Mock Heraldry

The Spelling Animals have been popping up with a nice frequency for commissions, but here’s a new idea. I was asked to do this by a friend: a mock heraldic shield as the image on a Kindle cover, as a present for the man who has everything (except for his own family crest!). Suddenly the phone I have been using for the Cat-of-the-Day sketches came into its own, because all that was needed was a .jpg file, not an original painting on actual paper. So I had a go. This had to be done almost instantly, so it has a rather sketchy finish, but I rather liked that.

The attributes were cooking, drinking, shooting, and a love of cats, so of course my instant suggestion was to give all these other attributes to the cat, and here we have the Pilkington Shield:

(don’t ask me about the Latin, I don’t know if it’s right or what it means – I just wrote it down!)

And then, it was my Mother’s 70th birthday two days ago, so had another go. I think I may have over-worked this one a little, and it’s only the second time I have tried drawing in layers – they maybe do not suit my style as much as just drawing – however, practice and all that. The attributes here were Art and Wine, what else?