Here is another in the series of fantasy themed greeting cards that I made years ago. When I first approached this project I knew there were some more traditional images that I wanted to hit on. The fireside Christmas Eve family gathering is a well known, if not somewhat overused, holiday image. I wanted to take that and give it a twist by inhabiting the scene with fantasy characters. But what types of characters should I use? There were a number of options, and some (like a family of Orcs) were easy to shoot down… but it still took a little while to decide.

My first thought was to go with a family of wizards, complete with presents floating around and a magical light show on the Yule Tree. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that wizards were all ready too well known as solitary characters practicing their craft in some high tower, studying ancient volumes of forgotten knowledge. Not exactly the “family gathering” type.

I then came up with the idea of dragon family, and instantly wanted to see the image committed to paper. I kept locking myself into cave-type dwellings at first because, well, that’s where dragons live, isn’t it? Once I was able to shake that limitation and I decided to put them in a castle setting the final picture became clear to me and the rest moved fairly quickly.

Interested in seeing another of this Holiday Series? Check out the Fantasy Holiday Cards, Part 1 post for my take on The Three Wise Men.