzed - that would be the end of that, eh?
Good thing the reindeer know their own way home too, since I usually doze off after Honolulu. Cheers!" |
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"Christmas Gothic"
computer drawing, 2003
Inspired by Grant Wood's famous painting "American Gothic", this is an attempt to capture the kind of thing snowmen and snowwomen get up to when everyone goes home for dinner.
Like all of us, they just can't resist posing now and again.
By the way, I do not use the term CGI (Computer Generated Graphics) which makes it sound as though the computer does all the work. Which it doesn't. CAD (Computer Assisted Design) may be closer to the truth, but this has come to signify technical or architectural drawing. Perhaps it should be CWT (Complete Waste of Time)? |
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"Santa and friends in space"
computer drawing, 2004
"... And as if I didn't already have enough to do on Christmas Eve, now they've got all these space stations and shuttles full of astronauts up there in orbit. We can't forget them, can we? Never hear the end of it.
But it's quite a detour, I can tell you, and takes a bit of navigating to find them. Not only that but we have to dodge and weave constantly to avoid crashing into satellites and other bits of cosmic junk.
Lord knows what I'll do if they start opening colonies on Mars and suchlike. Ah, by then I daresay they'll have replaced me with a robot.
They do a decent cup of tea up there once you get used it all floating around. Makes me feel quite queazy. But it's all in a day's work. Now where did that mince pie fly off to?" |
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"infinite Christmas card"
computer drawing, 2005
Sometimes Christmas just seems to go on forever. This one certainly does.
Inside the snow globe Santa Claus holds a snow globe.
And inside that snow globe Santa Claus holds another snow globe.
And so on, ad infinitum.
A Christmas version of the Chinese boxes principle.
Best viewed in the Acrobat version (PDF format 1.6 Mb).
Zoom in and find out.
The background skyline is east Berlin with it's 1960's Television Tower (Fernsehturm).
But you knew that already, didn't you? |
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"Crystal Christmas"
computer drawing, 2007
While some Christmases do seem to go on forever (see "infinite Christmas card" above), others appear to have passed me by completely. 2007 was one of those years in which there was always so much to do that I ended up working right up until Christmas Eve: a real slog. Afterwards, I was so exhausted that I didn't have much energy left for much Yuletide yo ho ho.
Around October I had started working on an animated Christmas card design with the idea of combining ice and snow crystal forms into a moving mandala. This proved more time-consuming than anticipated, and as I had so much other work to do, I had to abandon it - for the moment (as they say).
Since Christmas had already come and gone, I decided to use a part of one of the many preparatory drawings from the "Crystal Christmas" project and turn it into a multi-lingual New Year's card. Well, I guess, better late than never... |
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| Text and images copyright © David John 1984 - 2010 |
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