It's that time of year...

This is the final version.

... and here's another holiday-related doodle. This was fast-paced fun and I had a good time making the drawing.

The business page needed a chart for this story -- that's pretty typical -- but the page designer asked me to do an illustration to go with the chart, if I could come up with something. No pressure, just "if you have the time."

She might have overheard me complaining about how little artwork I get to do on the job these days, and so she gently confronted me with a "put up or shut up" opportunity... but without the "shut up" part-- she's far too kind for that.

This is my original sketch.

I did a quick rough of a hand holding a smartphone, with the intention of putting the chart on the screen. Not brilliant, but hey, it's drawing! My favorite part of work! The designer responded to my sketch with a design incorporating the hand as the main art. My vision was more along the lines of using it as secondary art, down at the bottom. I envisioned a large photo up top, with my drawing/chart down in a lower corner.

This is my first shot at filling up

the space of the layout design.

Nothing says "Christmas" like

a pale, meaty forearm!

Well, she's the designer, so back to the drawing board for me. I had to finish the rest of the arm to fill the space. I did that, but it was a bare, naked arm! It looked extremely weird to me. Forearm porn, kinda-- if there is such a thing. I didn't show it to anybody (until now) because I knew it was wrong.

Then, for the first time, I noticed the headline was going to be "Shoppers' little helper." Ah-ha!  I just had slip Santa's sleeve over the naughtiness and it all came together. If you stay in pursuit of a solution it usually presents itself, but I always feel relieved and amazed when it happens.

Drawn and colored in Photoshop but I tried to make it look like pencil and sloppy watercolor or acrylic. All digital, tho.

The End.

P.S. Here's the final drawing at a larger size:

This is the final drawing on it's own.
A pretty large picture when you click.