Three New Snowy Christmas Card Designs
The months leading up to Christmas are always a very busy time for me. Pet portraits are a really popular present so I do my best to fit in as many as possible for my clients. It’s also, however, a time when people are looking for good quality cards so I like to add a few more designs to my online store. Last year I created two Christmas cards (see below), and this year I’ve designed three more!
I wanted them to feature animals, and since it was Christmas, I decided to draw them in the snow. Christmas is a time where families enjoy getting together so I thought I’d draw young animals with their parents. I thought about what animals would go well with my snowy theme, and decided that polar bears, penguins, and reindeer would be perfect! I then picked out some great looking reference photos to work from and began to draw. To give them an authentic hand-drawn look, I drew them the actual size they would be on the cards. That also meant that each 7x5 inch picture was reasonably quick to draw.
I then photographed my artwork to get a good digital copy. I tried scanning them, but I got better results with photography. Maybe I need a better scanner!? (I’ve been looking at the Plustek A3 OpticPro A320E for a while as it’s A3 and good for artwork). Anyway, once I had some good quality images to work from, I adjusted the colours for printing, added my logo and details on the back, and sent them off to the printers. I could have printed them myself on my P900 but I decided it would be quicker to get someone else to do the printing, so I could get back to working on my Christmas pet portrait commissions.
At the time I was in the middle of a set of thirteen 4x4 inch mini pet portraits which needed to be completed in good time and shipped off to the US. It’s hard to pick a favourite but I’ll share one now and maybe post some others soon.
Two weeks later the cards arrived from the printers. I was a little apprehensive opening them, as you never know quite how the colours you see on the screen are going to look on paper, but I was really pleased with the results.
The next task was to create some publicity shots. I arranged some freshly picked wintery leaves and berries around the cards and took some photos. After adding a light frosting to the foliage with the help of some AI tools, I uploaded the finished images to my website’s art shop and my Etsy Store. Why not take a look at the finished cards and order some to give to the special people in your life?
Another way to support my pet portrait business is to use my Amazon affiliate links. I’ve recommended some great pet themed gifts for both dog lovers and cat lovers, and I should get a small bonus from Amazon for any other items you buy when you go there via one of my affiliate links (if you are in the UK that is, I'm not sure about other countries). Same goes for Jacksons Art, and ArtDiscount. Thank you!