Christmas Painting '07

THE SHORT VERSION:
This is a painting that I did for my mother as a Christmas gift. It measures 10"x15" on some sort of thick board. The ink lines are Millenium pens, the colors are acrylics, and the falling snow is whiteout. All in all I'd say that this took about four hours (or four episodes of SModcast) to complete from start to finish.

THE LONG VERSION:
The origins of this picture go way back to when I was about three years old. Ever since I was very young I've liked to draw. The normal subject matter of my artwork as a child would usually have something to do with either ghosts or the act of ghostbusting. As I grew older the content of my work grew to encompass Aliens, superheroes, and so on, but there was a constant which remained throughout the years.

At some point when I was a fraction of my current age (and size), I drew a Christmas-themed picture for my mother as the holiday approached, which she of course appreciated as any mother would. What came next is a bit shady, but either I offered to draw her another Christmas picture every year from then on or she asked me to and in my young, ignorant mind this seemed like a good idea, so I agreed. One would have thought that by now she would have long since forgotten about the ill-conceived promise, but such is not the case.

So every year since I was a young boy in short pants, from about December 1st onward until Christmas day, I'm repeatedly badgered with questions and statements such as, "Where's my Christmas picture?", "Have you done my Christmas picture yet?", and my personal favorite: "If you don't draw my Christmas picture, Santa might forget to leave you any presents."

Try as I may, I've yet to break myself from the bonds of this yearly seasonal obligation and I look forward to the day when my mother has grown too senile to remember that I ever agreed to such a commitment.

...Just kidding.

Anyway, while the drawing of the Christmas picture (or in this year's case, Christmas painting) is a tradition in and of itself, it is not traditionally a gift to be wrapped and placed under the tree. Due to the particularly empty nature of the artist's wallet however, this year the picture is a bonafide Christmas gift, and with any luck the recipient will be convinced that I've either forgotten or just plain neglected to complete the artwork in question, adding to the surprise upon unwrapping it. This possibility could be completely negated by her coming to deviantArt and seeing the picture ahead of time, but as one of a middle-aged woman's greatest natural foes is an internet-equipped computer, hopefully she'll remain none-the-wiser.