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I
don't know exactly how someone finds free time during the christmas
season, but somehow I had it. During the fall of '92, I decided
I was going to make my own christmas cards. Aside from schoolwork,
finals, commuting, shopping and everything else, somehow, I
could fit it in.
First, I did sketches. Tons and tons of sketches. I really wanted
a different look than the traditional card but it still had
to be stylish. I thought of everything from christmas trees
to santa claus to snowmen to a mitten lost on the ground. It
really got to be a pain in the ass.
It did work out in the end, and as a result I managed to keep
a cool tradition of artwork for the holiday season.
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Christmas
of '92 is what started it all. Santa Claus with the sunglasses
was my first christmas card ever and boy was it a pain in the
ass.
How did I do it ? This was somewhat before computers were at
hand or at least reasonable to work on, at least for me. I wound
up silkscreening it. Yep, the hard way. I set up a little slot
that my silkscreen frame would fit into and throw all the cards
in there. Then after silkscreening all the cards, (black ink
only), I would hand paint each one of them in acrylics. The
final touch was to add some glue and put some glitter on for
the ball on the end of the hat. You'd think that it's not that
tough, but don't forget that these are card blanks, meaning
nothing is printed inside. I'd then have to write a few words
for each card and try not to sound like the usual hallmark kind
of comment. Some of them were more personalized than others,
but still each one unique. |
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It
was the spring of '96 that I got a computer (Macintosh, baby...yeah),
and then christmas of '96 that I got a drawing tablet with some
drawing programs. Hence, christmas of '97 was yet again
an opportunity to once again do a christmas card after 5 years.
I don't think I did any sketches, I just started screwing around
with the tablet and this drawing program and came up with the
finish. To be honest, I didn't like the way it came out. I don't
know if it was the colors or the resolution or the layout, I
just thought it kind of sucked, but sent it out nonetheless. |
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Winter
of '98, I was looking at the nightmare that was my christmas
card that I sent out the prior year. I didn't want to go that
same route. I had some luck and had purchased a scanner. By
looking around this site, you can see how handy it's come in.
I decided to go back to traditional ink and colored pencils
and do a drawing for christmas of '98.
This worked out much better in the sense that I really pounded
out some sketches that were pretty involved, much more than
the quick sketch eye-catching drawings you saw above. Only thing
I regret is since I worked on a much larger size, when I shrunk
it down to the size I needed, you almost couldn't see some parts
of the image and you'd lose some of the detail. The other downside
was that the colors weren't as vibrant as working them out on
the computer. In any case, it still was a success and I still
sent out plenty of cards. Up to this point, I can honestly say
that for each one of the 3 cards I've sent out during those
past years, I must have done about 25-40 or so cards every year. |
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Winter
of '99 was a real bummer. I was laid off from my last job in
october, I had some money in the bank, had school bills but
no job and christmas on it's way just made everything depressing.
I'm usually pretty alright during the holiday season, but this
year I could definitely had done without it.
I think it was for those same reasons, that I chose the design
for christmas of '99 to be somewhat sarcastic. Just a
bit over the edge. I kind of look at it as, "oh, how sweet",
but something about "swell christmas" and a mouse caught in
a trap just puts a twist on it. I did do plenty of sketches
again, I just kept coming back to this one. In the end, after
they were all completed and I had done my standard amount of
cards for starters, I had only really sent out about 10. I think
it was holiday stress that led me to forget some people and
not want to bother with others.
The neat thing about this card was that after doing a finished
ink drawing, I wound up scanning it and worked it out on the
computer. Came out looking pretty great with really nice vibrant
colors. So I guess after all it was a success, although not
many people got to see it. |
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Winter
of 2000 was even more of a bummer than the year before. Granted
I wasn't unemployed as I was the previous christmas, I still
wasn't in the mood for this year's holiday. Regardless, I did
manage to pull out a drawing for christmas of 2000.
In an effort to give something back to the many people who visit
this site, I set up a form where people could sign up for a
free christmas card. It was of course a lottery situation, I
only had 20 extra cards to send out, but as a result of the
details and chances, nobody really went for it. Aside from the
normal amount of cards that I sent out to my own friends and
family, through my site, I only sent out 2 cards to people
who signed up. (Wes and also Jenn, you know who you are... thank
you...). The attempt could have been a complete failure, and
granted that I really wasn't in the mood to make cards this
year, and literally forced myself to get them done at the risk
of sending them out too late, I did manage to get them out and
so far had gotten pretty good results from those who have received
them. So after all, no matter how crummy the season was, and
however much I lacked the holiday spirit, this year became the
5th "successful" year (if you can call it that), for making
my christmas cards and keeping it a tradition. |
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Christmas
2001... ! I'm glad to say it was a success, had my normal
amount of cards to send out to friends and family, and then
had about 5 signups on the christmas card form for card
requests, (thanks to an unknown friend in boston who referred
me time and time again) :)
Like I was saying, was pretty happy with the result... had even
managed to send a card to england, and even one to australia,
which makes me glad to see that my site is "gettin' around".
Thank you everyone who came by to say hello, I'm hoping this
year's card was a pleasant surprise to everyone who got one
as far as design and idea, (I thought it was wickedly funny),
and... I'm at a point where I'm considering having some designs
available for sale for next year. Just for those who might like
cards for themselves to send to their friends and family. I'm
excited that the cards have been the success they turned out
to be, I do predict that next year I should get more signups,
and I'm glad I'm gotten this 6th year tradition this far. |
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Christmas
of 2002 has been quite an interesting one. I had wanted
to have the cards over and done with in august and yet I wasn't
quite so inspired. It was only during thanksgiving weekend
that the idea and design came to me, and if I'm so shamelessly
allowed to recycle old work, the 2002 card also included some
peeks from a few of the older cards.
One of the more fun aspects of this particular card was that
it had used a lot of scanned images for patterns in the drawing.
The wallpaper was pattern from a pillow, the fireplace was
from a cinder block in my basement, the christmas tree pattern
was a photo of an actual pine tree, the blanket on the boy,
(me), was a banana republic pullover I have and I just added
stars to it, the fur used for the dog was actually from a
photo of cat fur and even more exciting... the pattern used
for the sofa was from a pair of my underpants. hee hee hee.
I'm
sure not many people knew my underpants were adorning their
christmas decorations this year, but it made it out to perhaps
about 18 people of which maybe 5 of those were internet signups.
I guess you can say it's just a little harmless holiday fun.
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In
an effort to "automate" everything or at least make
things easier for me to put these together, (aside from the
whole front cover drawing of the card), I'm manage to work on
a few easier steps on producing these a bit more efficiently.
For starters, the "homemade cards" logo that goes
on the backside of each and every card has been made into an
"official" machine made rubber stamp that no longer
requires me handwriting the text above and below the logo. The
stamp I had done by hand was getting a bit old and tedious for
all the added writing.
Another big plus is an easier way of including a short and generic
message on the inside of the cards which has become a HUGE time
saver. Since all cards are blank when I've purchased them, I've
gone through the huge intense labor of handwriting each and
every one and attempting to be original AND sincere in each
of my messages and in my efforts to personalize each one. I
believe people understand the amount of work I put into each
one of them and don't mind if I solely write their names and
"Merry Christmas -Herman" on the cards by hand. It
does make a big difference. |
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To
all those who have remained loyal fans and those who signed
up for cards, an immense "thank you" from yours truly.
I'm happy the way this project has turned out during the years
and hope to keep it alive and hopefully with more requests.
Merry Christmas to you all... |
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