Charlie the Repaired Bicycle

Here in Gainesville, our local bike shop (the Freewheel Project) runs a repair clinic every Saturday, where abandoned bikes are taken in, cleaned, and repaired to be donated to local kids in need.

In honor of the clinic and season of giving, I created this illustration of Charlie, the first bike my girlfriend Jasmina and I repaired together.
Like our work on Charlie, Jasmina and I wanted to work on this illustration project together. She created the initial sketch, I drew it up in Illustrator, and we worked together to get the personality of the bike just right.
Charlie was a great little green bike. When we first saw him, he had bent-up wheels, no brakes, and dirty handlebars. But with lots of grease and love, he was good as new, even with a new blue brake liner we added for a pop of color and blue pipe cleaner in the handlebars to match. It was an incredible experience, one that had us coming back for more Saturdays after that.
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In regards to giving, the Freewheel Project and the repair clinic exercise a kind of generosity that I admire.
Giving back to one's community and bringing in local citizens to help out with the cause—not letting these good bikes go to waste, but repairing them and giving them to kids in local neighborhoods, cause no one should grow up without a good bike.

The work this organization does for the local community is one rooted in generosity, and I am incredibly grateful to take part in their work and draw little stickers for them too 😊

For more info on Freewheel, check them out here: http://www.thefreewheelproject.org/

Thank you again to @Sticker Mule for the awesome playoff!