My Scout Greeting Cards

Once a year I remind my readers that I have drawn some popular greeting cards for Scouts, in case you know someone who is earning a special honor through the organization. My son is an Eagle Scout and he had such a great experience with the Boy Scouts, learning great practical skills and making good friends, while reinforcing responsibility and good morals, and I am happy to share in celebrating current Scouts’ achievements.

All of my Scout cards are available in my Etsy shop. I drew the whimsical Eagle Salute Congratulations card below first, when a friend achieved the Eagle rank a year before my son. When my son made Eagle and had his Court of Honor alongside his best friend, I painted the Eagle Scout on a hilltop scene.

The journey to Eagle is guided by Scoutmasters, parents, friends and others who inspire and encourage the Scout to accomplish the challenges needed to achieve Eagle rank. Several customers asked me to produce smaller thank-you notecards for Eagles to send to their mentors, and they too are on my Etsy shop at this link. If the buyer wishes a special message printed inside these notecards, I can customize the card message after we chat through email.

I’ve also drawn Congratulations on Crossing Over cards for young children making the ceremony from Webelo to Scout rank, since my two grandsons have become Scouts. That ceremony is often in February, so the time is coming up!

And I drew these ‘Trustworthy’ boxed notecards with the Scout Law on them, which are very popular as gifts for Scout leaders and Eagles.

I have many 5-star reviews and nice comments about my cards and service, which are listed in the review section of my shop. All of my cards are printed on sturdy card stock – the congratulations cards are greeting-card-size, and the thank-you notecards are smaller, invitation-size. Envelopes are included with each order, and all the cards take standard first-class postage. The cardstock is made from partially recycled paper and my cards are printed in the USA – in fact, they are printed in my hometown! By the way, let me give a shoutout to all the wonderful people at Cortineo Creative LLC – who print all my cards with outstanding efficiency and keep the colors stunning!

I’ll mention, if you are in my area of central Bucks County, PA, you can email me before you order on Etsy, if you’d like to pick up your cards in person to save some postage. And for special orders of quantity, size or message just send your questions by clicking HERE to go to my Contact page to drop me a line. And I have some other cards on my Etsy shop for musicians and special occasions, you can see them all HERE.

Blaine’s Podcast

I was on Blaine Greenfield’s podcast last night – a delight all around, he’s the Ed Sullivan of the Asheville, NC area!

I fumbled a bit getting my artwork to screenshare, so I’m posting a pdf of some of my New Yorker published-and-rejected cartoons below, so you all can take the full tour I was going to give Blaine. Please scroll through – just place your cursor on the vertical bar at the right of the image and slide it down to scroll.

(If they appear too small to read, try clicking on the three horizontal lines at top left. All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles, but the first four are (c) The New Yorker.)

blaine_achilles_nyer_cartoonsDownload

Now below is the slideshow I was going to show Blaine of my children’s book illustration, and some illustrations for adult books too. Included are illustrations from The Upside-Down Gardener, Grand Slam Birthday and the Adventures of the Poodle Posse series by Chrysa Smith; Robbie to the Rescue by Laurie Nowlan; Let’s Visit New Hope, by Gayle Goodman and Roy Ziegler; The Book of Jims and Bills! Bills! Bills! by Jim Miller (they are fun books all about famous people thru history named Jim/James or William/Bill, fun to give as a gift to friends of those names), Leading Team Members with Super Powers by Thomas Edwards (a great informational book about working and training neurodiverse employees), and A Woman’s Book of Dirty Words by Mary Fran Bontempo. If you want to purchase any, I believe they are all available on Amazon. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

blaine_achilles_kids_adult_bookillustrationsDownload

This slideshow below shows some of my greeting cards for Eagle Scout events and for the holidays – some are available now on my Etsy shop (click HERE) and some I hope to post there soon. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

blaine_achilles_greetingcardsDownload

Below are some of the cards I’ve drawn, which Blaine enjoys so much, for Kohlhepp Investment Advisors. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

slideshow_kohlheppDownload

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And finally here are my illustrations for the Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society, a wonderful group of devotees to some of the loveliest, and funniest, operettas ever written. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

blaine_achilles_gilbertsullivanDownload

Now you have seen all the things I meant to show Blaine – thanks so much for taking a look. Here’s the link to the half hour of me with Blaine: go to https://www.blainesworld.net/ and look for the podcast dated 11.8.2022 And thanks again to Blaine!

–Pat

Drawing for a Save-the-Date Card

A Mother of the Bride asked me to draw the lovely exterior of her daughter’s wedding venue for the Save-the-Date card. The venue will be The VanLandingham Estate in Charlotte, NC, and it’s a stunning building. The client showed me several other samples of cards with venues drawn in simple line and I loved the classic, elegant look of them.

She sent me a perfect head-on photo of the building and I drew it first in pencil.

A graceful and dignified mansion, is it not? After the ok from the client I inked it in cleanly with black ink and sent it off.

Just a few days ago the Mother of the Bride sent me the finished card, beautifully printed on heavy rag paper. The letterpress printing was done by Scott McClelland, with assistance from Bo, at Paper Meets Press in Glenside, PA. Letterpress is a traditional printing technique that creates a relief of the type and image in the paper – you can feel the depression if you run your fingers across the text. Some of the impression is visible in the closeup below.

I think the finished card is a very stylish and appropriate look for what I’m sure will be an elegant wedding.

My Illustration for a Business Birthday E-Card

I drew this car parade birthday illustration for Furia Rubel Communications last year. They originated the idea and needed me to make it into an image for them to send out with their best wishes to their clients. I think it’s a great way to make a touchpoint with each client – a beneficial marketing strategy – and remind their clients of the whole team of people working for their interests. I have often drawn the FRC team for projects in the past.

I started with a pencil sketch of the whole train of cars and caricatures of each FRC member.

When that was ok’d I printed out a copy and did a rough color sketch with markers and colored pencils. The great thing about sending out ecards is, there is no more expense in doing full color over black and white. On computer screens, color is free!

I decided to colorize this illustration using digital color, so the colors would match those in the FRC logo and other hues on their website. I drew each carload in black line, then filled it in with digital color.

After drawing and colorizing each piece of the picture this way I assembled them onto one page and added the banner, balloons and honking horns.

Another advantage of assembling this piece digitally is that if employees change from year to year, I can adjust the picture accordingly. And in fact, this year I was asked to add new team members and remove some who have moved on; so with some tweaks Furia Rubel will have an updated ecard showing their full team for 2022.

Scout Invitations Digital Download

I’ve added an item to my Etsy shop, which uses my popular jaunty Eagle saluting as an invitation card for Courts of Honor or other Scout events. This is a downloadable file which makes it quicker and more economical for the buyer to make invitations – no waiting for mail delivery, no postage fee and you can print as many invitations as you need from the one file. The inside text of the card is completely editable so a custom message can be inserted, and it’s easy to work with since it is a Word document.

Court of Honor season is upon all Scout troops right now, so if your family needs fun invitations that can be instantly downloaded and printed at home for quick mailing, take a look at my Eagle Salute Downloadable Invitations at my Etsy shop HERE.

My Scout Greeting Cards

Once a year I remind my readers that I have drawn some popular greeting cards for scouts, in case they know someone who is earning this special honor. My son is an Eagle and he had such a great experience with the Boy Scouts, learning great practical skills and making good friends, while reinforcing responsibility and good morals, that I am happy to share in celebrating their achievements.

I drew the whimsical Eagle Salute Congratulations card below first, for a friend of my son’s who achieved the rank a few years before him. When my son made Eagle and had his Court of Honor alongside his best friend, I painted the Eagle Scout on a hilltop scene. I’ve had one buyer write a review saying, “The card is beautiful and very good quality. I couldn’t be happier with my purchase!” To see the inside message and ordering info for them, see my Etsy shop here.

The journey to Eagle is guided by Scoutmasters, parents, friends and others who inspire and encourage the Scout to accomplish the challenges needed to achieve Eagle rank. Several customers have asked me to produce smaller thank-you notecards for Eagles to send to their mentors, and they are on my Etsy shop, click HERE. If the buyer wishes a special message printed inside all the notecards, I can do that with these cards HERE.

I drew these black and white notecards below, which are blank inside, for all occasions in scouting. A number of buyers have given these as gifts to scoutmasters and new Eagles. They come 8 to a box and are available on Etsy HERE.

Finally, for young Cub Scouts who are making the journey to Boy Scout, I drew this fun card with little eagles making their ‘Crossing Over’ ceremony. One buyer wrote, “This card is darling and captures the spirit of just how excited my grandsons all were becoming Boy Scouts. Although they are a long way from Eagle Scout, one of them confided how thrilled he was that, We were drawn as ‘little eagles’ on the cross-over bridge! Pat Achilles’s cards are so beautifully perfect!” These cards are available HERE.

All of my cards are printed in full color on sturdy glossy card stock – the congratulations cards are greeting-card-size, and the thank-you notecards are smaller, invitation-size. Envelopes are included with each order, and the cards take standard first-class postage. The cardstock is made from partially recycled paper and my cards are printed in the USA – in fact, they are printed in my hometown! My thank-you notecards are blank inside so a message can be written by the sender.

I’ll mention, if you are in my area of central Bucks County, PA, you can just email me and pick up your cards, to save some postage. And for special orders of quantity, size or message just send your questions by clicking HERE to go to my Contact page.

A Video Chat About my Cartoons

My friend Linda Crane, a charming and detail-oriented realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach and the Trident Group, has a weekly chat with interesting people in the area, and whether they work in the real estate industry or not she brings along her knowledge and personality to make it a fun exchange.

Linda asked if I’d talk with her a bit about my cartooning, especially selling cartoons to the New Yorker magazine, so we pulled a couple chairs up to the old zoom box and had a conversation.

I tell Linda how I became interested in cartooning and what it’s like submitting sketches to the New Yorker in the video of our chat, below. Linda has more of these fun discussions on her Youtube channel – I invite you to check it out after you listen here.

At the end of our talk I mention the choral group Cantus Novus and their auction in which one of my framed, original New Yorker cartoon drawings will be sold. Cantus Novus’ concert We Rise Again is online today, Friday May 21 starting at 8:00 PM, on their Facebook page. Their online fundraising auction will start at the conclusion of the concert, at approximately 9 pm, and Pat’s New Yorker cartoon is available for bids HERE.  The auction will continue for 2 weeks after the concert, and all proceeds benefit this excellent non-profit choir.

Happy Mother’s Day

My Scout Cards for all Occasions

Springtime is coming, when a lot of scout activities and events start up, so I’d like to just remind everyone that I have drawn cards to fit many scout occasions. And with the good works they do in our community and the values that scouting teaches our young men, Scouts are an organization to be celebrated.

February is often the Crossing Over ceremony for Cubs to Boy Scouts. For this card I used my a whimsical style to draw a friendly adult eagle, in scout troop leader uniform, waving 3 happy little eagles across a footbridge in the great outdoors, with an appropriately encouraging message inside. Info for purchasing this card is HERE.

I drew these cheery scouts, below, alongside the goals of the Scout Law – to be Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent – to create a notecard that can be used for any occasion. This could be given to celebrate a rank advancement or merit badge, offer words of encouragement or to thank a mentor, scoutmaster or fellow scout. These invitation-size cards make a great gift for a Scout leader too. They are blank inside and come in a box of 8 notecards and envelopes – ordering info is HERE.

My son is an Eagle Scout and he had such a great experience with the Boy Scouts – learning great practical skills and making good friends, while reinforcing the responsibility and morals that we tried to instill as he grew up. I drew the whimsical Eagle Salute Congratulations card below for a friend of my son’s who achieved the rank a few years before him. When my son made Eagle and had his Court of Honor alongside his best friend, I painted the Eagle Scout on a hilltop scene. To see the inside message and ordering info for them, see my Etsy shop HERE and HERE.

And for special mentors in a Scout’s journey, several customers have asked me to produce smaller thank-you notecards for Eagles themselves to send, and I now list them in my Etsy shop too. My Eagle thank-you notecards come 20 to a pack and have my “Eagle Scout on a Hilltop” illustration on the front. To see my Etsy shop for further ordering details, click HERE.

New Year’s Card for a Business

I draw a New Years card every year for Kohlhepp Investment Advisors, and we try to make it relevant to what’s going on in the news, whether economic or otherwise. Well, this year the prevailing feeling was that everyone wanted to be done with the year 2020, so that was the theme of this year’s card.

I thought of a mountain-climbing expedition where the staff members were happy to see 2021 in the distance, because I’d been told they wanted the characters to appear ‘socially distanced.’ That idea was approved, so I started with a pencil sketch –

We talked over a few changes, and I went on to tighten the characters in the sketch –

I had thought perhaps I could show full faces so I left the mouths in for the sketch, but was later asked to draw masks on everyone.

I did a rough color sketch with colored pencils, and tried making the mountain in the background a volcano – do you see the 2020? – because that idea was considered. But in the end we stuck with just distant mountains in back.

and finally did the finished art in acrylic paint washes, below. Inside the card the message read: “WE MADE IT! Looking forward to a bright new year ahead!” and some kind wishes to their clients. Kohhepp Investment sends several hundred of these cards out to clients and colleagues, and they get some really nice responses indicating that people appreciate them and enjoy the funny antics in which we often portray the staff. They also use it on their Facebook page and other social media – it’s an effective way to personalize a business to their customers.