Advent Drawing Challenge: 5 Christmas Illustrations and Behind the Scenes of the Creative Process
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Advent Challenge | December 2022
I learned about Advent Art Challenge from Ema's post (Instagram) in November, and I immediately wanted to join. It was a good reason to create more new Christmas illustrations to share with you. I also wanted to keep practicing with acrylic and update my series of sheep paintings.
A List of the topics
There were just 5 topics that needed to be done during December:
Christmas Dinner / December 1
Surprise Visit / December 7
Grandparents / December 13
Elf / December 19
Snow Globe / December 25
Vegetarian Christmas Dinner for the 1st prompt: "Christmas Dinner"
Decorating a Christmas Tree Together with Grandpa, illustration for the “Grandparents" prompt
For me, the painting process of each topic was like telling short Christmas stories about the secret life of little sheep :-). However, for one of these stories, I needed more time and effort to even just get started. More on that is below.
The prompt 2: "Surprise Visit"
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Finding ideas for the “Elf” topic
When it came to the "Elf" topic, it was difficult for me to find a good idea I was happy with. "Should I draw just an elf?", I thought. "But what about sheep?". I really got stuck with it. Luckily, since I have many years of experience working on different illustration projects, I learned how to overcome the “no ideas” point as quickly as possible. And one of my favorite ways that work very well is brainstorming.
Solo Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a method of generating new ideas by putting everything that pops into your head on paper without waiting for inspiration. It can be just phrases and words or thumbnail sketches. It's also crucial to not judge too obvious ideas and to trust a random stream of thoughts.
So, the "Elf" topic is a very specific and narrowly defined task. And when I started working on it, the brainstorming technic helped me expand (!) the "Elf" topic. I took a sheet of paper and just wrote down any ideas that come to mind when thinking of the words "elf" and "sheep".
Here is how my line of thinking looked:
Christmas elf and Santa → Christmas elf sitting under the tree →
A few elves and Christmas gifts → A few elves on a sheep's back →
Elf doll on a sheep's back → Christmas shop with Elf dolls and a sheep inside → A sheep walking past a Christmas Storefront Elf poster →
And then I suddenly remembered cute Christmas outfits for dogs. "What if I dress up a sheep in a Christmas elf costume?", I wondered… And… Bingo! I finally got the idea of drawing a little sheep dressed up in an elf costume + a Christmas shop called "Elf Shop". I was very satisfied with this idea.
As you can see, using brainstorming, I allowed my mind to run wild by surrounding myself with more words that better helped me imagine the final result of what I needed.
The Elf Shop of books and gifts for the 4th prompt: “Elf”
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How long does it take?
It took one day and a half to finish each illustration for the Advent challenge (except the Elf illustration :). On the first day, I typically worked on a painting for about 4-6 hours with breaks. The second day of my creative process always allowed me to take a fresh look at the almost-finished artwork, do some revisions (if needed), and add the final touches, using colored pencils and crayons.
Sketches for "Surprise Visit", “Snow Globe”, “Grandparents” and “Elf”
And my last illustration for the Advent Challenge, prompt 5: "Snow Globe"
Art supplies I used: 1. SMLT A4 Drawing Pad (for acrylic, oil, and gouache), 290 gsm; 2. Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic Paints; 3. Talens Tear-Off Palette; 4. Derwent wax-based colored pencils; 5. Caran D'ache "Neocolor II" wax crayons
Well, that's it for now. Thank you so much for reading and I hope these Christmas illustrations make your heart smile! 🐑❤️
Daria Danilova
artist, illustrator, graphic designer
