Doe and Fawn in the Lupines

Final illustration

Last year, I had the best AirBnB experience staying in a charming cottage 'The Tides' at Glen Haven. The cottage overlooks Big Indian Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. I wrote about it in more detail in my Travelling Illustrator post.

Late one afternoon, a wild doe and her fawn stopped for a rest in the front garden of the cottage. It was magical to me, as I'm from Australia, so I'm only used to seeing wallabies and kookaburras. I raced around madly looking for my camera, which of course, I didn't take overseas with me, so I hastily grabbed my phone and snapped a few pictures.

They trotted off in a hurry, so this is all I managed to snap for my illustration reference. As you can see in the illustration above,  I had to improvise a little with my drawing of the fidgety fawn. I also tilted the doe's head a little for a cute nuzzle with her fawn. This did not happen at all! The mother was trying to have a rest while the fawn was bouncing all over her, and within minutes, the mother had enough and trotted off. I completely sympathised with her, having three kids of my own.

Gees... let the poor mum deer have her rest!

Illustration Reference

I left behind a sketch study of the deer for the owner of the cottage and I promised the host that I would illustrate a better one (pictured top) and send an art print in the post. After six months of working on this between children's book projects, the illustration's finally completed, printed and packaged in a postal tube, ready to post to Canada this afternoon.

My illustration 'Doe and Fawn in the Lupines' is also available as fine art prints, greeting cards and various other products pictured below, at my RedBubble Shop.