Here are my 3 initial concepts that I brainstormed.

My favorite was the Hippo card so I ended up going with that one. Next I did a more detailed sketch of the hippo idea to get the layout, spacing and details hammered out.

Once I was happy with my sketch, I moved on to painting, my favorite part!

And finally I scanned in my art, edited it and formatted it into a presentation in Photoshop.

I ended up submitting this card to one of my clients and it is going to be made into a real greeting card coming to stores soon!!