The Illustrative Themo H Peel: Christmas card 2014

Here is this year's Christmas card in it's full glory:

I was inspired to style my characters after Masashi Kishimoto's art in Naruto now that the series has come to a conclusion after 15 years!!

It was exciting to create my own 'Christmas' mythology for the holiday Arbeas that is mentioned in the Emersus Project series. Gemmy and his crew look quite stylish as if they were characters who inhabited Kishimoto's world. It was quite fitting as Gemmy (The Mighty Orange-Peel) was originally conceived as a manga character.

Snowflakes:
Every year I try to incorporate some other aspect of the art that I'm making into the card; a new technique, a style I've been experimenting with.

We've made a paper chain of friends

I've been making paper snowflakes like a fiend for fun and with friends. I'm having all my friends help make paper crafts to decorate my flat with. When I fiinished the drawing at first I thought the background looked quite bare. So my partner said 'Why not add some snowflakes in the background?'.

Well, I thought he was mad, but I gave it a shot just to humour him. Needless to say, it worked out marvellously. I made a point of using some of my favourite flakes but also some of the ones friends made so they're part of my card as well.

Scotland snowflake

Getting more intricate

Needless to say, some of the flakes I've made since the card have been my most impressive/I've become slightly obsessed. But it's a lot of good fun. So, if you want to know how to make your own you can find lots of good instructions online. It's great fun. And if you have kids you can have them draw out their pattern on paper and cut it out for them (it's a bit tough to cut through a six-time folded sheet of paper even for an adult). I even replaced the usual Wishmaker 'star' motif on the back of the card with a snowflake! I think it gives it an even nicer wintery feeling