The girls and I spent time playing Donkey Kong on our Nintendo back in the day, and Lanky was probably our favorite character because of his long arms, movements, and funny sounds he made, so I thought I would bring back some memories for Lauren this birthday...she spends a lot of her time monkeying around as well, so this is applicable.

 

One of the special needs "girls" I transport to a center recently had her 59th birthday, and she loves cats, so  I made her a card.  No concept in this one...just a cat.

 

Karen reached the milestone of 60 years this birthday, and diamond is the gemstone associated with it. Since I usually enjoy drawing some sort of animal, I thought the burrowing, tunneling mole would be akin to a miner making a wondrous discovery deep beneath the earths surface.

Kristi also hits a momentous one this coming week...leaving her twenties behind for the big 30!  This year is represented by the pearl.  She has always been wise beyond her years, so the "pearls of wisdom" I thought would be perfect, and the Octopus is known to be highly intelligent and resourceful, just like my daughter.

 

2021 Christmas card

Watercolor birthday card for my sister Shauna.  I have no explanation for why I chose a sloth, other than they're kind of cute...in a slightly ugly way...

 

This years Birthday card for my brother, done in watercolor.

 

Lauren is on the go all the time, seemingly traveling as much as working, so her birthday card reflects my idea of her bounding from place to place with everything she needs stuffed into a backpack.

 

Three recent commissions.  The first two are done with Prismacolor, the last in watercolor.

 

   

My daughters are like polar bears.  Hiking somewhere near Lake Tahoe, they came upon one of the many small lakes hidden in the mountains, prompting them to strip down and swim in the frigid waters out to the middle, where a mini iceberg was floating, and they proceeded to sit on said ice, freezing their behinds, before jumping back into the water.  My original thought for Kristi's birthday card was to draw a penguin on an iceberg to commemorate their little adventure, but since this was in Tahoe, I decided on a beaver as though his little dam/house had frozen over, and sunshine rhymed with her age of 29.

 

 My sister, Karen, asked me to do some caricatures for Christmas presents.  Sometimes it is difficult to get good likenesses from photographs because details are usually not clear, and I really struggled and got very frustrated with these!!  Mounds of erasure shards, crumpled, tossed paper, and many spicy words later, I got as close to satisfied as I was going to get!

Her son, Brett got married this year.  He had fulfilled an LDS mission to southern India and wanted to carry that theme for his reception in Boise, and his new wife, Bailey agreed to his desire.  Indian friends of the family provided traditional clothes for the occasion, and the painting depicts what they wore.  The Golden Palace was a location that Brett had wanted to visit, but was not able, so I chose to make this the background.  

These are the aforementioned Indian friends of the family who love to dance and party, so I found some examples of traditional dance forms and costumes for their theme.

Longtime friends and neighbors who love the out of doors, kayaking being one of their favorite activities. I've done kayak pictures before, so I wanted to do something a bit different.  I thought a wet grass foraging moose in a lake coming up for air just at the right moment would be funny (and different)!

2020 will probably not go down in history as one of the better ones, but in thinking about this years

Christmas card, hoping that humanity can find a bit of light to counteract some of the darkness that

perhaps some might be feeling.  Merry Christmas and best wishes for the coming New Year.

 

The client wanted four more drawings to finish her book for her children.  She seemed happy that I was able to get all the drawings done quickly enough to include more than she was anticipating before the deadline.

 

 A client wanted me to draw some B/W depictions for a little book she was creating and putting together for her children as Christmas presents.  I didn't find out the meaning each drawing represented, but it was fun none the less!

For a few months this summer I toiled at a lawn care company, and I was inspired to draw the cast of characters I worked with from memory so my family could put faces to the names they kept hearing.  Originally, my intent was never to show the sketches to any co-workers (I added some humor and didn't know how it would be taken), but I broke protocol one day with two of them.  Surprisingly, they laughed and seemed to like their portrayal.  As a result, Brooke asked me if I would draw her father for a Christmas present.  If you couldn't tell, he is an avid Star Wars fan; Darth Vader in particular, so this is what I came up with.  She sent a text that she absolutely loved it...a few spicy words added for emphasis, haha!  It's nice to hit the bullseye on occasion!

My nephew, Brandon, asked if I would draw caricatures of his sister-in-law and a co-worker he carpools with to work for Christmas presents.  

 

 I've got some catching up to do since Covid upended the lives of pretty much everyone on the planet.  I was convinced to leave California in March after making a life there for almost 35 years, moving to Boise, Idaho to be closer to family.  The adjustments have certainly been a rollercoaster ride of mixed emotions, but my daughters assured me that it's all for the best, since in their opinion, I had become stagnant.  I suppose change can be challenging, but necessary for personal growth and adding some flavor.  Anyway...some drawings to add from the last few months.

Lauren loves her Toyota pickup and has named it Elmer.  She loves traveling, new adventures, and nature.  She has equipped the shell covered bed of Elmer with a pad, blankets, and supplies so she can just eat and sleep wherever she lands.  As you can see I have anthropomorphized the truck ala Disney's "Cars" and think it looks like an "Elmer".  I enjoyed drawing this birthday card for her.

My brother, the candy maker doesn't particularly love the outdoors as a general rule, but will go along in support with his more ambitious wife.  While standing on an unstable and wobbly paddle board has become a popular choice for some, Brian prefers the leisure of sitting in a kayak with the least amount of paddling possible, hence my idea of him floating in comfort in a big copper kettle with nary an oar in sight.

Spiders are not usually what people envision as cute and cuddly, but since Shauna's birthday falls near Halloween, I thought it could be kind of appropriate-ish.  I thought of the book "Charlotte's Web" and the messages the spider would weave.  How exhausting it must be after the intricate webs are spun, and that's how I depicted my colorful spider, with an iota of humor added.

During last summers visit with Kristi in Carson City, we ventured a ride on my Goldwing around the rim of Lake Tahoe, stopping to do some kayaking, and then to play at a miniature golf park.  At one particular hole, Kristi thwacked the ball with a little extra exuberance, sending it clanking and ricocheting off various obstacles, stopping just short of making it through the fence and out to the parking lot.  While this illustration for her birthday card does not depict the exact hole from said incident, this particular dragon is on the course, and I thought it would add to the humor and fond memories of a perfect day with my daughter.

Last year, while visiting my sister in Boise, she showed me a quails nest hidden amongst one of her outside hanging plants that she had been spritzing with water, and there must have been about 8 eggs the mother was attending to.  Within a day or two, the mother had seemingly abandoned the brood just as they began emerging from their eggs.  Later in the afternoon I walked out on the porch and noticed a couple of young hatchlings laying and struggling on the ground, and couldn't figure out how that happened, so as gently as we could, scooped them up and put them back in their nest.  A couple hours later we again found a few of them on the ground.  The mother was not around to push them out, so they must have just wiggled out on their own.  My niece called some animal place to see if anything could be done to help the little guys, but was told to let nature take its course, so it was a little sad knowing that they probably wouldn't make it without a mother to take care of them.

I decided to use this life drama as a memory for Karen's birthday card.  Though not wanting to seem heartless, I couldn't help finding a bit of humor in it...just for the card.  Now I guess I'll go roast in hell...

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.