"Kids are like little animals, she's sort of like a little pet", my friend reasoned with me when she asked me a week later for the second time. She's one of my dear friends, and since she was serious about it, and trusting my skills enough to pay me already, I gave it a go.
I went to meet Maya and despite hearing only stories about Maya's cheek and how she drives her mum crazy, by the end of 2 hours of hanging around Maya there were two things that I came away with, playful and happy. So with reference photos I sketched up a detailed single large portrait of Maya in dressup (as her favourite thing to do of the moment) telling her pet guinea pig to "sing" (as that's what she ended up pretending when she held Alena while I was there). But after a week, I didn't feel that the portrait captured enough of Maya's spirit so I did four new sketches. All of them together painted a picture of Maya better and I couldn't choose one over another to use.
So this is what I ended up with. Not a portrait anymore, but some sort of customised, watercolour painted illustration? I called it "Rock with me! Walk with me! Sing for me! Take a photo of me, Maya!". It's the longest name I've given a painting, haha.
Oh, and the bee was a special request as "Maya the Bee" was a favourite cartoon of the parents when they were small, so now it was their nickname for Maya and so there HAD to be a bee in there. It fit perfectly as a decorative detail for the centre of the page.
So I guess I can now say, I can do "illustrative paintings" of children. It was not too difficult in the end and actually really natural to draw and paint. Thankyou to Lana and Edin, mother and father bee to Maya, for trusting me and giving me the chance to draw Maya!
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