5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Sometimes I feel like I’ve seen it all in the way of the blanket-head, that clever amalgam of stuffed animal and flatness… but this froggy blanket is new to me. I love her polka-dots, her bow, and the sweet expression on her face. Stephanie ordered this little painting as a Christmas gift for her daughter Lily, whose Nana purchased this frog because she couldn’t resist its name: “Lily-Mae.” It did turn out to be a fateful match, because Lily adored it from the age of about 4 months. There are several back-up Lily-Maes, but SO FAR Lily is not interested in them (we’ll see how long that lasts!). For Lily’s first birthday, Stephanie created a Lily-Mae the Frog themed party. As a little baby, Lily insisted on falling asleep with the frog’s blanket over her face, much to the terror of her mother. Even now at 20 months, Lilly sleeps with it tucked firmly under her arm all night. Lily-Mae is no longer allowed out of the house, after a couple of scary times when she was lost. Stephanie tells me that, upon seeing this portrait on Christmas morning, Lily kissed it and said “Awww!” This was one of a handful of local holiday orders that I had this year… There was a wonderful afternoon just before Christmas in which Stephanie and several others all came to pick up their portraits, and their excitement made me feel a bit like Santa Claus!
Author: Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait
Vintage Drawing Book: Make A World
It is an exciting and rare occasion in our house when my husband breaks out a mechanical pencil and starts to draw. He has always made tiny, meticulous renderings of long parades of vehicles, in recent years usually under the guise of an explanation or description of something for our daughter. I’ve always been baffled at how he can get the general abstract shape of a truck or a helicopter correct without looking at one. Well! Recently he stumbled upon this 1972 book “Make a World” by Ed Emberly and excitedly explained that he had obsessed over it as a child.
Inside are a zillion everyday objects broken down with charming simplicity and humor…
The tiny scale and blocky, basic instructional nature of these drawings appeals perfectly to Greg, who also adores models and Lego kits. So now, he has Sonja imagine a scenario for him to draw and he makes it come to life via the templates in this book. Below, “Two Dragons Getting Married.”
My sister Jill wondered how an animal drawn via this method would translate to full-page size…
Ha! I think it holds up!
Monkey
8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. This Ty Pluffies monkey is adorable, but let’s face it — the most interesting thing about him is his association with a stuffed hedgehog. Wendy commissioned portraits of the hedgehog and monkey, which are the favorite toys of her two children. Check back tomorrow for the hedgehog portrait!
Pinkie
5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Six-year-old Lily has adored this doll, “Pinkie,” since she herself was a small baby. Lily’s aunt, Stacy, describes Lily as having an ever-present smile and as being a family hero as she struggles each day with cerebral palsy. “As she transitions to ‘big girl-hood,” Stacy writes, “I know this portrait will be perfect for her.” For Christmas, Stacy commissioned portraits of each of her two nieces’ favorite toys. Pinkie was a true pleasure to paint as I am seldom asked to paint traditional babydolls!
Freddie
This OBVIOUSLY well-loved orange bear belongs to 33-year-old Lisa. Her father Frank tells me that “Freddie” has been Lisa’s constant companion all her life, but was misplaced and found several times. During one of his disappearances, two unsuccessful substitutes were brought in. They came to be known as “Freddie II” and “Guys,” the latter so named because he was purchased at the now-defunct Two Guys department store! “The substitutes held minor positions in Lisa’s stuffed animal cabinet,” Frank wrote, “but Freddie was always Prime Minister.” Fisher Price sold this “Freddy Teddy” toy from 1975-1981. Lisa altered the spelling of his name to the much more distinguished “Freddie” herself.
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Asparagus
8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. This bunny’s comfortable pose is the result of twenty-three years of love from Samantha, who recieved him as a gift when she was a newborn. He was given his ridiculously charming moniker “Asparagus” because it was California in the springtime, and that was reason enough. “Sam especially loved to run her fingers across the silky grain of the pink ribbon around bunny’s neck,” Sam’s mother Barbara wrote me. “This calming action always helped Samantha fall asleep with a sense of peace and security.” Asparagus remained by Sam’s side through college, and now has a place of honor on her bedroom bookshelf out of reach of a golden retriever puppy.
Floppy Blue Dog
5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Hey, remember that blue dog snuggled up to a little lamb blanket a few days ago? Doesn’t this dog look JUST LIKE IT? Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together? As a matter of fact, I know of at least three people who have. They would be five-year-old Sophia, eight-year-old Alex, and their grandmother Michelle. Each child has a floppy blue pup, and Sophia also has a gorgeous stuffed lamb/blanket. Michelle will give these little portraits to Sophia and Alex for Christmas.
Giraffey
5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Like her brother Zachary, three-year-old Summer favors the companionship of both a blanket and a stuffed toy at naptime and at night. Here are Giraffey and the pink blanket, perhaps bonding over their shared spotted condition. Lee Ann will give portraits of the children’s favorite toys to Summer and Zachary as Christmas gifts.
Snoopy and Lila
5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. It’s pretty fabulous when a child’s beloved toy was orignally his mother’s own favorite! This Snoopy belonged to Lee Ann when she was small, and now he is her seven-year-old son Zachary’s constant companion. Snoopy is seated upon a small blue blanket which Zachary calls “Lila.” Zachary sleeps with Snoopy and Lila every night. Lee Ann commissioned portraits of both her children’s best-loved toys and will give them as Christmas presents to the kids.
Books: Babar and Father Christmas
I love Babar, but somehow I had never come across this incredibly bizarre Christmas book until this week! Let me just skip to the best part, in which we see a cross-section of Father Christmas’ UNDERGROUND LAIR. Did you know that he lives in a cave in Bohemia? 
And that his home is protected to violent, snowball-chucking dwarfs?
So, that’s weird, but the strangest thing about this story to me is Babar’s meandering quest to find Father Christmas. Along the way, the narrator provides unnnecessary but somehow comforting detail about Babar’s hotel room and digresses about the pleasures of washing up after a long journey. He then mistakes a homeless guy for Father Christmas…
…and spends several pages discussing dead languages with a “famous professor.”
Apparently in 1940, the French did not condescend to children by over-simplifying even life’s imaginary adventures!