Yuletide Wishes!
This was a very busy year for me with a lot of medical difficulties, so I wanted to do something a bit more fun and that wouldn’t take too much time or effort for this year’s card. I may return to an Australian-themed card for next year, but 2024 was dedicated to my other love: dragons! I have loved dragons since I was a kid and have a pretty extensive collection of dragon figures.. I wanted to show a sillier, more whimsical side of dragons for the festive season.
I tried a lot of new things during the process of making this card. My normal process is to sketch out a design, transfer it to Photoshop and work out the colours/composition digitally, then trace design onto physical paper to complete the work with traditional media. This time however I could not be assed to trace out that intricate frame (all credit to Freepik for this frame!) so instead I tried a new method of printing the digital design onto watercolour paper.
I have tried this method before with other artworks, but I quickly abandoned it because inkjet inks will always run when exposed to water. But this time I sealed the printed image with a matte sealant, then coated it with two white gesso washes for good measure. This worked and provided a suitable surface to paint on that didn’t adversely affect the absorbency or structural integrity of the paper!
I probably wouldn’t have tried this with a medium any thinner than gouache, though – the gesso did make the paper quite crusty and there were some areas that needed a few extra layers of paint to get proper coverage. It did also cause some annoying buckling of the paper, since I needed to remove the sheet from the watercolour block to feed it through the printer.
Once the painting was done, it was time to test printing. Up till now my previous cards weren’t folded but more of a postcard, so I wanted to try my hand at making a typical folded greeting card.
It took a lot of trial and error to get the dimensions and folding right – it’s still not perfect, and I need to invest in a guillotine cutter (my paper slicer is now dull and just not cutting it – pun intended) but I am quite happy with the end result!
And of course I had to make matching envelopes!
Circumstances this year meant I couldn’t launch my shop like I had planned, but this is in my sights for 2025! This card as well as my 2023 one will be available seasonally once everything is in order.
Hope you all have a wonderful festive period and all the best in the new year!
Best wishes
Miles