A Colorful Birthday Gift to Bring Color to a Drab Office

Isn’t this family portrait by Nell Fallcard charming? Tim commissioned it as a birthday gift for his roommate Shay and her charming daughters. It melts our hearts. You can commission work in a similar style from Nell Fallcard by visiting her commission page for cartoon style illustrations.

Backstory Behind the Commission

ArtCorgi (AC): What inspired you to commission this piece?

Tim (T): Shay complained to me that her work place is drab. I told her that I will add some colour. She said go for it! It was about a month until her birthday and I figured I could accomplish something in time that would outrageously exceed her expectations. Even more interesting to me, she likely will not remember the offhand conversation that sparked the idea.

Her daughters are her world so they are obviously the source material. She herself hates to be photograhed but she needed to be included as well. That’s the reason I wanted her looking to the side. The playground is just something that they enjoy (funny how that works) and it seemed to me to be something easy to recreate for anyone without any real direction. All told i wanted cartoony to make it appealing to the little girls and far enough from a photograph that Shay would display it

AC: We love the little details you’ve had worked into clothing. Is there any backstory on, say, the My Little Pony dress?

T: Minor details are just little tidbits I wanted to add to make this a little personal and connected. The ninjas stem from a mildly racist nickname from me to Shay. The name originated from a story of her bruising another friend of ours accidently in a sneaky move at a kickboxing class. The Ponies? Well, Ezmei is 5 and her interests are fairly limited. Ponies catch her attention though. People who will see that on her dress will recognize the image and understand how obvious it is to attribute to her.

AC: What advice would you give to another first-time art commissioner who is having a gift made for a friend?

T: I am poor at advice. I am immensely picky and very well aware of my inability to use words to describe the images in my head. It’s a tough combination which can lead to frustration. I say: Explain what you want. Point by point. Put everything possible down. As the image emerges, you will be able to determine which of the points become more importatnt and which are just fluff.