Published in: News

This Year’s Christmas Card – It’s a Cracker!

Author Roger Johnson

Published on: October 7, 2024

CHRISTMAS IN BAKER STREET

What was it, I wonder, that inspired Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson to venture outdoors on a snowy Christmas evening for a snowball fight with “the Baker Street division of the detective police force”? Whatever the reason, it’s obvious that they enjoyed the harmless uninhibited fun quite as much as the young Irregulars themselves.

We may take it, I think, that Mark Mázers’ joyous illustration depicts the scene after the last snowball, or perhaps the last but one, has been thrown, and the snow itself has been put to more artistic use. Watson and the children around him are evidently surprised and thrilled to see the great detective depicted as a snowman, complete with pipe and deerstalker. However, Holmes and – is that young Wiggins holding the one remaining snowball? – their expressions speak of delight in a plan successfully carried out. Clearly, they are responsible for the snowman; perhaps the deerstalker and pipe were gifts from the detective to his young protegé.

It’s good to see that the children are properly clothed for the winter, no doubt thanks to the generosity and guidance of the detective and the doctor. And two of the Irregulars are girls! Considering Holmes’s rather jaundiced opinion of the opposite sex, this is progress indeed.

Roger Johnson

THE ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I adore mid and early 20th Century commercial art and had in mind this image of a slightly older Holmes and Watson having a snowball fight with the Baker Street Irregulars. It is a straight digital painting. I started off with a rough under-sketch blocking out lighting and composition and basically just built up the detail from there: it’s the same process you use with acrylics, but you don’t have to wait for paint to dry. My goal was something unmistakably Christmassy and unashamedly sentimental: hopefully, the effect is to give the viewer something to smile and quietly chuckle over.

Mark Mázers

10 Christmas Cards and 10 Envelopes for £7.00. A bargain! Order now at
https://sherlock-holmes.org.uk/product/christmas-card-2024/

The Compliments of the Season to all!