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Tracy Larsen
Hallmark Artist
On Monday, June 27, Hallmark Artist, Tracy Larsen chatted with collectors via Facebook. Here is a synopsis of that chat that highlights most of the questions and responses. Please note the chat is not in chronological order and has been grouped by subject and edited for brevity.
Holiday Lighthouse
Tracy: The lighthouse is based on a lighthouse found in Connecticut. It’s a beautiful, stone lighthouse similar to a school. One of my first lighthouses I ever saw in person was in Connecticut and got me hooked on lighthouses ever sense.
Tracy: I personally love this series and want it to go on for many years to come! I have plenty of lighthouse ideas for the future.
Tracy: Actually I have drawn up some Canadian inspired ornaments for the Holiday Lighthouse series. That is certainly on my radar. The Canadian lighthouses that I have been inspired by are striking red and white colors.
Tracy: Good eye! It’s not an exact replica but it is definitely inspired by the beautiful lighthouses in that area.
Holiday Light House
5th in the series.
Other Work
Tea Time!
1st in a five-part series.
Tracy: During a vacation to Memphis, I visited an art museum that had a stunning teapot collection and was inspired. After my vacation, I drew up a few different tea sets as ideas for a new series. Hallmark also has a neat collection of teapots at our headquarters. Also my son, who is getting married in a few weeks used to sing “I’m a little teapot” when he was a child, probably around 4 or 5.
Tracy: It will be a 5 year series!
Tracy: I have drawings for all 5 years but don’t know if those will be the final designs selected yet. As far as the length, definitely only 5. Doesn’t mean there couldn’t be future companion pieces.
Tracy: The elf is actually the worker elf who wraps presents as his job, so he has his scissors and tape in hand.
Tracy: Hopefully I can slip in a little female elf to help out with the decorating.
Tracy: With the cars, a lot of the time they’re inspired by the music that I want to put into the ornament. I like the hair blowing back in the ornament from this year. If you like a little edge on Santa just wait until you see Santa in his car next year!
Tracy: Those are great suggestions!
Tracy: That is the only one with my child’s voice in it! This ornament is one of my favorites. It’s my daughter, Sophie’s voice. She’s 16 now. In the ornament she was reading one of her actual letters to Santa. On the ornament, that’s her riding the rocking horse.
Tracy: I hope so! Frosty is a legend around here!
Career
Tracy: I’ve never been able to choose my favorite ornament because some of them are important to me for different reasons.
Tracy: My favorite is the Holiday Lighthouse series. It’s nice to see how I can get the polar bear and Santa to interact. As a sneak peek, the polar bear gets revenge from what happened to him a few years ago.
Tracy: I really enjoy working on licensed characters. I’ve done Peanuts, Tom and Jerry, and Disney. When I worked on greeting cards, I used to draw Looney Tunes and Garfield. My daughters love Star Wars, Batman, and Avengers.
Tracy: I got to meet Charles Schultz. I’m taking a trip to Santa Rosa to work with other folks who are carrying on the Peanuts work. I’ve been drawing Peanuts characters since I was 4 or 5 years old. Those were some of the first characters I remember drawing.
Tracy: There’s one I did in the past, a club exclusive, Santa. It was in a Faberge sleigh that I was able to add jewels, crystals, and a fur blanket on it. This piece fulfilled some of it for me.
Other
Tracy: Yeah, I pretty much work on ornaments or ornament related product all year. I’ve worked on other product, like the Peanuts Continuity band that played music, with our Hallmark Gift team.
Tracy: Ideally I like staying on an ornament until it’s finished. I’m not much of a multi-tasker!
Tracy: Generally I start with a drawing to get a feel for the ornament. Then, I work on the computer to sculpt it in a 3D program. I will then paint it on a different program to apply the colors just the way I want it. But, it always starts with a good idea transferred into a drawing.
Tracy: It depends on the complexity of the ornament. I can do a Snoopy miniature sized ornament sculpt in about 3 days. However, on average we get a couple weeks go sculpt our ornaments. Because I work on the computer, I can go right to adding color to it after my sculpting is complete. The design process is a difficult thing to gauge. It’s taken a life time of experience that you draw from, for me 56 years!
Tracy: The 2017 ornaments are still being created. We’re just now beginning to concept ideas for 2018.
Tracy: No, my house is a Midwest Split-level, nothing quite exotic. When my wife and I were first married, there was a home in Salem, Utah. It was so cool, just like a Victorian house.
Tracy: I have a tree that my wife decorates with only my ornaments. We have another tree that’s decorated with my favorite ornaments from other Keepsake artists. We also have a little display with all of my Peanuts ornaments.
Tracy: A couple of them certainly have talent but not something that they’re pursuing. All 5 of my children are very good musicians.