Hello fellow earthlings,
And thank you very much for stopping by at my dinner party.
This is my entry for Jazzas Competition of the Month with the theme “Christmas Villains”

Well, once again I picked a character to represent an idea, or in this case, a very bad idea. For me personally, the Grinch, and whatever slime he’s so carefully drizzling over our family here, is nothing more but the personification of us all.
Yes, I know the holidays can be though on us. There is so much to do, business to close before the next year, lots of shopping and everywhere you go, you sure are going to bump into lots of people. Day by day the stress grows and the fact that you expect yourself to feel jolly and merry all of a sudden isn’t really helping much.
So, when the moment comes, when you are reunited with the people you love and the ones you only see a couple of days in the year and could very well be strangers to you, you’ve become a ticking bomb. And it’s not just you whose patience dangles on a string, most likely your family has gone through the same mind numbing stress in the past weeks.
So, you sit there, eat, drink and chat along and everything seems fine and lovely until this one completely unimportant thing happens and it starts all over again… silent accusations, passive-aggressive smiles and resentment. It begins to boil and finally you wish someone would just yell out loud to burst the tension on the dinner table.
The thing that ruins your holiday get-togethers isn’t a villain, not even a single family member with a short fuse… It’s all of us.
I wish you the patience to hold up against the stress and to take the mood, whatever it might be, with the understanding, that this time of year comes with it’s unique pressures. Don’t let the Grinch get you but confront him with a smile. You never know, he might just join your relaxed family dinner in peace.

Alright, I will spare you the gruesome details of exactly how troublesome this piece has been for me but let me just tell you, that I pushed myself way out of my comfort zone and not just because of its style, concept and composition. December probably is the most busy month for me and it has been exceptionally hard for me to make time to draw, even harder not to fall asleep in front of the screen.
It has been very challenging for me to reach a point where if been somewhat satisfied with the result. To be honest, I’m not even sure if I have or if I’m just telling myself I have. But, alas, if nothing else I have proven to be stubborn and finished in time.

Lastly there are some references and stock i want to mention.
As always, I used brushes from Sycras CS6 Brush Preset Collection, but mainly stayed true to my trusty hard-edged round brush.
There is no photobashing in this picture as well as no true reference for parts of the picture. I did use reference photos while doing the thumbnails but discarded them after that.
As usual, this was done on a Bamboo Fun Tablet.

Well, I hope you understand my dire need to go for a walk now and don’t mind me keeping this description a bit haphazard.
I wish you all lovely holidays, much fun and laughs with your loved ones as well as a bit quiet time to yourself!

Best wishes and have a sparkling winterday
Rahel

Edit:
Never in a million years would I have thought that this Grinch of a Painting would make it to the second place but I sure am happy about it. I've been well known to be a stubborn person who does not easily give up and although I'm often not satisfied with my abilities, I use this kind of frustration to keep me going and trying my best to improve.
But being so lucky to receive acknowledgement absolutely helps me to stay motivated, to try even harder and to learn new things.

Congratulations to all the other lovely artists who participated in this challenge - If you haven't seen their entries yet, please have a look with the Tag COTMXmas

Best wishes and have an awesometacular 2015!
Rahel