Cards for the Boys

Somewhere at the back of my dark and cavernous roofspace is a voluminous old suitcase full of things I don't want to throw away but don't know what to do with - other than pack them away in an old suitcase....! And somewhere in this suitcase are my school reports, aged three, with marks for 'literature' and 'poetry'. One of these now fragile documents contains the information that I 'showed promise in Art' but was 'not much interested in sport'. So nothing has changed really - apart from my late-onset enthusiasm for watching Wales play rugby.

But today I've begun to bring the two together, using my 'promise in Art' to make a series of birthday cards for young people who are 'interested in sport' -

 I had originally intended that these should be more collages, but as I seem to have sold mostly pen and wash designs through Greeting Card Universe, I decided to go back to that style. I even planned to venture into unknown territory, using a dip pen and went out and bought some Indian Ink. My practice pieces with the dip pen went well and I was pleasantly surprised at how much ink the pen could hold in its little reservoir (I was using a calligraphy pen), but when it came to the point, I chickened out and stuck with the 'safer' watercolour pencil and watercolours routine. After all, I haven't used ink for a while and one wrong stroke of the pen and all my work would be ruined!

You'll notice that, so far, these are all birthday cards suitable for young men! But I couldn't resist adding one for the girls -

I am trying to focus on cards for men and boys but 'three out of four ain't bad!'

The Greeting Card Universe reviewers seem to have speeded up just recently and cards are being approved in 5, rather than 7, days. So these, and all their related 'age specific' cards I've made, should be available quite soon.