Artist ‘very teary’ over response to tribute sketch

An artist whose sketch of the Queen and Paddington Bear went viral earlier this year said she was “very teary” to see it used in floral tributes in London.

Eleanor Tomlinson, from East Yorkshire, created the work during Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June.

Ms Tomlinson said since the Queen’s death last week, she was moved to see photos of her sketch “left with so many tributes of flowers” in Green Park.

But she said she was angry copies were being sold without her permission.

Ms Tomlinson, from Brough, said seeing her sketch among the tributes in the capital had been very special for her.

“It’s one thing to see something online and being shared and the lovely comments, but to see it in that kind of setting, among a sea of flowers and tributes, is just something else completely.

“I’m not really an emotional person, but I was very teary looking at the photos,” she said.

Ms Tomlinson previously revealed how the inspiration for her Paddington Bear-themed sketch came from watching Jubilee celebrations earlier this year featuring the famous bear enjoying a mischief-laden tea with Her Majesty.

She later gifted the monarch a print showing a corgi wearing a crown, for which she received a royal thank you.

“I’m really honoured and overwhelmed, but at the same time, it’s been such a sobering time,” she said.

“But to have an illustration that has hopefully brought a lot of comfort to so many means the absolute world.”

She said she had “so much love and respect” for the late monarch.

“I just think the world is going to be a very different place now she’s not here,” she added.

However, the artist said she had been left “really saddened” by sales of her illustrations without her permission – in particular her image of the Queen with Paddington Bear.

She described those sales as “theft” and said she had declined all commercial requests to mass produce the work during national mourning because “it just doesn’t sit right with me now”.