Trooper

 Creating "Trooper"  

Trooper's mom contacted me after finding me on google.  She sent two photos and within one hour we confirmed the commission.   

Here's the original photo of Trooper.  

 

I was able to crop and lighten the photo to create this Sample #1.  

 After some discussion we decided to include the collar and name tag.   My client emailed a photo of Trooper's tag so I could see the design:

The drawing begins!!!!!!   

Trooper's Portrait

Sue N 

I was looking for a pencil portrait of my 2 year old chocolate lab, Trooper. I contacted Debbie, she responded quickly to answer my questions and pick out a photo to work from. I received my portrait when promised, and I just love it!

Holy Chihuahuas ! Here's Gidget & Honey

My subjects today are two chihuahuas.  One long haired and one short haired.   Honey is 10 years old and Gidget is 17.  Below are the photos my client sent. My first thought was - oh this is going to be challenging.  I wondered if I could even work from these photos! 

 My process for reviewing photos is:

a) technically - I like large high resolution clear photos - these photos did not pass that test!

b) lighting - I can work from separate photos, but they do need to 'go together' and / or 'compliment' each other.   The lighting on both is coming from the right.  Both dogs have a 'look' that speaks to me - I'm sweet and you love me more than anything!   These passed that test.

c)  Composition - so how will this look in black and white?  I work in graphite so the contrast is important.  Since Honey is wearing a dark sweater I thought it would be nice to have her on the right with Gidget's white mussel overlapping the sweater.   Okay passed that test.

So, at this point I thought okay let's give it a Go and see how it turns out!. 

Gidget 17 Years

Honey 10 years

Here's the finished artwork.

"Gidget & Honey" 

Group Portraits using several photos

 This family portrait was created from three photographs.   My client sent several photos of each dog.  I reviewed them to find similar positions, lighting and expressions to create "Samples'.   Sometime I'll create four or five sample compositions for my clients to select from.  Here are two from this commission.

Sample #1 

Sample #2 

Here's the completed artwork, 11" h x 14" and drawn are Archers 140# watercolor paper.  See more Family Portraits in my online Gallery

"Raleigh, Scarlette, and Surry"