Since I started freelancing, it has become a yearly tradition to design my own Christmas cards each year. I got the idea of designing a Christmas-related creature in 2020 and now I’m trying to come up with creatures for the most wonderful time of the year every time!
Christmas Card 2021
![christmas candle crab](https://i0.wp.com/saskle.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/christmas_card_2021_web.jpg?resize=724%2C1024&ssl=1)
Christmas Card 2020
![christmas ball creature](https://i0.wp.com/saskle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/christmas_card_2020_by_saskle_web.jpg?resize=724%2C1024&ssl=1)
For 2020, I put in extra effort figuring out how this creature would roll up as a ball, so I understood its shape as well as possible before starting on the final illustration.
![christmas creature design](https://i0.wp.com/saskle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/christmas_creature_insta1.jpg?resize=537%2C537&ssl=1)
![composition mockup](https://i0.wp.com/saskle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/christmas_creature_mockup.jpg?resize=504%2C505&ssl=1)
Apart from the sketches above I also made a proxy model in blender to make sure I got the perspective correct, as well as enabling me to play around with the lighting.
![blender proxy model](https://i0.wp.com/saskle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/render.jpg?resize=768%2C524&ssl=1)