Catching Up Part 2

2010 was a great year for me in many ways. The best being that I got a girlfriend, Debra, who is all-around wonderful, and very supportive. All I ever really wanted was a girl who loves my silly pictures and encourages me to do more of them. And I got one! To show my appreciation, I put her into the pictures from time to time. Historically I've had bad experiences with putting love interests into my work. But this time it's different. This time the girl actually likes me back. :-)

First Anniversary 2011:

2011 was spent mostly travelling from place to place with my new love. But some of my favorite moments are the quiet ones. The times where we're not doing much of anything at all. I feel this picture captures that kind of moment.

For Debra's anniversary present, I had this printed on special canvas paper and I made it into a scroll for her to hang on her wall. Compared to the disastrous result of doing something similar for a love interest years ago, this piece worked beautifully. I don't handle heartache well, and I had a good run of it for a while. But ever since Debra and I got together, I don't even remember what it feels like to not be loved. When I make artwork like this, as mushy as it is, I go to a special place. The only hard time I have is from the time I finished working on this to the moment she opened it and saw it. Long story short, Deb's tears led me to think she loved it.

Christmas 2011:

Okay enough mushiness--and onto sappiness! I decided to take a little more time and create a really cool Christmas card for my friends and family. First, let's take a look at the main inspiration for this piece:

I loved the simplicity of it and I felt I could really do a nice send-up featuring myself, my daughter Cyan and Debra. Here is the end result:

I consider this one of my favorites. It's certainly my best holiday card. I wish I could reuse it every year. I won't though. I like making new things.

For gifts, I was just going to make a simple magnet this year with one simple picture because I'm lazy, but one day I was sitting at my desk at work, and out of nowhere an idea hits me: Seasons! I'll do a picture for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. To my delight, I managed to finish these in one weekend.

Winter

Kind of an update to last year's x-mas cards but with a twist. It's cute without being annoying I think.

Spring

This one seemed easy in my head. But when I got down to it, I realized I couldn't skimp on the flower details. I don't think I've ever drawn so many flowers. I like the result though. I may update this one in the future.

Summer

I was just being silly here. I love Boardwalk Empire, so I came up with this design based on the 1920s. The people I gave this to enjoyed it.

Fall

This is the highlight of the bunch. I love autumn leaves and trees. Working on this piece inspired me to do more nature-themed artwork. We'll see.

They all came together to form one large pic that makes sense when placed side-by side. The result: a folding 2012 Calendar:

And the magnet:

I usually stop there. But for some reason I decided to make bookmarks:

I don't know what got into me last year. I just exploded. It worked in my favor because they make great gifts. Of course now I have to find some way to top myself next year.