Hello Krita Artists! [image]
This is a discussion thread and WIP thread for our Monthly Art Challenge for December 2025. Ask any questions about the challenge or share your works in progress.
The December Art Challenge was designed by @Elixiah and @edgarej.
When your submissions are ready, post them in the submission thread linked below.
Awesome!!
For another example, maybe check out the “Caravan Through the St. Louis Desert“ from last month? 
(Monthly Art Challenge – November 2025 – Civilization engulfed by nature - #14 by steve.improvthis)
But seriously, I’m looking forward to everyone’s creations rivaling Rembrandt next month! 
But seriously, seriously: Chiaroscuro in Art - The Ultimate Guide - Draw Paint Academy
It’s gonna be fun!
@steve.improvthis Thanks for the links to more descriptions! 
It’s been a while since I’ve done a Ginger painting… so here she is again:
The Gift
And now, I look forward to weeks of blending, lighting, fur, and whisker work!
Can’t wait to see it! Beautiful 
@sooz I just realized that not everyone celebrates Christmas. So if you can change the optional challenge to: Make it a Chiaroscuro Christmas/Holiday theme, that would be awesome. Thanks.
Good catch. Done.
Love the theme . And that’s a good theme to practice value (and looking at the stamp I need it XD).
Half of the idea aren’t Christmas/Holiday theme, but with tweeking it a bit the first can be.
@MOHCIN_LABID It doesn’t have to be Christmas or holiday themed. That’s optional.
Tip: to be more in a chiaroscuro mood, you can sketch in white on a black background! 
I would use bright color paint on a separate layer instead of carving with an eraser, that way you can always alter the background and the character separately. Don’t forget to take advantage of all the tools digital painting can offer you.
Started on an idea. Not sure if my skill set is up to the challenge or if I’ll finish it!
Still working with my non dominant hand. Yeesh!!! 
A little more definition, but still a fair bit more to go…
I’m finding the Addition layer mode to be helpful. It’s almost like I’m painting everything twice, using two seperate layers. First I’ll get the shading in on a normal mode layer and then go over almost all of it again in the addition layer. :shrug:
I’m digging the challenge. This is not my normal style for sure, but I’m having fun playing with brushes and colors!
One thing that helps with enforcing the contrasts on a layer is duplicating it and turning the top one into Overlay mode. Then you can merge the 2 and you have a much more contrasted version of your layer without having to add 1 brush stroke! (Can also work with Addition or Screen depending on the effect you want).
You can control the instensity of the effect by changing the opacity of the top layer before you merge them. And you can probably reach the same effect by adding a filter to the original layer without duplicating it, but I find it much easier to handle with this duplicate method.
Nice start everyone!
@eysselia I like the gift and fireplace idea.
@steve.improvthis awesome composition! so magical…
To keep things easy for me this month, I am just doing a simple photo study. It’s a photo by grafit studio. I would link to the photo, but it involves an art pack with nudity, so I’m skipping it.
Here’s my start;
The girl is holding up a parol, a traditional Filipino Christmas paper lantern.
That is truly beautiful. Please review the first bullet point in the rules (1st post in this thread).
Oh shoot….thanks for reminding me. First time poster and super new to everything. I will remove the post as the original reference was from a walmart poster, so I assume there are copyright issues that come along with that. I will read rules more carefully next time. Thanks!
@celticspirit21 Please feel free to post your beautiful work in the finished artwork category along with an artist’s credit if this is a study of their work.
PS I moved our conversation into the WIP thread for the December challenge.
