Season's Greetings
Where I neglected to send you a christmas card.
This image here, this illustration of cute birds wearing hilarious winter clothing, is my 2024 holiday card. I planned to send it to dozens of people. I sent it to three.1 I used to be really good at sending Christmas Cards. Mostly, I sent them to clients and other people with whom I worked throughout the year. But I’ve never been good at sending holiday cards to family and friends. I have excuses and rationalizations for this, but mostly I just blame it on holiday miasma. By the time we get the kitchen cleaned from the Thanksgiving dinner, I’m already over much of what we in the USA call “Christmas.” Every year, Sacha and I have this conversation around what Christmas means, what it should mean, what makes us feel like we’re doing our part, and what just feels like phoning it in and falling into the crassness of this holiday season.2
Generally, I’m the sort of person that just feels lucky and relieved if I actually manage to get gifts for Sacha and the kids wrapped and under a decorated tree by Christmas Eve. The idea of satisfying a longer list of adult siblings and in-laws and teenage nieces and nephews is overwhelming to me. Writing and sending Christmas Cards fits into that category. I am both envious of and secretly hating on the people out there, you know who you are, who sit down and write an actual holiday greeting on a card, address an envelope, affix a stamp, and get it into the mailbox in time for it to arrive wherever it’s supposed to go.
If you are a cousin or a friend or a nephew or niece and you have always wondered why you never hear from me around the holidays, please accept this admission and apology. I love you, I really do, and I hope your holiday season is delightful.
If you’re a client, on the other hand, like an editor or art director, or agent, or maybe even an author with whom I’ve collaborated, there is a good chance that you have received at least one holiday card from me over the last few decades. I’ve tried to design and print cards every year, some years more successfully than others. Before the pandemic, it was easy to address cards to an editor at a publishing house and know they’d get it. This changed as everyone began working from home, and it’s become more or less permanent now, it seems.3
Because of this, most of the cards I send now are sent as attachments via email. Which I don’t love doing, but it’s better than nothing. In the past, I drew individual cards by hand, and a couple of years I screenprinted them. I have a very good inkjet printer, so creating a card that looks “pro” is pretty simple now. Though, it’s almost always going to be a postcard-style card. Print-registering a recto/verso and scoring the center for folding adds a level of difficulty that I am not going to try and overcome. A few years, I solved this by having cards printed at a local printer. Maybe I’ll do that again.
I thought for this holiday edition of Random Orbit, I’d post as many of these cards I have designed and illustrated over the years as I can find. So enough with the words. Here are the pretty pictures.
The earliest I can find is 2001. I know I made some animated cards back in the 1990s, but they’re either lost on some hard drive somewhere, or created in some file format (Macromedia Director, anyone) that is extinct.
2020: tough year. And one where I noticed mailing cards would be pointless, so I animated this one. I had a first version that used a term more appropriate for the year than “bugger” but decided to stay child-friendly.
Ho Ho Ho!
I’ve got a show coming up!
About twenty of my collages will be on the walls of Chapterhouse Cafe & Gallery here in Philadelphia from January 10 through April. An opening reception will be on the evening of Jan 10. If you’re around, I’d like to see you!
New book!
The second Famously Funny Parrott book will be out on Dec 24! Weird pub date, I know! This is written by Eric Daniel Weiner, illustrated by me, and is as good as the first one.
A business question:
If you are a sole-proprietor or freelance illustrator, what system or software do you use to handle your invoicing? I have been using (cough cough) an InDesign invoice for the last two decades, mainly because I have only actually sent between one and five invoices each year. My literary agency handles this for my books and whatnot. But now that I’ve been doing more work outside of children’s books, I’m looking for a better system. I don’t invoice enough to pay a monthly subscription, like for QuickBooks. But I’d like to know what others use. Hit me in the comments!
Cat content!
We’ve had these cats for a year now. Maple came to stay on Dec 24, and her baby Basil (not so baby anymore) arrived two days later. They are a constant source of amusement.
Lastly, Random Orbit hit 700 subscribers this week. I’d like to send a holiday card to each one of you, but instead I’ll just say thank you. And Happy Holidays.
So far. Maybe I’ll get it together to send more. I need to buy some envelopes. And stamps. And find addresses. I have a week. Less than a week.
This is a subject to explore here. I’ll do it next year.
Of the two books I am currently illustrating, and the three previous, I think none of the editors work in the actual publishing house offices in NYC. Two are on the west coast, even.
Oh I LOVE these!! I love the fishes and King Kong and the pear tree and the aliens and the singers from 2017 - what an awesome array of festive creativity. I am in the uk, so not sure what I use would be any help.. I have a Mettle business bank account, which is free as long as there is one regular payment being made a month, and with it, I get FreeAgent free, which I use for invoicing and accounting stuff!
Now that I see it's easy comment, you're in trouble :)
Thanks for the images - sending you & yours holiday cheers!