Brown paper packages tied up with string...

One of my favorite things is starting a new year. As much as I adore Christmas, doesn't it feel good to put away all of the holiday hoopla, to open that crisp new calendar, and to have the new year sitting there just waiting to be unwrapped?

I've been wanting to draw this little package ever since I received it. Actually, I received twelve of them, nestled in a beautiful wooden box. They were a gift from my sister who knows how much I love the show "The Fabulous Beekman Boys" on the Planet Green Channel. If you're not familiar with the show or the boys,  Josh and Brent, you must check out their website. On their unbelievably gorgeous farm in upstate New York, these transplanted city boys are all about seasonal, self-sustaining living. They grow gorgeous heirloom vegetables, but my favorite things are their goats. Last season's show included scenes of Brent wrapping up their handmade goat milk soaps late into the night. Now I have my very own soaps, and they're truly luxurious.  They sell a lot of other great products at Beekman 1802, and a recent visit to their website shows the soaps wrapped a little differently; so perhaps I have one of the last hand-wrapped boxes. (Update: Hooray -  they're still hand-wrapped this way - see the comment below from Brent and Josh.)

I know that this was a strange subject to choose as the first thing to draw with my new colored pencils - I probably should have chosen something a little more, well, colorful. As I finished, it, I feared that I might have overworked the brown paper a bit (I was a little overwhelmed with so many colors to choose from!), so I took a second stab with more of a monochromatic drawing. (As I have been doing mostly botanical subjects lately, this subject was a departure for me, and I now know that I need lots of practice at drawing crinkled paper.)

I hope to have time in the next couple of days to draw it untied and opened up...the soaps are simply little bars of heaven. Until then, here's to the adventure of unwrapping a brand-new year!