COZY + WARM WISHES FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Hello, and welcome back, friends. I hope you are all well and healthy. I am, thankfully. I am also currently trying to keep warm in this cold and chill New York winter, lol. I am, fortunately very cozy in my pajamas, sweatshirt, aloe socks, and beanie. I am ready for this Holiday weather.
It is nearly Christmas, for those who celebrate this holiday. Personally, I do. However, it is a bit strange that I do. I am agnostic and only believe (if at all) that the Jesus Christ story is, at best, a moral metaphor for living your life. So, I am not what purists would call "a believer" by any means (which is fine.) So why do I insist on celebrating this very religious holiday? Why am I so excited and filled with such holiday spirit for it? I can only claim emotional nostalgia, perhaps. While I could never claim to have had a happy childhood, I will say that (for whatever reason) my family seemed to keep Christmas in the highest of regards. I have so many happy memories of this particular holiday threaded throughout my history like memory-DNA. So, as an adult, I tend to really get into the holiday spirit and do all of the holiday things with joy and merriment.
In my illustration life, I love to also celebrate the Holidays by drawing holiday art. I particularly love to draw animals in holiday/winter attire. This tends to be my favorite. This year is no exception.
One of the things I like to do in the wintertime is get nicely comfortable and cozy on my couch and watch nature documentaries. I don't know how many of you out there also do this, but if you haven't before, I highly recommend that you do. I recently finished a delightful Nature Series on (HBO) Max called Frozen Planet. It was originally a BBC production. I think there are around 8 episodes and each is like an hour plus and they are narrated by Mr. David Attenborough. Truly delightful and, again, I highly recommend.
Each episode is themed and follows the story of several different types of animals, insects, creatures, etc. There was one episode in particular that featured the Least Weasel. I immediately fell in love and was enchanted by this adorable animal. I became obsessed with the idea of illustrating this particular animal and determined to do so.
So what exactly is a Least Weasel?
The least weasel, little weasel, common weasel, or simply weasel is the smallest member of the genus Mustela, family Mustelidae and order Carnivora. It is native to Eurasia, North America, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Malta, Crete, the Azores, and São Tomé. It has a wide distribution and large population throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
The least weasel varies greatly in size over its range. The body is slender and elongated, and the legs and tail are relatively short. The color varies geographically, as does the pelage type and length of the tail. The dorsal surface, flanks, limbs, and tail of the animal are usually some shade of brown while the underparts are white. The line delineating the boundary between the two colors is usually straight. At high altitudes and in the northern part of its range, the coat becomes pure white in winter.
Small rodents form the largest part of the least weasel's diet, but they also kill and eat rabbits, other mammals, and occasionally birds, birds' eggs, fish, and frogs. Least weasels use pre-existing holes to sleep, store food, and raise their young. Breeding takes place in the spring and summer, and there is a single litter of about six kits which are reared exclusively by the female. Due to its small size and fierce nature, the least weasel plays an important part in the mythology and legend of various cultures.
In the documentary, I first followed along with the story of the Vole, a small rodent that looks like it is a cross between a mouse and a hamster. During the snow-covered months of winter, the vole burrow and create a network of tunnels underneath the snow. It is quite amazing. It's almost like a small city that they make with their little hands every year.
The Least Weasel is the exact same width as the Vole. This means that the weasels easily can slip under the snow and enter the tunnel-connected dwellings of the vole to hunt them. But wait... This is where things get more interesting. After a weasel has successfully killed a vole's prey and has eaten as much of it as is needed, the weasel will then begin to pull out all the hair from the vole's carcass, tuft by tuft. The weasel then creates a blanket for itself from the vole's hair. Without this blanket, a weasel cannot even hope to survive the cold of the winter. I was floored and absolutely fascinated by this natural fact. Even though it is sad that the vole falls prey to the weasels under the great circle of life, it is interesting that the weasel makes complete use of that kill for survival through the harsh winter months.
I was fascinated by these two facts: 1.) The least weasel actually can change color from its normal browns to solid snow white in order to avoid predators in the winter. 2.) It makes an actual blanket for itself to sleep warmly and safely through the winter. Nature is miraculous!
So, morose as the idea was, my first instinct was to make the winter clothes for my least weasel out of vole hair. I would have visualized this by using a brown/tan/beige. earth-tone color scheme for the clothing. I ended up abandoning this idea because I really wanted to use the holiday colors most associated with Christmas. I wanted bright and punchy colors.
As an artistic compromise, if it really would even be considered a compromise, I decided to feature as much of the life cycle of the least weasel (at least the bit that was featured in Frozen Planet) within the design of my Holiday Weasel's Ugly Christmas Sweater. Let's take a look at that design row by row. The first row where I feature this is the row of snowflakes and Weasel Paw prints. This row is meant to represent the pitter-patter of the weasel above ground in the snow. The next feature row shows a series of weasels chasing voles one right after the other in an endless cycle of nature from one year to the next.
Further down we see the natural environment of where the least weasel lives, hunts, survives, and thrives. They mostly live in meadowed areas. We see in this row featured a snow-covered meadow. Right below the meadow, we see circular abstracted flowers that simultaneously represent the winter flora from this time of year and also the tunnels that are created by the vole below the snow-covered meadows. Below that we see a series of poinsettias, both a winter flora and a Christmas holiday icon.
Lastly, we see a diamond pattern with large weasel heads centered in the middle of the diamonds. This row is meant to represent the "blanket that the weasels make out of vole hair in order to sleep and survive the cold winter months.
The last thing I would like to mention about this illustration is that I had trouble deciding what colors I wanted to use for the ugly Christmas sweater. I had 2 really tight color choices based on either a green or a navy sweater, but I really couldn't decide...
...So I took both ideas to finish and there are 2 holiday weasels to enjoy instead of just one :)
That pretty much "wraps" things up for this illustration. What are you all doing for the Holidays? What are your cozy plans for staying comfy and warm? Please share. I'd love to know. In the meantime, I leave you all with a small clip from the Frozen Planet Nature series (seriously, you need to watch this series... so good!) Do something fun, festive, and joyous this holiday weekend. Something that lights you up from the inside and shines out.
Until next time, friends,
keep making art.
Cheers,
LEWIS
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