Sand artist uses garden rake to create giant first-class stamp featuring portrait of The Queen

A talented sand artist has created a giant postage stamp portrait on a beach depicting The Queen in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee.

Claire Eason, 57, spent four hours painstakingly etching the amazing 65 feet picture at Bamburgh beach in Northumberland using a garden rake.

The retired GP said she wanted to commemorate the upcoming special occasion with her own spectacular tribute to Her Maj.

Incredible drone images show the artwork in various stages of completion and at one point a group of surfers can be seen helping with the mammoth piece.

Mum-of-two Claire, of Sunderland, said she chose the image of a first class stamp because it is one of the most recognisable of Queen Elizabeth.

She added: “I wanted to do something for the jubilee and straight away the image of the stamp came into my head simply because it’s a part of our everyday life.

"I started to read how the stamp evolved, it was first published in 1967.

“It came from a much more complete photograph that wasn’t suitable for a stamp. She must like this image as it’s hardly changed at all, I love that sense of continuity.

"A big portion of her reign has had this as her backdrop. I like the sense of the familiarity.

“The Queen is a big stamp collector herself apparently and has a collection worth £100 million.

"Hopefully it is an image that she will like, it seems perfect. I like the idea of the stamp, it’s personal to us and to her.

"The preparation takes a long time to get the square grid right. You have to use string and sticks to make the outline match.

“You have to be careful or else it can be wonky. It can be quite time consuming. For something like this there was a lot of detail to get right.

“There was sketching in the outline, all the raking, trying to get a consistency to make sure all the background was bold and consistent.

“The actual preparation is finding an image that takes your fancy to something that’s suitable for drawing on a beach.

“This particular week has been so windy.

"One of the drawings has had to be to abandoned, it’s just an occupational hazard, you have to watch the weather and watch the tide.

"But I'm delighted with how it has turned out - I hope it gets The Queen's stamp of approval."