Whilst the whole world was focused on the 90th birthday of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, my mother’s weekly column of recollections was about the Queen’s visit to Ceylon, aged 28. That historical visit through some coincidence also took place in April, just 2 years after her coronation in 1952. Although Ceylon achieved independence from Great Britain in 1948, it was still a Dominion State and part of the Commonwealth of Nations. Hence, the first-ever visit by the young queen created tremendous interest among the Ceylonese. My mother who was 11+ at the time was taken along by her mother to Colombo city to ‘see the Queen’ as she drove past in an open car. 

However, that was only a part of the story, as my mother goes on to describe how the images of the Queen were omni-present during her childhood. Since Queen Elizabeth’s coronation took place in 1952, most consumer goods imported from the UK at the time had included portraits of the new queen. These had ranged from porcelain tea sets and umbrellas to biscuit tins and calendars. I found it both amusing and exasperating that some people had even framed the portrait of the queen which had been printed on calendars and hung on the walls in their homes. So much for national independence gained just 4 years earlier!

My task of course was to illustrate a suitable part of the story. Obviously, researching images of the Queen’s visit was a must. It didn’t take me long to find an old newsreel clip of the event filmed in black and white which had been uploaded on-line. However, after considering that the story was to be published in a women’s weekly and also the Queen’s impending birthday celebrations I decided not to illustrate the historical event per se. Instead I decided to portray the Queen as she would have appeared on a biscuit tin designed to commemorate her coronation in 1952. I felt that since most of the readers of the story would not have seen Queen Elizabeth II in her younger years, my illustration would be a focal point.

Once again, searching on-line proved fruitful as I was able to source several images of biscuit and confectionery tins produced to commemorate the coronation in 1952. Armed with these for reference I set to work to create a likeness to Her Majesty.

At the very outset I decided to restrict myself to coloured pencils for this particular illustration. Art materials-wise it was an Anglo-German combination: Staedtler watercolour pencils and Faber Castell Polychromos pencils from Germany on Artifolk cartridge paper from the UK. Here is the result:

​You can view some work-in-progress images of the illustration in my sketchbooks page. I would like to think that Her Majesty would have been amused if she saw this portrait of herself...

“The power of an illustration to inspire, instruct and inform cannot be over-stated.”

The above quote is mine but I have become more and more convinced of its truth as
I continue to illustrate aspects of village life in the 1950s in Ceylon. My mother’s recent story in her weekly newspaper series was about the preparations for the traditional new year at her childhood home.

Since the traditional new year in Sri Lanka is centered around the rice paddy harvest and
the cooking of the first meal using newly harvested rice, housewives play a key role. Needless to say, the kitchen and all that is connected with it receive a ‘spring cleaning’— even though our tropical climate has no spring season as such.

​The advent of the traditional new year is calculated according to astrology and all key
rituals associated with the day are carried out according to auspicious times. Out of these events, the lighting of the hearth to cook the first meal in the new year is of paramount importance. The very first act in this regard is to boil a pot of milk until it overflows slightly, thereby symbolizing the hopes for a year overflowing with prosperity. Thereafter, a pot of milk rice is cooked as the first meal. An earthenware pot is traditionally used for this all-important occasion—a new pot being used each year. Needless to say, the purchasing of
a suitable pot is high on the list of priorities of all housewives, even in the 21st Century.

One can imagine the hassles involved in going to a village fair to purchase earthenware
pots and bringing them home in one piece before the advent of modern roads. However, there had been travelling tradesmen who brought earthenware pots to the homes of farmers, sparing the womenfolk of the trouble of going ‘shopping’. It was this subject which I had to illustrate a few weeks ago.

The pots were carried in two huge rattan baskets fixed with ropes to a horizontal wooden pole. Known as a pingo, this contraption was carried on the tradesman’s shoulder. Apart from earthenware, pingos have been used for carrying various produce such as vegetables, fruits and fish. Indeed, fish vendors carrying fish on pingos can still be seen even in cities. However, they are getting replaced by faster modes of transportation such as scooters, even in rural areas. Although slow and physically laborious, pingos  are an eco-friendly means of transport from a simpler and leisurely era. 

I ended up using several different media for this illustration—something which happens quite often. For the horizontal pole I used Derwent tinted charcoal atop a light wash of brown watercolour. The ropes and woven effects of the basket were done using a gel pen, whilst the pots and straw were done using watercolours. As usual, using a slightly rough textured watercolour paper helped to bring out the crude appearance of the subject matter.

Hopefully, illustrations such as the one I have done will enable future generations to learn about facets of the lifestyle of bygone times...