Christmas Day - Colored Pencil Drawing

"Christmas Day" Colored Pencil

It’s a melancholy Christmas Day morning and the sullen mood is intensified by the murky atmosphere. The winter weather is chilly and bleak with a sharp breeze blowing cold air, stinging my face.


Moving at a sluggish pace, I trudge along the water’s purple edge as the shallow, green creek snakes its way through the desolate pasture. There’s no snow on the ground which is unusual for this time of the year.


The desolate, golden grassland is dusted with a layer of dirty brown and smudged over a rugged texture typical of this hard land. Like a pink mirage, a reclusive range of sand hills sulks silently in the distance.


The barren plain supports the skeletal frames of a few gnarled trees whose red coloring is shaded with orange and blue. The eerie woodland is dark and soulless invoking a heightened sense of loneliness.


Reflecting on the pain of loss, I stare upwards where a bulky, gray cloud obscures the brooding, blue sky. In that moment I believe I can feel my mom’s spiritual presence peering down on me from that celestial abyss.


I didn’t try to depict the prairie landscape in a realistic manner - exactly the way I observed it outdoors that morning. Instead, I tried to depict the emotions I felt so strongly from within on that difficult day.

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