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Submitted: December 2, 2010
Image Size: 3.6 MB
Resolution: 7930×4735

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Christmas card 2010by *Griatch-art

Digital Art / Drawings & Paintings / Landscapes & Scenery

Good Neighbours

In old Scandinavian lore, mythical creatures like giants and trolls where not necessarily evil creatures. Rather they roamed their respective domains of the forest or mountains and could even be helpful if humans just respected and kept up good relations with them.

Here we see a family doing the rounds through the landscape to visit their neighboring giant and spread some Christmas spirit!

This is my Christmas card for 2010. I'm putting it up relatively early, in case someone's interested in getting one to send.

An early Merry Christmas to you all!

All done in open-source programs GIMP and MyPaint on Linux. I aimed at getting a style closer to the 19th century landscape artists for this one.

I won't be changing much in this at this point (my cards have already been sent off to the printers after all), but I am as usual always interested in feedback and critique anyway.

Older Christmas cards of mine:

2009 (Surprise gift):

2008 (Night in the troll forest):

2007 (We're THIS tight!):

.
Griatch

Critique by ~Songwind Dec 3, 2010, 6:19:21 AM

You have the best Christmas cards.

You have really outdone yourself, this time. Your technique is wonderful, and I think the end result has a beautiful, realistic-yet-painterly feel.

Three things stand out to me as particularly worthy of comment.

1) The frozen stream is beautiful. It has the combination of shininess and solidity that I expect from ice like this.

2) The humans are very well rendered. The trick of creating a believable and seemingly detailed human figure from a few colored strokes is impressive. The children and the Mom seem particularly well done to me.

3) The giant's head and face. You have stroke a very nice balance between humanity and accessibility, and strangeness which shows us this isn't just a great big human being. The kindness and happiness of his expression is well-captured as well. (Is he giving or receiving that gift?)

What do you think?

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Critique by !Elemental-Butterfly Dec 2, 2010, 1:40:42 PM

The concept is beautiful. The warmth and happiness is portrayed in this painting. The people look happy, not afraid of the giant and he himself is giving them gifts. The colors well match the scenery, and it looks so lively. Even though, the whole scene is covered with snow, it is warm. The melted ice on the slippery road looks so lively, and the textures are well painted. This work is amazing. It is filled with happiness and joy. It is worth more than a thousand words. It makes me wonder about the present inside the red box, it is probably hope.

What do you think?

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~BlackOrchy Mar 13, 2011 Writer

it's amazing...

i love it

*Griatch-art Mar 14, 2011 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thanks!
.
Griatch

~ScalpGoaty Mar 8, 2011 Student Digital Artist

Lovely snow and ice texture, I'd love to receive a Christmas card like that

*Griatch-art Mar 12, 2011 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thanks! Spent a lot of time with that snow, so glad you like it.

.
Griatch

~VGiselleH Dec 17, 2010

This is beautiful, Griatch, love the style you applied to the scenery. Very crisp, yet inviting and warm at the same time, very fitting for the holiday season indeed! Again, beautiful ^_^

*Griatch-art Dec 20, 2010 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thanks a lot Gaeva! Glad you like it and that it does have a warm feeling despite all the snow.

Thanks for the comment and fave, and have a Merry Christmas!
.
Griatch

~VGiselleH Dec 20, 2010

Merry Christmas to you as well, Griatch, enjoy the down time! ^_^

~SkarValidus Dec 6, 2010 Hobbyist General Artist

I love the style you're developing. Great work!

*Griatch-art Dec 9, 2010 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thanks a lot!
.
Griatch

~faustissima Dec 4, 2010

Great work on the landscape, love the colours, you actually managed to capture that 19th century feel you aimed for and the mood is captivating. I'm not so sure about the troll, maybe his right leg is too short. Maybe some more contrast on his face would be beneficial, just to make it a focal point of a picture because now the first thing I see is the river (bottom left corner) and trees (in the upper left corner).

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