My wife was looking for a gift for her great-aunt Bina, who was about to turn 90. 

Bina never married, so first she lived with my wife's grandparents, and then with my mother-in-law. Therefore my wife spent a lot of time with her great-aunt, and wanted the gift to remember some moments of life they spent together, as well as some memories from Bina's childhood and youth.

So I drew the small picture (13 x 18 cm) that is the subject of this project. Her idea was "some small objects inside the number 90", and I loved it just from the start.

I took the scenes and objects she had in her mind and put them inside a grid: some scene occupy two rectangles, but most of them only one. Then I cut the '90' shape from the grid. The lack of a background for the scenes made the number 90 less readable, so I added some background and textures and I'm happy with the final result.

I am not a professional, and the process was very simple: I first sketched the whole picture and asked my wife for a feedback, then I drew almost all the objects of the final picture on a blank sheet with a pencil.

I redrew the figures in the foreground with India ink pens, then I added the backgrounds directly with the pens.

Finally I erased the pencil marks and added a few details.

Great-aunt Bina was given the original drawing (in a white frame) on her birthday, together with a letter from my wife that recalled the scenes illustrated and other memories.

The drawing was previously scanned, and here you can find some simple colored edits I like.

Thank you for watching my project, I hope you will write some impressions and some advice!