Christmas Newsletter Illustration, 2024

Deciding on what exactly to do this year proved a difficult decision for me. In years gone by the imagery flowed with greater ease, or I already had an image waiting in the wings. Starting around Thanksgiving, after mulling it over for a couple weeks, or so, I finally decided on sharing something that goes well beyond the Christian mainstream. A concept that is alluded to briefly in the Bible, that has an expanded meaning due in no small part to the Book of Mormon and modern prophetic revelation. This Christ centered idea of the Tree of Life is deeply meaningful to me and my family. Every Christmas, not only do I share the story of the nativity, but I also include Nephi's vision of the Tree of Life and its meaning. The ideas engendered in his vision of our Lord and the Tree have become inseparably welded into my heart and mind whenever I see a Christmas tree. For me the Christmas tree is a symbolic representation of the Tree of Life pointing us to God through the living Messiah, even Jesus Christ.

The first part of this post will be about the process and tools I used to create the illustration. If you are willing to stick around, the second half will be a more in-depth explanation of the meaning behind the illustration.

The Process

I began with sketching a thumb nail. Then I did a larger rough sketch.

Once I figured out the essential idea I decided to build a 3D model of the scene to help me obtain the basic composition for the final illustration.

I downloaded the models of the fir trees for free from Thingaverse.com. for the Tree on the horizon, I followed a tutorial on Youtube that showed me how to generate the tree using nothing but a curve and geometry nodes. The process turned out to be much more complex and time consuming than I thought. But I learned how to build and manipulate a tree in Blender.

The path and railing running through the center was created using a curve path. Then I added a bevel  and solidify modifier along the path. For the vertical rods I modeled a single rod, used a duplicate of the path, then applied the new rod model to an array modifier and ran that along the path as well.

I messed around with the camera placement, materials and lighting to get just what I wanted. Of all the items I probably spent the most time on the tree in the center. Could never get exactly what I was looking for, but it turned out decent enough for me to use in the final illustration.

After several renders I ended up using this as the base image for the final illustration:

I took this image into Krita and rendered out the details of the Center tree. ended up with this:

Then I opened this in Affinity Photo. I decided at a certain point I wanted all the other trees to have their own lights. I actually created a new brush in Photo, then painted the lights on a new layer on top of the trees..

I ended up using Celtic patterns I created years ago for the circular patterns seen in the final illustration. To generate these I created a pattern brush for each, then I applied that brush as the stroke to different sized circle curves. I applied a cream yellow color to each circle, grouped them together, reduced the opacity of the group to 53%, then changed the group layer mode to Overlay. On a separate layer I created a circular color gradient, then sent that layer to the bottom of the layer stack. This is what I ended up getting:

From here it was a matter of bringing all the other elements into the final illustration. I used Affinity Publisher as the primary tool for this. Thanks to the Designer and Photo personas I can hop back into either of those applications and use masks, effects etc. in an incredibly flexible way. Absolutely amazing program! Here is what I ended up with: 

Why I did this, and its meaning

If you've made it this far, I suspect you may want to know why I designed this illustration and perhaps what it symbolizes in the context of Christmas. As the title of this post implies, I mainly did this for my family. I send out a physical and digital copy of a newsletter updating the extended family on what happened with my children, Spouse and myself in the past year. Naturally, I being an artist feel the need to create an image that speaks to this time of year, as part of this newsletter. Here are thumb nails of the final layout of the newsletter:

The deeper meaning of the illustration

For most who are of the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints what I illustrated may make total sense. For those who are Catholic or part of other mainstream Christian faiths, you may be scratching your head. I will explain, beginning with a scripture passage found in The Book of Mormon: another Testament of Jesus Christ. In 1Nephi 11:20-23 it reads:

"And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.

And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?

And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul."

The "tree" referred to above is the tree of life. This represents the love of God which he seeks to shed(spread) into all the hearts of men and women. In my faith there is no greater thing to know, really know, and feel, that God loves you. 

So, What is the greatest manifestation of the love of God? Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, the Messiah, who condescended below us all, so that through him, all of us might come back to God in body (Resurrection) and spirit. He made possible a path that leads back to God, and he showed us the way.

That is what the path and the light of the Tree of life represent, his word, his love shining bright to all mankind, guiding us home, if we but choose to give our hearts to God through Christ, enter into the path of obedience leading back to Eternal life.

The fir trees represent two things. First, all of mortal creation. Note that all the trees bend and bow to the light of Christ. Second, the smaller lights represent fragmented truth found in all the philosophies and religions of man. The truth found in all religions are good, and help people live good lives.

However, living a good life, while crucial, is insufficient to bring a person back into the presence of God. In a nutshell, what is required is for a person to enter into a solemn covenantal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In order to do this, men holding priesthood authority and power (Permission from God to act in his name) must officiate in crucial ordinances, such as baptism, so that a spiritual connection can be made with God, that will have efficacy in the life after this one. I believe this authority and power has been restored and is held by good and worthy men within the institution known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Together we strive to be true to the covenants we enter into and live good lives. We strive to follow our Savior Jesus Christ, and do what he would do, knowing that we will, in this life, always be imperfect. And that it is only in and through the grace of the Holy Messiah that we will ultimately be brought back home to our Heavenly Father.

I hope what Ive written above clarifies the illustration. If you want to know more, I encourage all to read the Book of Mormon, pray and ask God if it truly is another testament of Jesus Christ. Visiting the Church's Welcome page is also a great place to begin learning about the faith I'm part of.