Alfie-James – Boy’s 1st birthday illustration

I was very pleased when my friend, Marie, requested me to do a commission for her little boy. Alfie-James, who was celebrating his first birthday.  Marie and Alfie’s dad, Mark, wanted a dinosaur illustration to mark the occasion. I can hardly believe it’s been over a year since this adorable little chap was born, but time does have a habit of flying…(but only when you are having fun, I am reliably told).
I always enjoy drawing the dinosaur characters, as these prehistoric creatures fascinated me when I was a child. I have recently become familiar with the parasaurolophus (I couldn’t spell that without checking it first in my dictionary!), which has a bone-shaped extension on the back of its head. It appealed to me and it was a herbivore too, so not one of them flesh-eating terrifying ones that chase all the humans in Jurassic Park!

I always like to include a stegosaurus and a triceratops, as I do have a ‘soft-spot’ for these two four-legged dinosaurs…  They always are the ones that seem to go about, minding their own business, when a hungry tyrannosaurus rex just happens to espy them!

Marie and Mark were delighted with the commission and it was a good opportunity to have a catch up with Marie when I handed the commission over to her; we enjoyed a cup of tea and a jolly good natter! What more could you ask for?

Erin and James – Birth Pictures

I was delighted to hear the news that my friends, Keith and Anne, were to become proud grandparents, as their daughter, Sarah and son-in-law, Mark, were expecting twins in the early months of 2017.

Having done a number of illustrations for Keith and Anne in the past (of a canine nature) it was nice to be asked to do some birth illustrations for their two grandchildren. The grandchildren are beautiful and the parents have named them Erin and James.  Congratulations to all the family.

Erin was very traditional in being ‘ladies first’, with her ‘little’ brother arriving only a minute behind her. The proud grandparents wanted some animal illustrations to feature on the birth pictures, but each of them were to have a different theme, so I suggested African/Safari animals for James and British wildlife for Erin. I was inspired by all of the Beatrix Potter merchandise last year, so it’s not surprising that Erin has a red squirrel, rabbit and a hedgehog in her illustration. This illustration is also the first to feature a mole, an animal that I can’t remember ever drawing before. James, on the other hand, features animals that boy’s tend to like – particularly crocodiles, lions, monkeys and elephants. It also has my favourite animal, a giraffe in it too.

I heard from Keith that the new parents, Sarah and Mark, are delighted with their children’s birth illustrations, which makes it all the more enjoyable for me, as I truly enjoyed drawing them. I hope that when they are older Erin and James will enjoy them and that they will be a wonderful memory for them in later years.

I must make an apology for the quality of the images on this blog post.  I took a picture of these commissions with my mobile phone and not my camera (which wasn’t working at the time 😦 )