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Monday 23 January 2017

Drawing diary: December


It's time for the first Drawing Diary entry of 2017! I know it's the new year and all, but for this one we will briefly travel back in time to the final weeks of 2016. Drawing in December revolved all about that one thing I had to make: the new year's card (dun dun dun). After all, I promised you guys I would send you one if you signed up for my card swap! Unfortunately, that horrible thing happened that typically occurs when you ' have to' do something rather than just do it for fun without pressure: I suffered from a creative block - I had no idea what I wanted to put on my card. Eventually, I forced myself to sit down and draw all the nerdy creatures that I encountered in 2016.


Find them all: the demiguise, flareon, K2-SO,  thunderbird, bowtruckle, oddish and niffler (4x; can you tell I like nifflers?!).

However, these were just lose sketches, so I tried to make combine them into a card design.


First thought: very cute! Second thought: maybe a bit too cute? Third thought: this would've been perfect for Christmas, but it wouldn't arrive in time. Final thought: there's too much white around the "2017" in the middle. It could do with a better text.

But what text would fit on a nerdy new year's card?


I made some scribbles and ended up liking the Star Wars themed one most. The only problem was that it worked better as a rectangle rather than square, and the "2017" text was a bit bland. But I liked it, so I decided to throw all previous ideas out of the window and go for a purely text based card. I just wanted to give it a bit more jazz by incorporating a drawing into the "2017".


These are the final card designs. Yes, I made two different ones! The friends and family I asked for feedback all preferred the deathstar - Conrad even came up with a whole theory of how the deathstar stands for "to nullify", making it perfect for the zero - but I was in love with K-2SO. If you don't know why: go watch Rogue One. K-2SO is amazing! The poor thing can't help it's Imperial design and looks terrifying. /comfort

I ended up only sending K-2SO to people I was positive about they had seen Rogue One: I didn't want anyone ending up with a heart attack because of my card.


While I did not end up using anything from the first two sketches for my card, I created a header for my post Rav's review of the year 2016 with them, so the time wasn't entirely wasted.

Finally, I want to thank everyone that participated in my card swap. I received so many cards that I almost feel guilty and selfish for setting this thing up! I received cards from readers that I didn't even know read my blog and some even sent really cool artistic creations. Just wow! I bought some ribbon and miniature clothespins and now they proudly hang on my wall (see below).

Some of the awesome cards I received - thank you!! (click to enlarge)

I was actually feeling down in December, thinking gloomy things about the nature of people. But then all these cards came in from (semi) random people on the internet, and it was so awesome! So thank you, cool people that read my blog, for proving me wrong. And of course: may the force be with you in 2017, always.

16 comments :

  1. Rav thanks for the card. Where is the address so I can send you one in return. Happy New Year

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    1. Oh noes! I sent you another e-mail today. Check your spam folder, that might be where the previous one went. If you still didn't get it, send me an e-mail (see About me) so we can check the address.

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  2. Just sent you an email to say many thanks "it is now in our office leaning against a speaker, so ever day we get the message:

    May the FORCE be with ya in 2017."

    My wife and I didn't realise, until now, that you designed the card, which makes it doubly precious.

    Again, many thanks from the snows of Idaho. And 'May the FORCE be with ya in 2017'.

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    1. I'm flattered you didn't see right away that it was just me trying to write really neatly on the front of the card! It's never quite perfect, but that's one of the things I like about not doing things digitally.

      Your story about the speaker made me chuckle. I hope it will send good vibes your way (and I'm still jealous at the snow, haha).

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  3. I love hearing how you came up with your card designs. I'll admit that I didn't sign up for the card swap until I had an idea of what I wanted to draw. Just in case I couldn't come up with anything. ^^; I am really glad that I did sign up. I had fun working on the card. I am so glad that you liked it!

    December was a rough month for me too. The middle of the month marked the twentieth year since Cocoa came home to be my true love of horses and this was my first Christmas without him. I'm so glad that you got cards that cheered you up!

    Actually your card arrived on the 21st of this month. It was a great find in the mailbox since I was feeling rather down (it marked the fifth month since Cocoa's passing). So thank you for your great timing and kind words on the card. I absolutely love it. Your hand writing is awesome. I wish mine was so neat. :)

    I hope you do the card swap again this year. I would love to participate again.

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    1. Haha, you know, you didn't *have* to draw something for your card! That said, I'm glad you did because it was awesome, and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who gets obsessed by drawing rather than buying one. :P

      Christmas is so tough for so many people. It's all supposed to be about family time, but as you grow older, you inevitably think of the people that are missing. I wrote a blog post about this but deleted it, because it was just too depressing. For me it was the first Christmas without my father and it was a struggle to find a way to make it work.

      I'm glad my card cheered you up a bit as well. It's hard to fill the gap of such a good friend. /hug

      On more positive things, I'm definitely planning on doing this again at the end of the year. This was the second time around and I was astonished by the amount of people that participated. I love doing this, so this is definitely going to be a tradition. :D

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    2. I saw hand made card and ran with it. :) As an artist I couldn't help myself. Plus doing something more nerdy with a Christmas theme was fun. =3

      I can't even imagine losing a parent. I'll admit I don't even want to (losing my grandparents through the years has been hard enough). The holes that are left by the loss of the presence and relationship are definitely difficult to deal with. /hug

      Glad to hear it. I will have to start scheming this year's design so I'm ready when December rolls around. :D

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    3. Haha, if you start out now, you definitely should be ready for December! Perhaps I should do that, too, so I'm not so shamefully late with my cards. :P Being late is kind of a tradition by now as well, though. :$

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  4. Thanks again for the card, Rav!

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  5. I LOVE your card designs! So cute! I still have 2015's up on my shelves on display just because I love it and I'll be adding this one to it. I'm glad mine made it to you safely! :)

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    1. I'm SO glad you like them! It felt a bit silly to spend so much time designing something, and then ending up with such a simple black-and-white card. Typical. >.<

      I've added yours to the post as well (didn't have time to scan it earlier) - I'm still in awe with your drawing skills. So beautiful! It makes me all happy that this annual card swap is a thing! :D

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  6. Confession: I had to google niffler to see what they are. I believe that I am one of the few people left in the world who's yet to see Fantastic Beasts - but anyhow your card for 2017 is very cute and nerdy. I definitely prefer the one with the deathstar...and I love the whole nullify theory - it's as if it's removing 2016's ability to affect us in any way. If this makes any sense at all...as for the annual card swap, I'm insanely jealous of everyone's artistic ability.

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    1. I'm sure you're not the only one that hasn't seen Fantastic Beasts yet - if you're a Harry Potter fan, I would certainly recommend it, though! Quite a fun and cute movie. And other people's artistic ability definitely makes me jealous too, so you're not alone in that. ^^

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  7. I really admire the notion of the card-swap initiative; both the idea itself and the execution in general (I absolutely love the K-2 card!) are fantastic.

    It's just unfortunate for me that it's something I can't really 'get involved' with, since explaining why a stranger in Holland knows my home address (and why/how I know theirs) would be really difficult to explain away to my family. The burdens of not being able to have your own accommodation, I guess.

    The cards you received in-turn have also been fantastic, and like others I really like seeing the creative potential of those who sent you cards. ^^

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    1. Yes, FINALLY, another K-2SO fan! *high five* I totally understand with the nosy family thing. It's always a leap of faith as well to organize this card swap, but so far everything has been fantastic. Maybe one day you'll have your own place and we can exchange cards. :)

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