Hila 25

Hila, my eldest son's girlfriend, turned 25 at the end of June. She has been part of our family for some time now and receives one of my handmade cards each year. Last year's birthday card featured her family's dogs, Toffee and Archie, quite prominently. The year before, I illustrated her and Nadav at a cooking workshop in the Vietnamese city of Hội An.

This year, Nadav sent me this brilliant photo of Hila and Toro, the rescue pup they adopted last year, below. It was taken in the open spaces of Kibbutz Ramot Menashe, where Hila grew up, and the two of them look like they're having a wonderful time together. It's quite amazing how high Toro can jump!

Nadav hoped a card based on this photo would be a memorable one for her.

I nearly always sketch my cards first, and this time the sketch is worth sharing. I wanted to preserve the natural background of the original photo while still making Hila and Toro the focal point. You can't see Toro's face on my card, but you can see just how much energy he has!

I added a large number 25 to mark Hila's age, and the Hebrew greeting simply reads, "Happy Birthday Hila".
I've also included one final, slightly gratuitous, photo of Toro at the bottom of this post - this time showing his face - because it would be unfair not to let everyone appreciate just how handsome he is ☺

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade, Craft Schooling Sunday, Mosaic Monday