Frank's Sketchbook Entry of the Day

This past weekend, I attended the 100th birthday celebration for my Uncle Norman in Phoenix. It was nice seeing a lot of relatives I hadn't seen in quite a while, the weather was nice, and the travel went smoothly. I wrote a thank you note to the people who organized it. The card was black with a white area to write a note, which I did. But the other side of the card was blank and black, so I decided to break out the white ink gel pens and draw something, though I wasn't sure what.

After looking for some reference images of people blowing out the candles on birthday cakes in low light, I decided that just a cake would be fine. Drawing a lot of candles, let alone 100, would just muddy the waters. Then I realized I could just use number candles, plus that has interesting shapes and I can play with the light a little.

The background pattern on the card is visible, but I kind of like that. I think it came out OK with the negative space, although I do feel a little hesitation because one of the people I'm sending it to is an artist who does painting (unlike my work which is more at the level of finger-painting). But it's done so that's that. Here's the full resolution drawing.