Tag Archive for: Santa Claus

Santa’s bed

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Here's a shot of Santa getting out of bed from The Year Without a Santa Claus.—the thumbnail sketch and the tight sketch.  Luckily I came to my senses and realized that Santa wouldn't sleep in a four-poster—but a sleigh bed!

Santa’s house

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The Year Without a Santa Claus opens with a long shot of Santa Claus' house—the establishing shot, as they say in the movie biz.  It's early morning, dark, with light coming from one bedroom window—the only warm spot in the picture. For…

Cover ideas for Santa

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A bunch of sketches for The Year Without A Santa Claus jacket art.  In the first few I was trying to summarize the story: Santa is too tired and cranky to deliver presents this year.  They don't work well because they don't look fun.  Jim…

Can’t wait for Christmas

. As if it were Christmas morning, a fantastic present for me arrived in the mail. I don't know how much I should be giving away here—the book isn't to be released until October—but I'm so excited I can't wait to share this.  Last winter…

Color for Santa Claus

The Soldiers’ Night Before Christmas

A few posts ago I zeroed in on a book cover from the fifties showing Santa Claus smoking tobacco from a hookah.  Pretty unusual, right?  Nothing like what you'd see Santa doing in a kids' book nowadays.  Well, not so long ago I illustrated…

Crabby Santa character design

Have a hubble bubble Christmas

I just received a book in the mail—a copy of The Year Without a Santa Claus by Phyllis McGinley, with illustrations by Kurt Werth.  The J.B. Lippincott Company published this title in 1956. This was the poem that inspired the animated TV…

Trilemma on 34th Street

C.S. Lewis, the Narnia author and theologian, put forth the argument that logically, Christ must have been divine.  If He weren’t divine, then He was either lying or insane.  Those are our only choices.  If you don’t believe in Christ’s…