CGAN Dec 2017 - ELVES! - WIPs

ELVES!

Brief: Paint some elves doing elf stuff. (proper little Christmassy elves, not them snobby Tolkein ones)

Deadline: December the 31st at minight GMT (Note that because of the New Year the voting may be a little delayed)

This is where you post your Works In Progress. Final entries should be posted in the thread over here: cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/current-...-elves-final-entries

Challenge rules and guidelines:
challenge rules

Rules in brief:

• All challenge entries must be your own work.
• You should post at least two WIP images that are clearly different from your final entry and each other.
• Your final entry should contain your image (inserted so it shows up full size) and at least two links to your WIP posts on the forum.
• No chatter in the finals thread – if you have questions, post them in the WIP thread or PM an admin.
• Feedback is allowed & encouraged together with the voting and in the WIP thread.
• Deadline is given in UK time (midnight GMT) with a grace period of 5 minutes for getting the post sorted.
• Each member may cast one vote
• No cheating! Admins may decide to disqualify an entry that does not adhere to the above rules.

When I saw the title my first thought was, "Oooh I think I'll do one of those pompous, snobby Elves from Tolkien."
But now I've actually read the post, I guess I won't.

Always read the brief before starting.

This is a tough one.
Usually when I don't get an idea straight away I spend some time on Google images looking for inspiration or reference or mood. But with this, whenever you google Christmas Elves the only thing (the ONLY thing) it displays ... is that God-awful Elf On The Shelf thing.
Every single picture is that terrible little monstrosity!
I hate it!!!!

Anyway with that rant over I'll calmly add that I think I do have an idea now and have started a sketch that hasn't been immediately ditched. Not enough to post yet but I'll see how it goes.

Google adapts their search results for the user, don't they? They must think you really NEED that elf on the shelf. I only get a few pics of it when searching for "christmas elf". When I search for "santas helper" I get women in masquerade costumes... Google has weird ideas about us...

Ok, here goes.
I thought I'd try and do something like a children's book cover for this, complete with a silly little story. I call it "The Mystery Gift and the Curious Elf."
The story is that an orphaned elf (there are far too many orphans in kids stories!) has finished helping Santa deliver presents when he finds one enormous gift-wrapped box left over.
Excited by his discovery he opens it only to find another wrapped present inside but this one is obviously recognisable as it's shaped like a big teddy bear. Liking the idea of the cuddly toy he opens it and finds no teddy bear. Instead there's another wrapped gift inside and again it looks obvious from its shape.
This keeps repeating, each new gift looks like a toy but only reveals another wrapped gift; a bike, a ball, a model car, etc. each getting smaller until right at the end when he's left with none of the toys he thought he'd find. Instead he has one tiny wrapped box.
He opens that last one and finds not a toy or a game but the promise of an intangible gift, the one he always wanted... Friendship. Hope for the future. A loving family he can call his own! Or perhaps some other insufferably trite nonsense.







It does look a bit sparse in places but I wanted to keep it simple with time vanishing over Christmas. I may add some more details if I get chance. One thing I'll definitely be doing is extending the canvas vertically to add the necessary text for the book title. (Oh, and hands too, I suppose. )

Have to admit, I'd never heard of the 'Elf on the shelf' stuff myself. But after a quick google, and a couple quick articles, I see some are going over-board with it. But that's pretty much how humans handle most things.

Looking good, Valence. Only thing I might mention, is that's a pretty small tag for such a large present. One would think the tag would be somewhat bigger from POV.

an orphan baby elf kitten he can raise as his own!
"oh by oh boy oh boy" (I can see that's what he's saying!)

Great idea, Valence. Well done

Well, with only three days to go I decided to not let Val win by Walk-Over again... I didn't have time to finish but I'll post anyway... WIP 1 & 2

and WIP 3

I probably shouldn't have chosen such a crowded scene... but I still think the idfea is kind of fun...