I wanted to create this years christmas cards while participating in this class. 

My inspiration came from the always very elegant and minimalistic look of hollies, and I really enjoy the dark red and dark green christmassy colours. 

I also wanted to make sure to keep my cards classy and clean in their look. 

I began by sketching some hollies, leaves, branches. I looked at some references, but I also freestyled a bit.

After sketching, I added some colour. I chose to stay within the dark green and the dark red and made sure to layer enough colour to keep the illustrations looking sharp and rich.

After scanning and working on my illustrations in photoshop/illustrator, I put together this repeat pattern. 

The finished result is this serie of cards, and perhaps they'll end up in several post boxes around the globe this winter.