Christmas card for 2019.  Peace, love, and understanding.  Would that we could all try for a little more of this, and a little less animosity, condemnation, and chaos.

My sister and husband bought some kayaks and love to find new lakes and rivers almost every weekend for fun and adventure.  I went with them this summer to some lakes in Teton National park in Wyoming, and we had a wonderful time, so this is what my theme for her birthday card became for this year.

A client asked me to help her with a wedding gift she was creating for her fiancé.  He starts every morning with coffee and reading the newspaper.   She found a company that could produce personal newspapers.  She wrote articles about how they met, dating adventures, fond memories, his proposal, wedding local, and future aspirations, then called and asked me to illustrate some of these moments to go along with her articles.  These are all 5X7", done in watercolor.  I struggled getting good likeness having to work so small, but she seemed pleased with the result, saying they were beautiful.

When my brother purchased a Can Am, he took it out on its maiden voyage to some far reaching Madison county farm lands, and at one point attempted to spin a cookie, abruptly tipping over.  His insane instinct was to straight arm outside the "door" to keep it from occurring, but alas, it only served to pin his arm under the upended frame whilst breaking said arm in half.  Somehow, he eventually managed to tug and wiggle from underneath his burden, staggered out to the road in pain, trying to hold his limp arm in the least agonizing position possible.  By some miracle, a couple of hunters happened by out in the middle of nowhere, and they assisted getting him back home.  His wife rushed him to the hospital for surgery...pins and scars worthy of Frankenstein's monster.  

Later in the story, his daughter attempted to drive the Can Am around their block, when the front wheels abruptly fell off.  Fortunately, she was not injured.  It was determined that the dealer, (or whomever put the thing together), had neglected to tighten the lug bolts, perhaps a factor in the fateful cookie attempt, but definitely a reason for detached, wayward wheels!

The whole point of this story is that these incidences became my inspiration for my brothers birthday card...he is turning 53, and frequently moans and groans while dealing with aches and pains that accompany the aging process.  He seems to be falling apart...just like his demon Can Am.  It just seemed so applicable to capture the events in a way that tickles my warped sense of humor!

Kristi is interested in the energy of spirit, mind and body, and exudes wisdom beyond her 27 years, so for her birthday card I utilized the Chakra with the owl to embody those characteristics she espouses in her life.

Sister Karen teaches piano lessons, but I thought drawing a piano would be boring and cliche for her birthday card, so wanting to have more fun, I was thinking a bit about composer extraordinaire Beethoven and his monumental mane of hair flying manically around his head during a bombastic performance, but I had already done a t-shirt design for her students depicting his distinctive countenance.  Though also a bit of a cliche, my thoughts turned to penguins with their aptly suited tuxedo look.  In my search for reference, I found the Macaroni penguin... a perfect solution for the flamboyant, crazy, Beethoven-esque look I wanted for my enthusiastic conductor!!  An Opus is an artistic/musical composition of grand scale, so what better way to celebrate a life work of 57 amazing years!

I haven't posted anything in awhile, so these are lumped together from recent drawings.  The first is this year's birthday card to my sister Shauna, next is my Christmas card for 2018, and the last is a watercolor caricature for a client who has commissioned quite a few from me in the past.