15-illustrations-to-share-winter-beauty-and-christmas-magic

They say that winter is a cold, bland, and monochrome season. Yet, it only is you want it that way. For many people, winter is the time of freshness and subtlety. It teaches us to see the slightest hues, to feel the nuances, to heat the silence and to believe in magic. No doubt, it’s a super inspiring season for illustrators and digital artists. So, to share that mood and atmosphere, we’ve collected the set of artworks full of winter beauty and Christmas magic, made by Tubik Arts illustrators. Enjoy and get inspired!

Winter Landscapes

Snow, frost, fresh air, and clear sky. Long nights, deep shadows, crusty whiteness, a hundred shades and hues. All that is about the illustrations inspired with nature views and landscapes covered in winter beauty.

winter illustration tubikarts

Crispy snow, glary whiteness, geometric beauty of the building, and a couple of children setting the lovely color contrast with their bright outfits – looks like walking in a winter wonderland.

digital illustration tubik studio design

Winter nights are long and cozy: the shadows get longer, the light gets warmer, with the time that seems to get slower and feelings that reach deeper.

digital illustration tubik studio design

The illustration combining the beauty of untouched winter forest and quite futuristic architecture, looking even more impressive in such surroundings.

winter illustration

Here’s the digital artwork playing off with the negative space and creates the mood of Christmas coming soon: the lovely and cute cottage in the forest, covered with snow and decorated with flashlights, is elegantly integrated into the silhouette of Santa Claus.

Cute Christmas Characters

For many people, even very serious and “adult” in their daily life, Christmas is the time of cuteness. So, December is the time when graphic designers and illustrator are super productive in breathing life into the diversity of funny animals and creatures sharing festive mood.

What if animals have their own Christmas parties – that’s the idea behind the short animated cartoon

polar bear illustration

When one illustration is a whole Christmas story: far far away, there is a place where winter is cozy, the air is fresh, and Mother Polar Bear tells her Baby Bear a fairytale about the weird and funny creatures called people…

cute yeti illustration

christmas crocodile illustration

The funny Yeti and cute CrocoSanta are just perfect to share the Christmas mood as mascots for a game, book or cartoon characters, as well as seasonal graphics for packaging, Christmas cards, or landing pages.

People

Who creates a holiday mood and enjoys it if not people? The next pack of digital illustrations shows visual winter stories about human characters.

digital illustration tubik studio design

Some people catch Christmas mood much earlier than others. The idea is transferred in the illustration via the color contrast.

digital illustration tubik studio design

Funny skater enjoying the winter mood in a digital artwork in a playful cartoonish style.

digital illustration tubik studio design

Buying presents, choosing presents, and dreaming about presents is a great part of the Christmas season, isn’t it? That’s the mood shared with the illustration.

winter sports illustration

People doing winter sports always awe with their brightness. Perhaps, due to the brightly colored clothes contrasting with the fresh whiteness of snow. Or maybe that’s because of the wild dynamics of the most popular winter sports. Anyway, it’s easy to feel that with the artwork above.

Skating rink fun illustration

Another popular kind of fun associated with Christmas and winter holidays is outdoor skating, right like on this bright illustration

Whatever age, gender or nature, it seems most people will never get tired of watching the snow falling. It gives us a special mood and never stops amazing us. That’s the atmosphere we tried to transfer with the animated illustration, which was the test of Procreate animation functionality.

olympic games illustration tutorial

The Winter Olympics illustration features 5 popular winter sports (skating, snowboarding, skiing, ice hockey, and figure skating) performed in the harmonic color palette and composition of the Olympic rings symbol.

We hope you’ve also caught some holiday mood with this collection of illustrations. Also, welcome to check our big review of trends in illustration and graphic design in 2019.


Welcome to check designs by Tubik on Dribbble and Behance; explore the gallery of 2D and 3D art by Tubik Arts on Dribbble

what?s-the-best-way-to-share-your-work-online?

One of the things you must do as a freelancer is take charge of your professional (and financial) destiny. You have to be successful in finding and convincing clients to work with you because no one is going to do it for you.

Thankfully, you no longer have to rely on a resume to try to communicate how talented you are to others.

Your skills as a freelancer should be shared with others through visual media. It makes a lot more sense than writing up a one page summary that says, “I graduated from so-and-so university in 2010 and worked as a designer for XYZ Agency for three years.” Yes, your history is important, but not as much as what you’re able to do with the knowledge and skills acquired over that time period.

Whether you’re a web designer, graphic designer, web developer, photographer, or another type of digital creative, there’s a lot of value in being able to show off your work online.

However, with all of the different ways there are to share your work and expertise, which channels will guarantee a return? And is that all that should matter when sharing your work online?

The Pros and Cons of Sharing Your Work

While there are dozens of places that make it easy for designers and developers to share their work, as well as other samples they’ve created, many of them won’t be worth your time. It could be because the audience reach isn’t ideal, because they make you pay to share your work, or because it requires too much effort to pitch your idea or work in the first place.

If you want to share your work and get something out of it (which you really should), these are the channels you should focus on:

1. Your Website

First and foremost, your work needs to be published to your website. That’s non-negotiable. However, you should be selective of what you show and how you show it. You should also consider what format you want to share your work and expertise because you have a lot more flexibility with a website.

For example, this is the Work page for Semiqolon:

Semiqolon Case Studies

It’s not just a block of client logos that show off who this agency has worked for nor is it a lifeless case studies page with screenshots of websites they’ve designed. These are in-depth, well-written case studies that show their process and results.

Another place to show off your expertise is your blog:

Semiqolon Blog

This is where you take the knowledge you’ve acquired and turn it into actionable references for anyone looking to leverage your expertise. This is less about promoting your work and more about promoting your knowledge.

Pros

  • You have 100% control over what you share;
  • There are no distractions from competitors;
  • Professionally written and designed content provide no-nonsense proof to prospects that you can do what you promise.

Cons

  • It takes time to create case studies and blog posts;
  • You have to optimize for search and actively share with others if you want people to see it;
  • Because writing is a heavy component, what you write needs to be done well.

2. Social Media

You can do a lot of things on social media. However, there’s no universal use case that applies to all social media channels.

For instance, LinkedIn is a good place to share authoritative content and make professional connections. But it’s probably not the best place to share photos of your work.

On the other hand, a platform like Instagram would be perfect for that. Web developer Andriy Haydash (@the_web_expert) has a great example of how to do this:

The Web Expert Profile

First, he uses his bio to succinctly explain what he does as a web developer and shows people to his website.

Next, his feed is full of development samples:

The Web Expert Instagram

The trouble a lot of designers and developers run into is that they merge the personal with the professional. But how many prospective clients are going to want to see you running around the beach with your kids or dog? If you’ve pointed them towards Instagram as a professional reference, then the expectation is that you’ll show your work there.

So, when sharing your samples on social media, choose platforms that are geared towards visuals (e.g. Instagram and Pinterest). Then, make sure you create a channel specifically dedicated to your brand.

Pros

  • Social media is free and easy to use;
  • It requires significantly less work to publish samples of your work than other channels do.

Cons

  • Many people just use social media to make connections. Not to have someone’s work pushed in their face.
  • You can build a reputation by sharing high-quality content, but no more than 20% of those promotions should be your own on certain platforms.

3. Codepad

Unlike a code-sharing/storage platform like Github which is mainly a place to collaborate, Codepad enables developers to create client-friendly demos. If you’re in the business of designing custom features and functionality, and you don’t mind sharing your code with other developers, this is a good place to do so.

Codepad Playgrounds

What’s more, you can use Codepad to create extensive collections of demos as Avan C. has done here:

Codepad Avan C

This gives you the chance to show off what you’re good at without having to create extensive case studies for your website. It also allows you to add value to the web development community by sharing code snippets they can use.

Pros

  • Share your custom-made snippets and demos for other developers to use and repurpose;
  • Create a collection of demos you can show to clients to demonstrate your vision without having to waste your time building something they don’t understand or want.

Cons

  • Clients probably aren’t looking for you on Codepad or might be too intimidated to enter a website where developers share code;
  • You can’t share snippets or demos from client work you’ve done, so this means publishing stuff you’ve created in your spare time (if you have any).

4. Behance

If you’re looking for an external website to show off your portfolio of work, Behance is a fantastic choice.

Behance Work

Just keep in mind that it’s not enough to create high-quality graphics of your project. If you want people to find your work and explore it, you have to properly optimize your project with a description, tools used, and tags.

Here’s an example of a project Navid Fard contributed to:

GALENA Sample

There’s a lot of engagement with this project: 9,609 views, 1,024 likes, 56 comments.

This aspect of Behance is great for allowing your work to become a source of inspiration for other designers and developers. But there’s another benefit to using Behance:

Behance Navid Fard

Personal profiles on Behance show off various projects you’ve contributed to, how much love the Behance community has shown the work, and also provides people with the ability to follow and get in touch.

Pros

  • Gives you a place to share client work as well as stuff you’ve done on your own, so you can show off a wider, bolder range of content if you want;
  • Engagement rates are readily available, so you can see how many people viewed your project, liked it, and commented on it;
  • You have a shareable to send to clients you want to work with or employers you want to work for.

Cons

  • Need to get client permission before you share their intellectual property here;
  • Have to do some work to optimize each project in order for people to find it;
  • Your projects have to compete for attention against similar-looking work.

So, Is It a Good Idea to Share Your Work?

Yes! It’s a great idea to share your work online.

However, it’s important to manage your expectations. The channels above — while great places to share samples — can take awhile to get you in front of a sizable and worthwhile audience. Especially if you’re competing side-by-side against similar looking creations.

You also need to be very careful with copyright and security. Sharing clients’ work online is fine if they’ve given you permission to do so. If you’re sharing work you’ve done in your free time, that’s risky as well, but more so because of the possibility of theft.

But there are pluses and minuses to everything you do in marketing your business. And sharing your work can really help you gain exposure, establish credibility, and more effectively sell your services.

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