May The SPIRIT of Christmas Be In Your Hearts on Illustration Friday!

     It's ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY! Yay! Though, I have SO little time to write this up before I need to post this week, I wanted to briefly discuss where this image came from. 

     So this week's topic is obviously SPIRIT.  I wanted to do something Christmas"y" since this would be the last opportunity to do so for Illustration Friday.  SO it comes to no surprise that I would try to capture the Christmas Spirit on Paper.  I began to imagine what in the world the Christmas Spirit would look like, if you could see it.  In the end, I came up with the idea that it would look different for every single person.  It was unique and individual to us all, like snowflakes. 

     I was reminded of the patronus in the Harry Potter stories and how every patronus is unique and individual to each character and how each was like an animal spirit or guardian.  I wanted to incorporate a similar idea in my illustration.  I wanted to use an animal, particularly.

I chose the reindeer almost immediately. I admit, I have always wanted a good excuse to draw and use one, but not in the context with Santa and his sleigh.  I wanted to show what the Christmas Spirit of a Happy Child on the way to deliver a gift to a loved one would look like.  I imagine it to be a reindeer happily jaunting along with it's antlers decorated like a Christmas Tree.

The snowflake pattern was used to further the idea that everyone's Christmas Spirit is unique and particular just to them, like Snowflakes are each individual and unique.

until next time.
Keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing and most important of all, keep making art. 
Cheers,
LEWIS