Sheilah Beckett's Days of Christmas

Since one of the major motifs of The little Drummer Bird is the gifts from "The Twelve Days of Christmas" carol, when I saw this book at a local antique store, I snatched it right up. The illustrations are lovely.

 

That snowy tree is fantastically done.

It's charming how they're all different colors and regional costumes as well; reminds me of the national dances in The Nutcracker ballet.

 My father remarked that looks rather like MacArthur tartan!

I looked up Sheilah Beckett and it turns out she was most well known for advertisements for Necco wafers, and her husband was an illustrator as well.

Lots of inspiration as I set out to make another lovely Christmas picture book, of Snowyteller's beautiful, carolous tale. You can pre-order your copy here!

Cold and Dark

 

Eventually, passing and freeing yet more frozen folk, they came upon a bridge. A great arch of ice, wind whipping around it. It would have been trouble enough making the crossing, but there, out above the bridge…

Dark in his suit blacker than coal, Cold in her dress, silvery ice.

Midair they were waltzing, sweeping down with the North Wind cowed, when their feet touched the bridge, the whole thing shuddered. As they continued to dance spins, the whole arch shuddered and cracked.

These are preliminary character concepts for Cold and Dark for The little Drummer Bird by Snowyteller. You can contribute to the campaign to make it a picture book and get this book next Christmas, as well as Christmas cards, original art, and sculpture!

The final designs for these dreadful dancers will be a bit different, though; Snowyteller says they need to be more faceless.

It's been years since I got new markers!

 

Took advantage of Dick Blick’s black Friday sales to restock on Prismacolor marker colors I’m using for every underlayer of illustrations for The little Drummer Bird picture book. (back the crowdfund and pre-order your copy here!)

They were shockingly low on open stock markers, so I had to order the Pastels set to get a new Light Cerulean Blue. Luckily, it also included Deco Orange, which looks like it might work as a substitute for Mexpy Light Wood!

Drummer Bird Christmas cards take flight

 

What crowdfund sends out rewards before the campaign is done? We do!

Spent all day, cutting, printing, cutting again, scoring, folding, and packing the 2025 little Drummer Bird Christmas card set for earlybird backers! And several cards didn't print properly so there will be extra pictures to give the other backers.

You can still back to get cards for next Christmas, art, sculptures, and of course the picture book that will be made! The campaign page is here.

You can read the story here.

The Snow Queen's Palace Castle

 

So, five sweeping towers were a distinctive feature of this royal season's abode. The living sculptures that hung along the delicately patterned ice brickwork were too beautiful to be called gargoyles. Of course there were hollows and overhangs for those beloved creatures of the Queen, the white as snow polar bats and their far larger cousins the polar batters.

...

Here and there wide bridges weaved themselves between the towers over the palace gardens in the palm. The Queen even when she had been more twisted than a funhouse mirror adored sledding and sleighs so naturally her palace castle had routes throughout to play with, indeed having no need to keep her abode warm, grand wide passages meant that if she desired she could ride her sleigh everywhere within and without the grounds. Naturally many of these routes ended abruptly in the sky, for she loved flying and spreading snow only slightly less than sleighing and sledding.

Finally finished, an illustration for The little Drummer Bird by Snowyteller, an Advent/Christmas story which we are crowdfunding to make a picture book!

Find the campaign here!

This is the fourth illustration I've finished and will be part of a set of Christmas cards we're sending to backers for this Christmas; the rest of the rewards will come with the book itself for Christmas of 2026.

Values and temperature for The Snow Queen's Palace Castle

 

This is the values-and-temperature marker layer for The Snow Queen's Palace Castle, an illustration for The little Drummer Bird by Snowyteller. We're making a picture book of this beautiful Advent/Christmas story; back the campaign here!

I'm sharing this in-progress work before the finished picture because it's taking me longer than planned--I blame the stars! This is the last illustration for the set of Christmas cards for this year; that reward is no longer available since they now need to be printed and shipped as soon as possible.

But there's still the chance to get Christmas cards for next year, which will have many more pictures to choose from, and of course to get the book itself next Christmas, original art, and sculptures!

Drawing on live camera???

Tomorrow at 7 p.m. Central Standard, Snowyteller and I will be on the Superversive Fiction livestream to talk about The little Drummer Bird! They might even let me draw!

Back the campaign soon to get Christmas cards for this Christmas!