The King Of The North! (Pole)
Ok, so in the last few years my hand-drawn Christmas cards for my immediate family have always been a bit late for some reason or other – over the last few years it’s been due to University work, and this year it was because I had an abundance of commission work. In fact last year, because of dissertation-writing madness, my parents didn’t get one AT ALL… so this year I decided to put extra effort in and bosh out one I’m really proud of. My mum’s birthday is shortly after Christmas, so it’s a joint Birthday card too…
As you can see, it’s still 2 cards really, so it’s not as if I’ve cheated, they’re just joined by a common, Game Of Thrones inspired theme. Click on the image to enlarge, I’ve left it quite big, so it should be easy to read/spot all the little bits I’ve put in. If it isn’t, I’ll be changing that sharpish. I should add that the characters of my family are based on no House in particular, and the only reason I chose the form of a dwarf for myself is because Tyrion is the best damn character in the TV series (only got through one book so far) and if I could be half as cool as him, I’d be a happy (half) man.
Personalised Illustrations
As previously mentioned on the We Draw Stuff blog, I spent December doing (mostly) small and (relatively) fast commission based illustrations in an attempt to earn some dollar, and thereby afford Christmas – and it went quite well! Now that the student loan has come in I can afford to take a brief break from it, and focus on the neglected coursework I SHOULD have been doing. That being said, there’s only SO MANY carrot’s in spandex you can draw before you start to go a little funny, so I’m taking having a quick breather, and using the opportunity to post them up for you to enjoy đ
For Me, a picture of Lucy in Black and White, Monochrome and Full Colour, postcard
Special Requests: This was a promotional piece for the facebook page, showing the different styles you could have your illustration finished in (the page also features the original pencil version). The ‘Mrs Santa’ outfit was to help promote the idea of a Personalised illustration as a gift
For Corris, a picture of his friend Prout in Full Colour, sized A4
Special Requests: A formula 1 car sporting the badge and colours of the Everton football strip
For Tom, a picture of his sister and her boyfriend in Black and White, postcard
Special Requests: … anything?
For Claire, a picture of two of her friends in Full Colour, postcard
Special Requests: Something cute and coupley, with a Christmas theme  (yes I used the same figures as Tom’s – but in fairness he wasn’t very specific, and I think both work just fine)
For Alan, a picture of his girlfriend Rachel in Full colour and Black and White, sized A4, both framed
Special Requests: Needs to feature both her racing car (the mini) and her van with the design of her Graphics company on the front. She must be wearing her Alpine Stars racing gear, showing a bit of cleavage (it was a request!) and holding her racing helmet. Could feature a trophy somewhere. I added the red ‘X’ from her graphics logo, the flags and the wreath myself, for compostion value.
For Richard, a picture of his two children in Full Colour, sized A4, framed
Special Requests: Not too specific, the photo he supplied of one of his children featured this large ladybird-like toy, which i decided to feature as a mode of fantastical transportation. Once he had ‘Ok’ed the roughs, he only mentioned that I should include some ‘tinkerbell-like’ fairies, as they were the girls favourite đ
For Tara, a picture of her and Steph in Pencil, sized A5
Special Requests: When Tara initially asked me to do her a drawing, she asked me to do it in the same style I had used to draw a portrait of Steph years earlier. I told her I’m doing only cartoon work for this particular project as I thought it would be quicker, but when I actually got down to it, I went with traditional anyway, and it took about the same time as a cartoon!
For Hannah, a picture of her boyfriend Chris in Full Colour, as a gift card
Special Requests: Hannah wanted to be dressed as wrestler Brett ‘The Hitman’ Hart, vs Chris as ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. As Chris and Randy are both hairy and beardy, I thought it best to include some ‘uniquely Chris’ features to help make it clear that I wasn’t just drawing a short Macho Man – I did this by including his ‘Come on feel the Illinois’ tee, and his t-shirt that features a bear (on the belt) saying ‘rawr’ (on the canvas)
For Emma, a picture of her friend Colette in Full Colour, postcard
Special Requests: Emma said she wanted Colette drawn in an anime style, and that as long as she had bright pink hair, it didn’t matter what she looked like. This was a challenge for me, as although I love anime, it’s not my style of illustration, so for the figure I used some reference pictures, and then just had fun with the design. The black suit with the white hearts was a motif taken from the actual dress she was wearing in the photo – the other features were just my imagination in over-drive 
For Emma, a picture of her friend Jamie in Full Colour, postcard
Special Requests: Emma wanted Jamie to be drawn as a hobbit, holding a slice of pizza – pretty straightforward đ – first time playing with the grass-brush too…
For Emma, a picture of her friend Mike in Full Colour, postcard
Special Requests: Emma wanted Mike to be dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of The Caribbean movie franchise. The black lines on this one seem particularly harsh – I’m not sure why
For Emma, a picture of her friend Rochelle in Full Colour, postcard
Special Requests: Emma wanted a Rochelle to be wearing a ‘Spaced’ t-shirt and have a speech bubble with the phrase ‘Hello Mr Pegg’ inside (features on the final print-out, but not here) the rest of the Spaced references were added by me, as I’m a big fan – see if you can spot them all đ
That’s it for now, time to get back to the much neglected Uni work – and because of this, my little ‘shop’ will be closing until February, but please feel free to message me with requests when that month comes around – remember, it’s not long until Valentines Day! đ
Personalised Illustrations – where to find me:
Prices are displayed on the Facebook and Etsy pages *  Etsy Page is currently under construction * prices differ slightly on both pages * Images of people used here have been approved of by the owners of the illustrations, please do not download or save these images without first consulting me * any reference made to existing characters by other companies (such as Hobbits, Jack Sparrow etc) are used in a fan appreciation format only, are used with respect and are not an attempt in any way to claim ownership of these characters or costume designs myself  * original characters belong to their original creators *
Q.U.A.R.C.S 