Noa's Album

It's always exciting to receive orders from other countries. My cards and albums have reached Afghanistan and Malaysia, India and Argentina, and I regularly send pieces off to America and the UK. This was definitely the first time that I received an order from Singapore.

Noa's cousin lives in Israel and I made an album for her Bat Mitzvah last year. Noa's Mum knew that her daughter really wanted one too and so, after a quick chat and several messages back and forth (Whatsapp makes it all so easy these days!), I set to work drawing the Bat Mitzvah girl and all of her hobbies and interests.

This book was to open the English way (Hebrew books open from right to left) but I showed her name in both English and Hebrew, and the date in Hebrew alone. Noa loves to read and write. She is a big fan of the Harry Potter books and also very much enjoys art, especially drawing. She likes listening to music on her phone and her favourite subject in school is science. Since she is living in Singapore at the moment, her Mum asked whether I could include the Merlion (a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot of Singapore) and also somehow incorporate Israel and Italy too, since she's lived in both of those countries as well. 

The colours of the balloons at the Bat Mitzvah celebration were going to be purple, white and silver.

Well, there was a lot to include but I think I got everything in there! I showed blonde-haired Noa with a book in one hand and some coloured pencils in the other. To her left there is the Merlion (below) and some drawing papers, and on her right a Harry Potter book, the Sorting Hat and a wand. Her phone appears too.

Inside the book I continued to illustrate all her hobbies. The first decorated page (there are 20 high quality cream coloured pages in my books) showed her love of books and reading. Next I devoted a page to Harry Potter, adding a couple more book covers, along with the Harry Potter logo and a wand (below, left). A page of papers, pencils and paint followed, then the Merlion reappeared, along with the flags of Israel and Italy. Finally I illustrated her favourite subject, science, by cutting out some little glass jars and test tubes, all full of some interesting coloured potions! Perhaps they could have represented Harry Potter too?