Well I finally managed to get a better photo of the two children’s portrait. Still not the best. I have never found it easy with graphite. Sunlight and the scanner causes reflections off the graphite. My phone camera sharpens it too much and my other camera struggles too. Luckily I think my client is pleased and he is only local so he can pop in and see for himself
I will be framing it tomorrow ready for it to be picked up.
It’s hard to show a lot at the moment with it being mainly Christmas presents. So I thought I would revisit some old pet portraits for you to see. I love digging through past work and revisiting some of my old pet portraits
This is Finn. The poor boy has crossed the rainbow bridge now. His portrait was completed on a paper I used to use called Fisher 400. I am pretty sure I have mentioned using this before. I used love using that until I discovered pastelmat. Pastelmat is much kinder on your fingers when blending as Fisher is a sanded paper. It also doesn’t eat the pencils like Fisher paper does. However I loved Fisher for my pastel portraits and have some I will probably use again.
Finn was one of my first pastel pet portraits that I did and I think he and another dog portrait I did of a dog called Scuzz really sealed my love for pastels as opposed to acrylics for my pet portraits.
I just loved all the Heather in the background of this portrait. I really think it sets his gorgeous face off and seeing as he was a working gun dog I think it was apt to have it in his portrait.
It is personal choice as to whether you want a background with your portrait or just something plain. Some people prefer their dog, cat or horse to be the centre of attention with no distractions and some like their pet portraits to tell a story or have their animals favourite spot in the background. You can just discuss this with me when enquiring about your commission.
Here is Oakley a French bulldog I am currently working on. Just started him today. His colours are tricky and the photo I have for reference doesn’t help, so I am playing around with a mix of colours to get the right combination for all his different coat colours. Wish me luck.