A happy kids illustration

It’s been a while since my last update but I’ve been busy working on a couple of illustrations and it’s time to start sharing them again on here.  I posted this happy kids illustration on The Winnie Project a few months ago and it was commissioned towards the beginning of lockdown by a friend who wanted to send something special to his friends in Mexico, where he used to live. I’ve done a few kids portraits before (like this one) but this is probably the brightest drawing I’ve drawn to date and it definitely added a lot of colour to the days I was working on this!

happy kids illustration - a portrait of Santiago and Jose

The only things that were requested were a depiction of little Santiago and Jose and a few things associated with Mexico such as the sombrero and the cacti. I jumped at the chance to draw cacti as I’ve included them in my sketches before but I’ve never added them to my portrait illustrations. They add a lot of fun to this illustration along with some of the whimsical details like the moon, sun, and stars.

I also threw in a bonus postcard illustration of him with the kids and his sausage dog, Guerlita which was a little surprise. I loved drawing the little pooch, cacti, and the matching bow ties!

postcard portrait with paintbox showing happy kids illustration

Happy kids illustration - Portrait of Santiago and Jose and postcard portrait with watercolours

framed image of postcard portrait - happy kids illustration

It was a relief when my friend told me the drawings reached Mexico safely. Amazingly, this means that my work is in various homes around the world including Mexico, Munich, and Australia! I also gifted some other friends another happy kids illustration earlier in the year, so I’ll have to share that one soon too. A surprising thing that has come out of lockdown has been this increase in creativity – I’ve been drawing so much with more commissions which have come my way and I’m even starting to look at setting an Etsy shop! Stay tuned…