Seasons Greeting - Christmas Card

Hi All,

Yes...I'm back.  I've been wrapped up in a very intense semester of school - and, I'm finished.  Things are going pretty well here in Phoenix.  It's winter - and really nice.  Very nice to have cooled off a little after a long hot summer.  So I'm grateful for that and so many things as we approach this holiday season and the beginning of another calendar year.

One thing I'm grateful for is the opportunity to pick up a pen and paper and do a little drawing this evening.  I started with a quick pencil sketch and then picked up a ball point pen and inked the Santa picture - (I had a supervisor that used to do some portraits with ball point pen for fun...and they turned out really good).  However - tonight, speed and a little quality were the objective, because I'm running out of time before Christmas.

So I put together a quick little pic of Santa.  It certainly could have been better, but it turned out the way I wanted it to.  Then I took a picture of it with my phone and opened it up in Photoshop on my Mac, so I could do a little painting and layout a card.

Here's the Photoshop painted product.  I accented a few things and added a little bit of a muted overlaid color.  I wanted it to have a loose and sketchy feel, but of course, be recognizable as Santa.  It still helps to have the Wacom tablet with the stylus to do the drawing and painting on computer.

After reformatting into a wider format that could accommodate the text, I added some quick hand drawn lettering and a loose hand-script font typed message at the bottom.  Then added some finishing touches and the card was complete.  It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's done in about 2-3 hours and on-line.  More than that, it's fun to get pencil/pen and paper in hand again and have a little fun.

Hopefully I'll be doing more artwork in the future as well as holistic therapy, massage, and an EMT job of some sort (in process of getting certified).

I hope wherever you are this Christmas, that you have a wonderful blessed Holiday.  I celebrate Christmas - whatever holidays you celebrate, I hope you have a nice break and an amazing time.  It's a great time to come together with family and friends and neighbors.  Enjoy them and spread a little love and kindness to everyone you meet...we're all God's kids.  And...have some fun too.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Tom Kreienbrink