Curvo's Crafts

[Server Room Gremlin]

Christmas Cards

When I was younger, I used to make a lot of cards and drawings for my family, particularly for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. I was interested in the art of calligraphy, and often used it to give a Celtic or mediaeval feel to my drawing and writing. As an adult, however, I stopped doing this, mostly due to lack of time and energy. Much easier to add a short message and simple drawing to a store-bought card than to design and draw the whole thing myself.

This year, I decided to pick up this craft again, and use it to make small personalised Christmas cards. I like giving hand-made things as gifts: that way I can tailor it exactly to the individual, and they receive something unique!

Each card has a large decorated capital letter on the front (the first letter of the person's name), and a Christmas-related verse in Gothic style script on the inside.

The decorated capitals took the longest, since I had to think of a unique design, and then figure out the most fitting way to colour it. And at the beginning, I was definitely rather rusty with forming the Gothic script letters (I hadn't touched a calligraphy pen in years lol), but by the end I could write most of them from memory, without needing to look at my book of examples.

(To be continued in the next post)

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

Christmas Cards (continued)

Something which you can't really see on these scans:
Some of the pencils I used were metallic, and as such have a slight gleam when held up to the light. The square below has an outer border of silver and copper.

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

Even if you hadn't said anything about the medieval manuscript inspiration, I would have recognized it immediately! I also like how the designs have a Christmasey feel with the holly. Very beautiful overall! I'm sure your loved ones will feel really special to receive these.

 

[Tyelkormo the Fair]

They look amazing! The choice of colors for each letter scratches something in my brain, and I absolutely love this design! Your family is a lucky one indeed! ❤️

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

They look amazing! The choice of colors for each letter scratches something in my brain, and I absolutely love this design! Your family is a lucky one indeed! ❤️

Most of the time I could visualise in my mind what colours would look best on each design, but sometimes I had to work it out by testing combinations on paper.

Behold my practice page 😂

 

[WatcherWraith]

These are wonderful! I'm so impressed with the color and the styling! It truly looks like medieval monk illustrations! And the metallic sheen is especially nice. Thank you for sharing these! May everyone enjoy them!

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

These are genuinely so beautiful and so artfully created! You have a very clear talent for this style, and the perfectly medieval quality of it cannot be missed. I am awed by how you developed each letter so skillfully-- even in practice they are all beautiful! Look at you using your gifts for the glory of God! 😃

Eglerio, Delyarassë!

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

Undertale silent film (unfinished project)

Here is a 3 minute animation that I made. It's an unfinished project, but I don't know if/when I'll resume work on it.

Video description:

An animation project of mine that I started in 2023, the same year I first played the game Undertale (I had very little knowledge of it before, but I had heard the music/soundtrack and decided to play the game because I liked it so much). I found the story inspiring and interesting.

I don't know if I will continue making this (I have too many simultaneous personal projects boiling on the stove as usual). But I really liked how this first part turned out, so I'm sharing it anyway. ❤️

My particular favourite thing about this is how I managed to convey emotion and expression in the characters. My ordinary drawings are usually very expressive, but when I run them together like this to make a rough animation, it really gives the emotion/expression an added dimension.

 

[WatcherWraith]

The way the animation was running the frames really brought each character to life! I'm mot personally familiar with Undertale, but it was lovely watching the main character try to understand what was going on around them and work out who their enemies were. Nicely done!