Launch!

I had an extra day off this week.

So, I was very productive! Read: I sat on my butt and painted while ignoring the house. Well, not completely ignoring the house... Just not really helping it much either.

Anyway, I needed to slap some Christmas projects out there while I'm still in the mood to do Christmas stuff. 

I thought it would be cute to paint a couple dolls exchanging presents under the tree while the kids are asleep. I loved the concept, but I was still unhappy with this. It felt too "yellow" to me. I wasn't getting that warm, under-the-tree feeling. And it felt like it needed something. So, one night after I'd stared at it unhappily, I came up with the following:

I'm pretty happy with it. I really wanted to add more to the tree, but I gotta be honest. I lost steam. And I really didn't want to paint foliage. I think it's harder to paint foliage digitally than it was for me to do it in oils. But I really like the glossy wood and colored lights. Much better. :)

Fonz cat approves.

Then I decided to illustrate a sketch that I did in my car on my lunch break. I had drawn some gingerbread men catapulting off a table to safety. So, today (after a painting marathon), I came up with this:

I was pretty happy with it, until I decided I was done and saw it as a thumbnail. Then I was all like, "Shoot, there's something wrong with the composition!" I think I need to crop the bottom a bit because there is nothing going on down there! It's dead space! I don't know what I was thinking...

And then, to make matters worse, I uploaded it to FB, and as I was staring at the little guy on the spoon-catapult, I realized something. 

My freakin' catapult is backwards. Backwards!!! 

I think it's obvious that I never took physics. Oh well... I am calling on the kindness of the holiday season. Let's all suspend our logic... just for a little while, ok?