I had such a fantastic time making the following pieces for my loved ones over Christmas! I decided to make my Christmas presents this year because I wanted to gift something really personal to my family members. I’m currently living with family in Oxfordshire, UK, and being home with my family has been such a beautiful experience. The other pieces are at the bottom of this post.

To learn more about the processes for each piece, read my blog post!

1. The featured image, a dog in clothing with a red background, is a painting done of my aunt and uncle’s dog, Molly. They have another dog, Bear, a black Labrador who already has a portrait sitting in the dining room. In his portrait, he’s wearing fancy 17th century clothing, and looks like a Victorian lord of sorts! I wanted to create a matching piece of their other dog. I especially love this painting, because it captures her signature “side-eye”.

2. The watercolor dog and horse. These were done as matching pieces for my sister and cousin. The Dog is my sister’s childhood dog, Toby, who I’ve been wanting to draw for a while. And Spotty is my younger cousin’s horse. I was still riding on the “beloved pets” theme with these two. I used photoshop to aid in the process, since I was a bit of a time crunch.

3. The pen and ink drawing was done for my grandmother. She has what she calls a “stumpery”, which is a collection of tree stumps with moss and flowers growing on it outside of our house. She’s become a bit of a local artist to the area’s residents, as she decorates the stumpery for different holidays. A while ago, I painted her a little fairy door to put on the stumpery. This drawing depicts that fairy door in a little nook of the stumpery with her two other favorite things: a hedgehog and a fairy.