Contemplating Christmas

Here's an illustration I finished a few months ago for a local author, but for some reason I had never posted it online. I call it "Christmas Eve", and it is meant to capture the moments before the birth of Jesus Christ. I wonder what emotions and thoughts Mary had as she prepared for the birth of the Christ child?

Posemaniacs.com

A friend made mention of www.posemaniacs.com in his blog, so I checked it out. It's a really interesting site for figurative artists. It provides nearly 20,000 figure poses that artists can use for reference. The figures are not actual photos, but digital constructions showing basic musculature and anatomy. The figures can also be rotated for viewing from multiple angles. While I would much rather draw from life, Posemaniacs offers a very a nice alternative for when models and time are not readily available. I am interested in knowing what other artists think of it.