Skoog is Larry Watson. He is a novelist, and he is my wife's uncle. When it was time to make him a birthday card, the source material was already sitting on the shelf: two of his covers, and a photo of him that already looked like the man I needed on the truck.
The man on the hood looks like him because I started from him.
The cover
I used two of his books. As Good as Gone gave me the truck: that dark green 1950s pickup on a dirt road, and the book in his hands. Montana 1948 gave me the field on the inside: prairie, tall grass, hills going pale.
The front is the road, the sage-green truck pointed at the hills, and Skoog on the hood in a tan sweater, glasses on, reading. The book in his hands is As Good as Gone. That cover, opened up, so he can sit in it for a second.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SKOOG
If the face is off, the card is a stranger on a truck. It had to be Larry. Same beard, same glasses, same sweater, same way he holds a book.
The inside
The inside puts that same truck in the Montana 1948 field. No portrait: tall grass, hills going pale, the pickup sitting in it. Left panel stays blank for a handwritten note. On the right, one line:
WISHING
YOU MANY MORE MILES OF GREAT STORIES AND ADVENTURES!
No portrait this time. Just the miles.
Made by Cory & Steve
The back panel is the makers mark: the two of us as little drawings, our cats, and Made by Cory & Steve in red. Birthday cards are better when they feel like they came from people, not a print shop queue.
And the motion
Print was only half of it.
One short is a painting Larry already liked: a snowy stretch of country, seen from the air, then you drop down until Skoog and Susie are walking in it. He loved the painting. I put them in it.
The other is a second pass at putting two people into a video card. Same couple, moving, in the same world as the print.
Why this kind of work still matters
Most of what I write about here is websites, archives, and AI workflows. A custom card is a smaller canvas, but the craft is the same: start from something the person already loves, protect the likeness, and make one clear emotional hit.
Happy birthday, Skoog. Many more miles.