Christmas Cards
Make your own?
For over 10 years now, we have been publishing our own home designed Christmas
cards. This started with a desire to experiment with the increasing bundled
software availability of graphics based photo editing and drawing
PC applications, together with related low cost scanning and printing
equipment. The fact that although certain
artistically skilled friends had been doing this manually for years, there was
now an opportunity to use the mighty power of the personal computer
in an attempt to
cloak my lack of drawing/painting abilities!
2000
This first attempt required a search for a suitable picture
to copy as the basis to 'tint' using the recently acquired 'PaintShop
Pro' bundled with a new PC package. I found this one in a book in
Oxford Library appropriately titled "An Oxfordshire Christmas" and
first had to scan it in before any further 'personalization' could
be performed. PaintShop Pro offered the ability to resize and
crop, as well as the ability to colour in certain areas on a pixel
by pixel basis (perhaps the electronic equivalent of 'painting by
numbers'?) Finally, a 'local' text caption was inserted before
saving it as a picture file, probably in the .jpg format.
Based on a print
included in “An
Oxfordshire Christmas”
by David Green
This year, creative confidence grew following the
acquisition of an early 'digital' camera. Why not take a suitable
Christmas 'scene' and use some of the clever digital
reformatting features discovered last year in PaintShop Pro?
Ewelme
Church, Oxfordshire—based on a digitally enhanced photograph
by C.G.Jenkins
I was pretty pleased when Margaret's father, who was quite a good amateur artist, commented 'I didn't realise you could draw Chris'. After about five minutes of pride, I had to own up!
2002
Maybe I did not have so much time available this year
to do much more than I did 2000, and used the same copy and tint
technique to produce a suitable Christmassy scene to incorporate
into the now reusable card template produced using Microsoft
'Publisher'. Still, as intended, it didn't look at all
like a card that one would buy in the shops.
"God
Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”
Carol Singers at the Inn. Based on a Victorian engraving by T.
Dalziel. Illustrated
in “An Oxfordshire Christmas” and
digitally enhanced
by C.G.Jenkins
2003
This year I thought I'd create a 'water colour' from
another photograph. The 15th century Ewelme Church provides that
'medieval' village look, as did the first digitally enhanced card
back in 2001.
The
East Window of Ewelme Church Oxfordshire. Digitally enhanced
from a photograph by C.G.Jenkins — December 2003
2004
Another tinting of a scanned in book picture this year,
although this does seem more like a 'colouring in' job.
The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow
And what will the robin do then poor thing?...
“The Robin”
from “An Old Fashioned
Christmas” by Iris Greder
Digitally enhanced by C.G.Jenkins — December 2004
2005
The next two years adopted the technique of
scanning in and adjusting some attractive Winter pen and ink
drawings, digitally prepared for some subtle tinting. I had lost
the bundled PaintShop Pro when upgrading to a newer PC and
operating system, so had to try Adobe PhotoShop instead. I have
to say that this package is a bit 'heavyweight, for this kind of
work, but better than using the simple 'Paint' provided with the
O.S.
“Snow had fallen, Snow on snow,….
In the bleak mid-Winter, Long ago.”
From an original drawing
“Christmas Tree”
by
Daphne Ellman.
Digitally enhanced by
C.G.Jenkins
—
December 2005
From a ‘Village at Christmas’ sketch
by
unknown artist.
Digitally enhanced
and
tinted
by
C.G.Jenkins
—
December 2006
2007
I found that I just couldn't keep away from creating
another Christmas card scene which included Ewelme Church. One
of my favourite views of the village is from Rabbit Hill
overlooking the archetypal medieval English village scene of
church, school and alms houses. Earlier in the year, we had had
some snow. So, digitizing into an 'engraving' texture and tinting
here and there, there was no need to incorporate any simulated
snow at all!
A view over Ewelme from Rabbit Hill.
From a digitally enhanced photograph by C.G.Jenkins
—
Winter 2007
2008
We had often passed this post-box in the wall on our
way to and from Benson. This year, somewhat influenced by
previous comments made by Margaret, that there was never enough
reds and greens in the cards, we contrived and photographed this
scene, and basically used it 'as is'. This seemed to be the best
angle from a number of shots. I felt quite proud when my
professional artist and illustrator son-in-law Tom, expressed
some praise on the finished card. He suggested that this,
together with other shot angles ought to be sent off to an
on-line gallery, where professional card companies pay a royalty
for use of any pictures. I sent them but never heard a thing.
Perhaps Tom was just trying to keep in his father-in-law's good
books?!
“Post-haste for Christmas!”
The walled post-box
Cottesmore Lane, Ewelme.
Photograph by C & M
Jenkins —
Winter 2008
2009
After nearly running out of ideas for something a
little different to produce, I asked my eldest grandchild to
draw me a Christmas picture. Splendid! Perfectly suitable for a
home made card. Apart from needing some cropping/resizing, no
need for any clever digitizing or tinting. Is this the start of
a beautiful friendship with a five year old? See for yourself!
“Christmas Picture”
From an original
coloured pen drawing
by
Maisie Croft age 5½ —
Winter 2009
2010
Maisie, now quite busy with other things, was
eventually persuaded
that I was getting pretty desperate for another Christmas
picture that she had promised for a couple of weeks. After
some immediate furious drawing on the kitchen table, presented
me with a long thin masterpiece, which also included a snowman
in front of Santa's reindeer. Trouble was that the card
itself was of
narrower dimensions, so snowman had to be 'melted' away. Perhaps
Maisie could produce a few more like this, and send them to the
card picture gallery. Compared to my lack of royalty income, she
could probably make a fortune!
“Santa’s Sleigh”
From an original
coloured pencil sketch
by
Maisie Croft age 6½ —
Winter 2010
2011
Now we've got another of our dear grandchildren involved, where Tilly (Matilda), also provided us with a prolific choice of
artwork, together with Maisie's clever beaded creation.
“Christmas Tree”
From an original
coloured pencil sketch
by
Matilda Croft age 4¾
—
Winter 2011
“Snowman”
From an original
coloured pencil sketch
by
Matilda Croft age 4¾
—
Winter 2011
“Merry Christmas”
From an original
coloured pencil sketch
by
Maisie Croft age 7½
—
Winter 2011
Now, some friends are starting to ask where we get our cards printed, "'cos little Johnny did a lovely Xmas picture this year, and we'd also like to send it out as a Christmas card". Perhaps I should take out a Google advert and offer to convert children's pictures into cards? Maybe by this time next year we could be miyounairs? Well maybe, but why not try it for yourself either with your own scanned in picture or photograph or one drawn by your children/grandchildren? Once you've done the first one, you'll never have to buy another Xmas card again! Most office type word processing or publishing packages offer templates to produce cards of various sorts, and it's quite easy to 'insert' your own picture. A lot of software to do this is FREE, either bundled with a new PC, or can be download from the internet. Try OpenOffice3 for a complete package of office type programs. The GIMP is also a versatile image editing program. Unfortunately, once you've done your first, there will be a certain personal or family pressure to do the same the next year....and the next.....!! We look forward to receiving yours next year?
So, what exciting illustration will be included next year? You're just going to have to wait until December 2012 to find out!