This month I participated in a challenge presented by Rhea Tibbey, an instructor with 21Draw (where I take online art courses). The goal was to create a holiday themed illustration by the end of the month, following weekly prompts to help you along. I was really nervous going into it because up to this point most of my art has been focused on photorealism and replicating references exactly as I see them. I’ve had limited experience putting together an original composition, and to be honest I wasn’t sure I could do it.
I started by making a mood board of things that remind me of Christmas for inspiration:
Speaking of inspiration, from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day I have a holiday music playlist on repeat, and the first song on there is the Mariah Carey classic “All I Want for Christmas is You.” That song was in my head when I started sketching out ideas. Here’s what I came up with:
Is it perfect? Nope, but it’s my first original illustration, and that means a lot:)