A collection of doodles with a bit of commentary by RICK GREEN - your cartooning friend

Friday, April 17, 2009

Exploring Makayla

Leighann's daughter, Makayla is having a birthday soon. Her mommy and daddy wanted something for a party invitation. Makayla wanted a "Dora the Explorer" birthday. Leighann asked me to draw an illustration that had the both of them exploring together. She was a bit worried about copy right issues. I figured that (and hoped) that Dora wouldn't come exploring for me with her legal representation.

Leighann sent me this photo of her daughter. She's an adorable child and I wanted to get it right for her. This is want I came up with. (Sorry - eggless)

Unfortunately, this was the response I got from Leighann...

"Rick, I have to be honest, I like the drawing itself, but I don't think the face looks anything like Makayla."

I hate to admit it, but I feared that could be her response. I worked very hard to try and capture her face, but I wasn't sure that I had actually captured it. So, I wasn't totally surprised by her reaction.

I asked her if I could get some different photos for a second attempt. Sometimes getting just the right photo helps a lot. She kindly sent me several and this shot was among them.



Despite the fact that I had prac- tically "Dora" myself silly with the first one, I went back to work on a second caricature.

This is my second attempt. Leighann's response was totally different (thank the Lord)...

"LOVE IT! You picked a good photo to go by. I love the bracelet you put on her! We are having the kids make thier own "Dora bracelet" at the party... so that is really cool!"

That was the response I was looking for. Another happy customer.

Thanks Leighann for choosing me to help celebrate your daughter. She looks like a precious child. Give my birthday wishes to her. I hope that she likes it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cute, and creative!! I think the 2nd one is awesome.

Titus 2 Thandi said...

Pity we don't live over there. I'd have asked you to do something for my husband for our anniversary this month! Oh..I'm Seventh Day Adventist. I have never seen your church in my country. Thanks for popping by.Have a great weekend.

Shawn said...

What a cool idea to incorporate the child into the invitations!

Great job and the 2nd one nailed her perfectly.

Nicki said...

Thats an awesome idea! Maybe for Pufferfish's birthday I'll put her in the ELmo show! And Little Bear could be singing with Hannah Montana!

Laura ~Peach~ said...

to me the two pictures look like totally different kids, the light and angles i guess I like BOTH drawings even though they are eggless...Another home run there rick :)

Chris H said...

I think the second one does catch the childs face better... but it must be rather hard to do!
Kids faces can change so much just with an expression or the angle ...
Hi eggy!

Linda said...

Very cute!! I wish I could do caricatures!

Mrs JD said...

I've been meaning for several days to stop by and check out the blog since you told me you put it up. Shameful, but life with 3 kids is C-R-A-Z-Y, so I'm just now stopping in. BIG, HUGE thanks to you Rick for the hard work! I think it looks GREAT... and the colors in the second(especially Boots) are dead on.