Check Your Laces When Skating Into the Holidays! OR You Look Foxy In Those Skates!

December 24, 2025

Check Your Laces When Skating Into the Holidays! OR You Look Foxy In Those Skates!

Welcome back, friends, and Happy Holidays! I hope you all are enjoying whatever Holiday that it is that you celebrate during this time of year. I LOVE the Holiday Season. I call it "Holiday Alley," and that refers to the stretch of time from Halloween through New Year's Day. It is certainly my favorite time of year. Things smell better, you usually feel better, people seem to be so much nicer and happier around the holidays...

I myself celebrate Christmas, which, if you know me, you might find funny. I am NOT a religious individual. I am not even a Christian. However, I LOVE Christmas and everything about it. It's a strange thing to say, but I was raised celebrating Christmas, and they are some of my fondest memories of childhood.

Like Kevin McCallister, my most favorite thing about Christmas is the Christmas Tree. Honestly, Christmas trees make me SO HAPPY! I love putting mine up every year. There's just something so magical about a Christmas tree. Putting on the lights, garland, and ornaments. All of my ornaments are a hodge-podge of different things. Most are souvenirs from previous life experiences, and others represent different sentimental things to me, etc. I like it when the ornaments have a personal connection. My tree, when all lit up at night (or day, I don't distinguish), makes me smile every time I see it. I leave my tree up through February every year... not because I'm lazy, but because after New Year's Day, there is nothing to look forward to and January and most of February are just super depressing. So, to help battle that post-seasonal depression, I leave up my tree until Valentine's.

Other things I love about Christmas:

-The music: Yes... I LOVE Christmas music, even the religious music for this holiday. I am all about it as soon as Halloween is over.

-Baking/Candy Making

-Watching Holiday Movies

-Going to look at Christmas Lights that other people put outside their homes.

-Going to look at the retail Holiday Window Displays

-Going Christmas Caroling (which admittedly I haven't done in years... but I still would if given the opportunity)

-Going Ice Skating...

It is this latter most activity that inspired this particular Holiday Illustration.

So, as I have mentioned in many previous Blog posts, I used to participate in this community Art Project called Illustration Friday and, as in each previous blog post, I lament its absence in the world... especially these days. So, for those of you who are not familiar with it, Illustration Friday was a website where a 1 word prompt was posted on Friday, and artists and designers would have 1 week to create a piece based on the prompt and post it back to the website. It was always very cool to go through that site the following Friday and see what other artists had created. I loved being a part of that creative community so much. And like Joni Mitchel sings about," don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone..."

They paved Paradise and put up a digital parking lot over Illustration Friday. It's a tragedy, to be honest. I really do miss it. So, in its absence, I have been trying to find something to fill that space for me. And around holiday alley, from Autumn to Early Winter, I kind of have. During September/October, I work on Spooky-themed Illustrations that take a week to create, and then I blog and post them. And (in theory) from November to Christmas, I make holiday-themed illustrations, and the last week of the year, I do a New Year-themed one. So..

Holiday Illustrations 2025, Here we are!

After all that fanfare, I have to admit that, unfortunately, this year I only have 1 illustration to share for the Holiday theme, and then there will be a new New Year's Baby Illustration for New Year's next week. I was very sick from Halloween through most of November. So, I really didn't get to make art through that time this year... There's always next year for more Holiday Illustrations. I will also be doing an illustration for the Chinese New Year, but I won't post that until closer to the time... However, I would still include it as part of the Holiday Illustrations series.

As I mentioned above, this illustration is inspired by a holiday-themed activity that I have implemented within my repertoire over the past couple of years. So, I live in New York City, and during the Holiday Season here, ice skating is kind of a big deal. I used to ice skate when I was younger, and I used to be pretty good at it... I wasn't Olympic or even close to being some sort of competitor (even at an amateur level), but I could get across the rink without help or holding onto the railing. However... These days... Well, that's another story lol.

I did some preliminary research on the activity (like I always do... cause I'm a Nerd!) I looked into all the different locations that you can go ice skating and the pricing, the protocols, etc. I discovered that in Bryant Park, you can Ice skate for FREE!... If... you own your own pair of skates.

Well, that sealed the deal for me. That year, for Christmas, I gave myself a pair of ice skates so I could go skating for Free every year (as long as Bryant Park was offering).

Bryant Park, each Holiday Season, has a Winter Village and Holiday Market full of very cool and amazing things. There are places to get food and beverages, and cocktails... The Hot Chocolate is the chef's kiss. The Ice Skating rink is located within the Winter Village.

My first year back on the ice was... well, let's say it wasn't very encouraging. lol. I was not used to how it all felt, as I haven't been on the ice in many, many moons. However, I made the best of it. I mostly kept to the side and held onto the railing for the most part. I shuffled along and could let go every now and again until I felt myself losing balance again.

The next year was a little better. I did kind of sort of stay close to the side railing again, but I didn't have to hold onto it as much that year. I went with a friend who visited, and they were showing me out lol. They were much better at it than I was, but I had made an improvement since the previous year. So, I can't really complain.

I have not gone this year, as of yet. There's plenty of time as the Ice Skating Season in NYC goes from November through March of the following year. My goal is to just keep showing up and practicing, and eventually I'll be as good as I was when I was younger... Maybe even better. Maybe I'll start learning some fancy schmancy tricks. Who knows? Maybe I'll go pro! Not likely. lol... but I do look forward to improving over time. To be honest, just getting out and doing it is really all that matters to me. I just love being out with all the people in the crisp, cool winter evening air and having fun. Watching people smile and laugh and fall down and do pirouettes on the ice, drink some fancy hot chocolate, and just enjoy a really fun Holiday evening in the city. I adore it and look forward to it each year now.

So... Let's talk a little bit about the Art, shall we?

So when I was brainstorming ideas about what kind of holiday illustrations I could do, Ice Skating came to mind almost immediately... I guess because it is on my mind during this Season. I also love illustrating animals in clothes. I LOVE a good animal allegory. Ask me how I feel about Disney's Robin Hood... lol. 😉 I wanted to illustrate an animal ice skating on a frozen lake in some pretty winter landscape.

I immediately began to do some research again... because... nerd! I wanted to see if there were any animals in the real-life natural world that did something akin to ice skating on the icy areas of our planet. Of course, they wouldn't "ice skate" as we think of it, but I wanted to know what animals are very adept at moving around on ice.

There were some options of animals to choose from, not a very long list, but long enough to have some choices. I went with an Arctic Fox as soon as I saw a photo of what one looked like... I mean, look at them. They are SO ADORABLE! Who wouldn't want to draw pictures of something so very, very cute! And also, I love foxes! It makes me think of the Fantastic Mr. Fox, which I am an avid Wes Anderson AND Roald Dahl fan. The hit song from the 2014s is also quite fun.

What I find fascinating about these foxes is that due to the way their fur grows on the bottom of their paws, it creates the perfect amount of traction that allows them to control their movements on icy surfaces. It also keeps their little feetsies warm. They can walk, run, and even slide across the ice. They can pivot at any point at any speed. It's really an impressive testament to nature, this ability of theirs.

FUN FACTS ABOUT ARCTIC FOXES:

1.) They are the ONLY land mammal Native to Iceland.

2.) They are the smallest wild canid. They are roughly the size of a large domestic cat.

3.) They have Seasonal Camouflage. Their fur changes color to blend in with snow in the winter, and rocks/plants in the Summer.

4.) They can withstand extremely cold temperatures (as low as -58 degrees Fahrenheit.) They often wrap their bushy tails around them like a blanket for extra warmth.

5.) They are monogamous. They mate for life with one partner, and both parents raise large litters (5-11 kits at a time).

6.) They are "Den Masters" and homebodies. They use extensive ancient dens. Some have been used by families for hundreds of years, with many entrances.

7.) They are "Super Smellers." They can smell a seal's den or food leftover from a polar bear's kill from miles away.

8.) They are Snow Divers. They pounce and dive into the snow to catch the lemmings hidden beneath.

9.) They are little "Snow Ploughs." They use their front paws to clear the snow from their den entrances.

10.) Arctic foxes live 3-6 years in the wild, but in captivity can live as long as 10 to 14 years.

So I had my inspiration: Arctic Foxes skating on ice.

I knew that I wanted it to feel wintery and Holiday-ish. I also wanted to focus on particular clothing items like winter sweater patterns and scarf patterns, as well. I also wanted a wintery landscape, and I knew that I wanted to have a "Snow Globe" composition. Meaning: I wanted to have something that was quasi-symmetrical and shaped like a snow globe and looked like a snow globe scene.

Originally, I was only going to have one character in the illustration. However, as I was doing my reference research, I saw many photos of parents ice skating with their children and thought that it might be an interesting and good idea to illustrate a family moment in my snow globe. So now we have a Mother Fox and her Little Fox.

The pose and the composition pretty much were the easiest parts of the sketch. Figuring out some of the details, like: what pattern should I use for the sweaters? What does the lake look like? How big is it? What do we see on the other side? How much foreground should there be? Does it "read" as a snow globe? It took some time, but eventually I was able to answer all of these artistic questions.

The illustration was obviously done in my normal Illustration mixed media collage. In previous posts I have explained in detail what that process is. So, I don't always feel the need to share it on every single post. However, it has been a while since I have really discussed it, and some of you may be new and not going to dig in the archives to read it, which is fine. I think this January, I will make a special blog post where I discuss in detail my creative process from start to finish. I think that would be nice to share again.

I think the most challenging part of this illustration was figuring out the right color palette. I knew what some things should be colored as, but others I was completely lost, so to speak, as to what to do with them. Obviously, we have a cool color scheme because it is a winter-themed illustration. I included the Christmas colors of Green, red, and white. I also included some colors that I picked directly out of some of the reference photos I had pulled for this illustration. Overall, I am very, very pleased with how it turned out. I hope you all like it as much as I do.

That pretty much wraps this post up. I don't have anything else to say about it. The only thing I have left to say today is that I hope you all are staying warm and cozy and are spending this Holiday Time with those you love the most on this planet. A very merry Happy Holidays to you all. I love you. I will leave you all with one of my favorite holiday tunes.