I get asked to do a lot of specific designs and the holidays are always on that request list. I don't concentrate on date specific designs or current events generally but every artist should have at least one design in their portfolio for major holidays - especially if you're selling merchandise with your art on it!
I've done several for Halloween, my favorite holiday as well as a few for Christmas and I do have a holiday themed store online called HAPPY HOLLY DAZE where I post others for Valentine's Day, Easter, and other holidays but hadn't done one yet for New Years so this week I remedied that with my new HAPPY NEW YEAR POP ART.
I made two different versions; one for the particular year - in this case 2011 - and one that is a generic New Year Illustration and I set up my store so that you can buy either one on all the products I sell. As always you can personalize anything in my store - add a name, a photo, play with text fonts & colors, change pertinent information. This way you can create a totally unique product for yourself or as a gift.
As I've said before, I always save my working files and keep each layer so next year all I have to do is change the date in the boxes and I've got a new design for 2012. I may change one little element each year just for the heck of it for anyone who collects my work - it all depends on whether I remember to do that next year, lol.
