Design Crafters

Everyone has a favorite; what’s yours?  Oil painting, watercolor painting, pen-and-ink sketches, collages, or even crayons.  No matter what kind of medium is your art of choice, artists all over the world have opportunities to enter their artwork in competitions to be featured on an organization’s Christmas card this coming holiday.  Entries are already arriving at the many different organizations that hold competitions to be the winner, featured on the front of their 2008 Christmas card. 

Once you’ve narrowed down your medium, you might be wondering what kind of art might be more favored by the judges.  Well, considering these are art competitions for Christmas cards, it’s probably safe to say that the subject matter should be some sort of holiday theme.  Snowmen, angels, Christmas trees, carolers, Christmas wreaths on front doors or windows, Christmas tree ornaments, and of course the perennial and timeless favorite:  Santa Claus.   All of these subjects (and more) would make fantastic Christmas cards.  Even those subjects that aren’t as obviously Christmasy would work, as well, including snowy landscapes, starry skys, peaceful still lifes, and simple, unadorned Christmas trees growing in the forest.  The list of potential subjects is truly endless.

Speaking as a non-artist who is not entering such competitions, I find that it’s interesting to see the wide range of artists that enter pieces of artwork in such Christmas card competitions.  It’s often a combination of seasoned, established professional artists and those more amateur, untrained artists who create art for the sheer joy of it.  You’ll also see many children enter their artwork in these competitions, and very often, their entries are among the most impressive and moving, in my opinion.

Interesting question, isn’t it? I thought about this the other day as I looked at pictures my 2 year old had “painted” and stuck to our fridge. One fun idea for photo Christmas cards, instead of the actual photo, could be a reprint of a “painting” or “drawing” that your child created.

I put the words painting and drawing in quotes because my little 2 year old’s art work is not professional yet.  But what if one day it becomes that way?  It would be really interesting to have your child create photo Christmas cards every year and see their progression.

We go to our pediatrition for check ups on our childrens motor skills and development.  A photo Christmas card creation on a year to year basis could be just like this: you could really see the progress of your childs mind and creativity.

Tomorrow I will talk about creating a “Book of Photo Christmas Cards”.