Wallys

Here are two very different commissions that went on to be a couple of my favorites last year, and the subjects for both are named Wally!

The first is of the late great designer, Wally Olins. I was not acquainted with him, but a designer in London reached out to me to see if I'd like to create a portrait of him, to be accompanied by portraits from the same reference material by other illustrators, which would then all be culminated into one source and distributed to art directors. it was a worthy and interesting cause; I love the premise of being able to compare illustrators in such a definitive way. Here is what I came up with, along with the reference material supplied to all of the artists:

as with all my portraits, I redirected his gaze out, to engage the viewer

The second Wally is Wally the beloved pet. I don't normally do pets, but back in November I was trying to come up with a way to raise money for KEXP (the best radio station in the world) and it occurred to me that I could create pet portraits at a price point that would draw a lot of interest. Boy did it! I was overwhelmed by the response. And it was a bit heart-breaking, as many commissioned were for pets who'd been recently lost. This Wally fell in to that category. I was so happy to bring these folks a bit of joy to remember their pals, as witnessed here: