A different sort
of wildlife.

I was reluctant when Pembroke Games first suggested this commission. Royal portraiture seemed rather a long way from the hedgerow, and I was not certain that I had anything useful to add.

As I began, however, the work became unexpectedly familiar. Like woodland creatures, the royals are largely silent within a picture. We see a turn of the head, a watchful glance, the distance between two figures. Illustration can give those small gestures character and voice.

I found myself looking for the same things I look for in a fox or a robin: composure, curiosity, a hint of impatience, the possibility that someone would rather be elsewhere. A horse show, a family photograph or a pause beside a garden path offered as much to draw as any woodland encounter.

These are my interpretations of those moments. The beetle, naturally, has found its way in too.

— Jane Stephens

The complete illustrations belong to the JigSaw collection. These smaller previews offer a first look at the series.