Leah and Ari

We are well in to the summer holidays now but it's never too late to show you some thank you cards that I made for some special teachers at the end of the school year.
The first card, above, was for a lovely lady who has taught my customer's son for six years. I was asked to illustrate the young man with his teacher, who taught him several subjects including maths and Hebrew. My customer also wanted me to somehow illustrate the young man's movement from Primary to High School so, along with the school books and maths symbols, I added two little school buildings labelled 'Primary' and 'High School' in Hebrew. The arrow is pointing in the right direction.

Now I can honestly say that I don't get asked to put Haredim (the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism) on the front of my cards very often, but this gentleman was the schoolboy's aide in school and my customer said that they had a very special bond. Ari, the aide, helped the young man throughout the time of his Bar Mitzvah and my customer was keen for me to capture their special relationship on the card.
I have shown the young man and his aide, resplendent in his dark suit with white shirt, and his head covered with a black, wide-brimmed hat. There is a pair of tefillin on the card, since the art of putting on tefillin was something that the schoolboy learned from him, along with a Siddur (a Jewish prayer book containing a set of daily prayers).
My customer returned from her son's end of year party to find the cards in her letterbox. Both she and her son loved them and she wrote to say how excited she was to give the teachers something so unique.