My daughter’s stocking, 2016

Posted byMyfanwy TristramPosted inWatercolourTags:,

This is the third year running that I have drawn everything my daughter received from that very generous old fellow, Santa Claus.

It’s a great way to fill the days between Christmas and New Year, and while I know it’s not exactly Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire, it’s also the closest thing I’ve got to a recurring theme.

If we remove Santa from the equation, it even becomes a great chance for me to meditate on over-indulgence. Yes, since you ask, she is an only child.

As I always draw these images from a photo, they sometimes feel a bit less like drawing and a bit more like copying, especially with all the lettering and branding to be drawn. Still, copying can be educational, a lesson I learned anew by reading Linda Barry’s fabulous book Syllabus this year.

When drawing the contents of an 11-year-old girl’s stocking, what you mainly learn is how to make things look cute, but that’s a valid lesson too.

Click if you’d like to see it larger.

stocking, 2016--by-myfanwy-tristram

And here are the previous years’ ones. As you can see, the quantity of goods, and my concerns, haven’t changed much year on year. Nor, I note, has the time of waking on Christmas morning, sigh.

Everything in my daughter's stocking by Myfanwy Tristram

Christmas Stocking by Myfanwy Tristram

Published by Myfanwy Tristram

I am an illustrator, situated in Brighton on the south coast of England, and with a special interest in comics and graphic memoir. I also work for a non-profit which encourages people to be active in democracy and to exercise rights such as the right to information through FOIA.

69 thoughts on “My daughter’s stocking, 2016”

  15. I love this!!! I need to start recording what my kids find in their stockings. What a cool idea!

  17. My cousin also draws like this as you said … Copying from a picture… I never considered this drawing at all but after looking at this picture , I can understand how creativity can be used and developed even by starting with copying and coloring. Beautiful pictures I must tell.

  30. Beautifully illustrated, some really lovely artwork . There is so much more to it than just copying, and the contents are similar to what was in my own stocking!

  31. I am belated but this is Awesome! Too bad it’s a Donald Trump reality tho. Must be soooooooo hard being a mom with the current political climate… :(

  32. I am sure your daughter will cherish these drawings for years to come! When she is older and has children of her own, this will be something she could share with them. Wonderful idea!

  33. Very cute! It’ll be a nice memento for who to remember childhood by as well, long after the sweets get eaten and the items get forgotten.

  38. Nice your daughter sure is lucky! probably because she was very good in those years!

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