Wednesday 3 December 2014

Hand Drawn Christmas Cards + Free Downloads

2017 Christmas Sock Exchange sign ups now open!


   I wanted to make my own Christmas cards this year, and I had some designs in mind, but while I usually just use black pens, as you can see from my Inktober drawings, I wanted colour on these or they just wouldn't look festive enough. I wanted red ribbons and bright lights, so I needed vibrant colours, and that's what I knew these pens would deliver. I used Staedtler triplus fineliners to achieve this, because they're the only pens I know that can deliver great colour, and I didn't want to use paint since I'm far more likely to clumsily smudge that! Plus I'm not great at painting on flat surfaces, and that comes from a few years of painting tiny clay animals for my necklaces.


   Still, pen or not, I always draw in pencil first. I envy people who can draw in pen right off the bat with no real plan of where they're going with it. It's completely out of my ability. I like things to be as perfect as I can make them, and I'm far from a good drawer, even in pencil, and even if I was given a month. So I try to stick to simpler designs, slightly more cartoony ideas, because then it's harder to go wrong - but I still need a pencil. It's so satisfying to go over the pencil lines in pen, though, and I know that I'm doing it right while following them. Sometimes (often) I go a little wide or a little short, but I can usually make up for it.


   I've been practising my calligraphy a lot, too, so I really wanted to include some of that on the cards, but I couldn't incorporate it into the drawings, so instead I did it seperately. I'm quite happy with how it all turned out! Especially the stag. I love stags, I always have, so I was over the moon when they came into fashion a few years ago. The same goes with foxes. I realise a reindeer would be more appropriate, but I didn't have a reference of one on hand at the time and I was too impatient and excited to get started so I ended up using one of my many Paperchase Christmas deer decorations instead.
   The lights wrapped around its antlers came out wonderfully because the pens are so bright, and so many of the colours were true to the pen lids! I can see myself using them again during Easter and Valentine's Day, too, there are so many pastels and pinks!


Feel free to download and use the images yourselves!








7 comments:

  1. There are lovely, you're so talented. I wish I could draw things like that. I find drawing fun and relaxing but it would be more fun if I could produce anything worth sharing with people.

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    1. Thank you ^^ I feel the same way, very few of my drawings turn out very well so I end up hiding most of mine. These were very, very lucky! :P x

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  2. These are so incredible! You're so talented.

    Melissa
    wildflwrchild.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you! I don't draw very often so I was quite surprised with how well these came out!
      Good luck in the giveaway, too! Fingers crossed! x

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  3. Love the animals' ones, nice job! :)

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  4. how do you download it? But also I wanted to say I like your drawings a lot! :)

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    1. Thank you :D
      Simply right-click on the image and select 'save image as'

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