Corgi Cuirassier Christmas Commission!

A few months ago, a friend of mine reached out to request a commission piece as a Christmas present to her husband! I was honored to be considered from the start, but my excitement only grew as I heard about her idea for the piece! She wanted an illustration of her adorable corgi, Alfie, posed as a majestic steed for her grandson, as seen above.

There is reason behind this beyond sheer whimsy and quirk, I promise. In Wales, (the birthplace of the corgi) there are countless legends of corgis as the mystical steeds of fairies, or “Tylwyth Teg” as they’re called in Welsh mythology. The word “corgi” comes from the Welsh “cor” meaning dwarf, and “gi” meaning dog, which translates directly to “dwarf dog”, but if you wanted to be fancy about it can also mean “dog of the fairies” which I personally quite enjoy.

According to the legend, these stubby, wiggly little dogs were used as steeds for fairies warriors - as we’ve gone over - but also apparently pulled fairy coaches and herded tiny fairy cattle. So that’s a thing!

I don’t know what to tell you, Wales be weird. (Side note, the national animal of Wales is a Dragon!)

If you look at today’s corgis, you might notice a patch of darker fur across their shoulders, which is genuinely called a “fairy saddle”. For real, you can google it.

Obviously upon hearing this, I was all in on this project. I had originally planned to do it mostly in colored pencil, like with much of my previous work, but during the process, I was just kind of playing around with cut papers and paints, and found the result really nice! It was a tedious process at points, especially during this part, because of all the details that had to be meticulously extracted from the paper by X-Acto knife.

The part in question

Despite the knuckle knicks, torn papers and broken blades, though, I’m really happy with how this piece came out. The colors were a little tricky to get the hang of, but in the end I think they work nicely with the vibe of the work. And at the end of the day, I’ve created a weird, overly detailed illustration of a Welsh fairy warrior riding a corgi. What more could I ask for?!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I do!

Bonus: If you’re super intrigued by the majestic corgi warrior legend, here’s a whole poem about it written by Anne G. Biddlecombe, a founder of the Welsh Corgi League in 1946. Just ignore the questionable choice to have it written in comic sans.