My sister Karen and her family recently went on a vacation to Florida, and while there visited an aquarium where they were able to swim with the dolphins.  It was her favorite experience of the week, so of course that is what I incorporated for this years birthday card.  My brain struggled with a catch phrase to go along with the dolphin theme, but I came up blank.  Thus the trite, but still applicable flipper thing.  I usually do the cards in Prisma, but this one is watercolor.

Another project for my brother in-law, Randy.  He has a strange, confrontational relationship with an apparently cranky, mean, and down right abusive bank teller that goes by the name Bea.  He has no clue why she treats him so badly and she used to get under his skin, but after a while he decided to give as good as he was getting, and they have been throwing barbs back and forth at each other with reckless abandon whenever he does his banking.  I find it rather odd for Randy to give this nasty teller a Valentines gift, but he wanted a caricature as a kind of smack down, and this is the scene he described for me to draw and color which he will present to his nemesis on the 14th.  This is done in pen and Prismacolor.

My brother-in-law, Randy, has a friend that owns a trailer in the mountains near Idaho City, about 25 miles to the northeast of Boise.  Every year around mid May, a bunch of pals gather together for a weekend of male bonding; a kind of mountain man camp, no females allowed.  Lots of stories, drinking, cigars, and eating meat.  Randy asked me to do a painting commemorating the annual event, and I reluctantly agreed.  After A LOT of procrastination (two years worth) I finally kicked myself in the butt to finish so it could be framed and presented for this years camp.  The trailer is beat up and a boring, dirty white/ecru, so I added a bit of color to make it pop; and more interesting for me, since I didn't really want to do it in the first place.  The fire pit is actually farther off to the right, but I had to condense everything to incorporate all the elements he wanted in the painting.  The original is 9"X15" and done in watercolor.

My sister Karen recently had me paint a caricature for her boss, a gym owner whom we call Booty Brett.  Apparently it put an extremely unusual smile on his ever present sour mug, and he liked it so well, he decided to get a caricature done of his girlfriend for her birthday.  She has two miniature Pinschers, Ritter and Roo, so they were incorporated into the painting along with her love of wine and snowboarding.  This was done in watercolor.

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.