In the four years that we have been doing secret santa and redditgifts we have met some amazing people and have had the good fortune of being able to work with a few of them. One of these people is a guy named Dante Orpilla. I came to know Dante as youngluck. In the past few months we have been lucky enough to be able to hire Dante to do some work for us. Unfortunately, we don't have enough work to hire him full time, but hopefully someone out there can (he is amazing to work with)!

When I talked to Dante about needing secret santa work done and he told me he was going to do some watercolors, I'll admit, I was apprehensive! But after seeing what he came up with, I'll just say that I am blown away. The level of detail and the expression on the cats faces is simply amazing! When I found out that he had taken progress photos I asked him to write a bit about his process and that I'd post it on the blog for everyone to enjoy. Below is a little note from Dante and some great photos of his progress. If you would like to get in touch with Dante, you can PM him on reddit at u/youngluck or you can always email us at support at redditgifts dot com and we can provide samples and a great reference!

------------- Below is all from Dante ---------------

When I first came across reddit, my faith in the inherent goodness of mankind was pretty much at an all time low. I don’t remember how I’d gotten here, a link to a political rant maybe, but there sitting atop the front page was a simple idea by a humble fella wanting to do something unheard of in the world I was living in at the time. That simple idea, based on trust and kindness, would become Secret Santa. The community that is reddit would support it in a way that I desperately needed to see at that exact moment, if only as proof that it still existed.



Since then that community, and a number of amazing people in it, have undoubtably been a huge part of why I am still standing. I can say this without the slightest hesitation. But I can’t say it without acknowledging where it all started those many years ago. That simple idea. To build a platform for people to distribute anonymous kindness around the world. Secret Santa.



This would be my first Secret Santa as a ‘free’ man, so I wanted to do something special to celebrate. These are the sketches/brainstorms/process pics of that celebration. A kind of 'Thank You' to everyone that makes this glorious thing possible.



Please be good to each other,



- Dante