Christmas 2012:  Tis the season for Kerry Manwaring original cards; hand drawn, painted, and given to my daughters along with some cash, movie tickets, and a personal note for the finishing touch.

Heather gets Santa's personal airplane, with Rudolf getting a reprieve from his regular duties pulling the sleigh.

Kristi gets a little help from Frosty cooling off the hot chocolate with just a hint of peppermint at the Cloverleaf Bakery.

Lauren had her driver pick up the marauding bear from the family cabin to help her deliver packages for UPS (and Santa) this holiday season.

My sister Karen is employed at a gym/boot camp which is owned and operated by a guy we affectionately call Booty Brett, to distinguish him from Karen's son; also named Brett.  She made what she felt like was a major and costly mistake concerning a client (who took absolutely no responsibility for his part in the error), and Karen adopted a heavy dose of guilt.  To help alleviate said guilt trip and hopefully salve the ire of Brett, she asked me to paint a caricature for him.  The guy absolutely never smiles, so it was odd to receive pictures from his girlfriend in which he was smiling in every one.  He loves to fish and go elk hunting, amongst other things, so I decided to incorporate a little of both in his picture.  Hopefully he will find some humor in his caricature and it elicits at least one more smile in his lifetime!! :)  Karen just hopes it will put her somewhat back in his good graces.  This is done in watercolor.

It's my sister Shauna's birthday again, and I went with the trite Halloween theme that I have done before, (since her special day is so close to the 31st), just a different scene.  I always struggle to come up with different concepts for my homemade birthday cards, especially when there aren't specific events in the lives of my family that I can draw on for inspiration.  Hopefully the effort to do a fun drawing is more meaningful than a store bought Hallmark card.

Well here we are getting close to Presidential election time, so what better time to draw caricatures of the candidates; Obama and Romney.  As a cartoonist, I am extremely bi-partisan...neither is exempt from getting skewered!  That's the fun of it!  This is done with pen and watercolor.

My eldest, Heather, just had her birthday on October 1st and I decided to do a Halloween theme for her card.  Our relationship has been rather strained for the past five years, so this is the first card I've drawn her in quite a while.  We now converse, hug, and say "I love you", but still working on a complete thaw from the frost...hopefully this gets me another degree in the right direction.

I was hired to draw caricatures for a birthday party, and the client asked if I would draw Mick Jagger as a special present for her hubby, because they both "love" him.  She wanted my b/w party style with just his tongue colored, reminiscent of the Stones famous album cover, but it looked rather odd, so I just decided to color the whole thing.  Prisma  is a very quick way to color, as opposed to my time consuming watercolor pieces.

Nancy, a loyal client from Indiana requested a caricature of her dentist, Dr Tyree, who specializes in child care.  Apparently he works on adults as well, but I'm assuming don't get the same benefits, as  Nancy mentioned her jealousy of all the kids who get nitrous oxide to calm them as they get their teeth worked on (hence the contraption over the nose) while Disney's 'Cars' plays in the background.  She wanted those elements depicted in the caricature, and of course, the requisite toothbrush also makes it's appearance, which must always be happy and showing off perfect teeth!

Commission from a couple sending a postcard announcement for their wedding in the Dominican Republic.

I  just finished this commission of a mother's two baseball playing sons to give their father for a birthday present.

My mom always sends a new calendar every Christmas with all the families birth dates and ages filled in.  She is having her birthday this week and conveniently left HER age off the calendar this year, so that was my inspiration for her birthday card.  Hopefully she will have a sense of humor over this one, haha!   

Freddie is in charge of the trainers at the LA Fitness club I sweat, grunt, groan, and suck air at, and he wanted me to draw the son of his friend for a Mother's Day present.  Instead of pay, he gave me a couple of training sessions in exchange.

Commission from Kaiser Permanante;  retirement gift for Donna after 23 years of service.

My little adventurer Lauren went up north to help a friend with the interior remodel of a cabin; floors, walls, ceiling, etc.  In her free time she learned how to use a weed whacker, riding lawn mower, and a rototiller, which I used to incorporate into this year's birthday card for her.  She does everything in her bare feet, which are more leathery on the bottom than most shoes.  If she ran over them with the mower or tiller, I'm sure her feet would do more harm to the machines than they to her feet!!!

My caricatures featured on the cover of the program and banner on the wall of the Norris Theater, Palos Verdes, for the play Arsenic and Old Lace.  Kind of fun!

This week I was commissioned by The Norris Center for the Performing Arts to do nine caricatures for their poster of the production of Arsenic and Old Lace. They wanted my sketchy style and loved the final drawings. I had an absolute blast doing them!!! Hopefully they will give me a finished poster and I will publish that when it comes.

Commission for a father's retirement present. My client originally asked that I make sure to exaggerate his chin as it is the family trademark. Given that license, I went for it. Luckily I sent a rough sketch first, because both she and her mother asked that I not exaggerate it SO much. They also wanted me to make him look younger. Women seem to want everyone to look better, not just themselves!!

Birthdays seem to come around extremely often, and here it is, time for the annual card to my sister Karen. We both read the Hunger Games trilogy recently, so this is a little play on that idea, with reaching the half century mark playing center stage.