it comes to my attention that professionals probably shy away from pig latin.

flashback with me to uh, a bunch of weeks ago, when i actually made this wrapping paper design. i was designated the "christmas" market, which is great, since, while i love both red and green a whole lot, i find them maybe disgusting in almost any combination with one another. also, i'm coming from a household in which our christmas tree had yearly rotating decoration themes (think remarkably invested, like 'romantic victorian', 'royal jewel-toned', and 'spring poinsettia') complete with matching stockings, tree skirts, ribbons, and paper that were so pervasive that we actually hid the non-coordinated presents from extended family in the back to avoid disrupting the aesthetic. so, there is a lot of baggage with alissandra and christmas decorations.

the moral of the story is that i didn't want to do something lame. or that would send my mother into christmas-time convulsions, since really, aren't the holidays just swell enough without epileptic-esque seizures for everyone? below is the first palette for my wrap, twelve days of christmas-themed! initially thought to be maybe not quite christmas-y enough (damn you unconventional childhood christmas palettes!) i doctored it minimally to produce a second palette, with the cranberry instead of the indigo. also created for both palettes were a series of three gift tags to accompany the paper, shown here with abysmal color balance, but that are cute and square and 3"x3".
hopefully this wrap wouldn't get stuffed behind the pretty presents with the hideous little drummer boy paper or the sweaters that were wrapped haphazardly without first being placed in boxes, or even absentmindedly shoved in an uncoordinated gift bag. did i mention i love the holidays?

in other news, this piece pretty much nailed down how much i don't like strictly digital coloring. ix-nay on the ool-cay, lick-say ook-lay.