Day 2 in The 12 Days of Creativity! Now that you know the basics for drawing sprigs of holly (if not, take a peek at yesterday’s post here), I thought we could put those skills to use and create this pretty Christmas Garland. This is a perfect picture to use on your Christmas cards, just follow the steps below, then cut out your garland and use double sided tape or glue to stick it to a folded piece of card.

 

Let’s get started!

1. You will need: white paper, a compass with a pencil (or something to draw around like a cup to get a circle shape), a drawing pencil, a black pen, an eraser, colouring pencils, a white gel pen. Click here for more details on the exact tools I use.

 

2. Draw a circle in the centre of your sheet of paper. It should be about 6cm in diameter.

 

3. Using your drawing pencil, draw a little bow at the bottom of the circle.

 

4. Next, start drawing your holly! I draw the holly creeping upwards from both sides of the bow, so the sprigs ‘meet’ at the top. You can be quite sketchy just now as the pencil is just the rough draft.

 

5. Pencil work complete, grab your black pen and start drawing over those pencil lines. Now is the time to add any little details like veins in the leaves or dots.

 

6. Wait for the ink to dry completely, then use a clean eraser to gently rub out the pencil lines.

 

 

7. Add some colour to your black and white drawing. I like to use different shades of green for the leaves and blend them together. New to blending? This leaf tutorial will give you some tips and tricks!

 

8. Use a white gel pen to add small dots to the upper right side of the red berries, this will make them look nice and shiny.

 

9. Ta da! Your Christmas Garland is complete!

 

You could add a little robin or maybe a few stars to your garland. Or equally, just keep it plain and simple with the foliage and ribbon. Have fun creating!

Stay posted for the next instalment of The 12 Days of Creativity in the next few days!

Jx