Portraits of Pets
Welcome to my gallery featuring a selection of my portrait drawings of pets.
Simply click on the images to enlarge.
Hand drawn portraits of dogs
Our canine friends come in such a wonderful mix of shapes and sizes. As a dog owner myself, I know the way they fill your life with joy and happiness. Hang their portrait on your wall at home and you will never forget how much you love them, even if they have just chewed your slippers!
I offer hand drawn portraits in pencil and coloured pencil of your beloved dog
Coloured pencil portraits of pets
In addition to the traditional pencil portraits of pets I also offer coloured pencil portraits of dogs, cats and horses.
I love drawing in coloured pencil and the multitude of colours in a dog’s coat or a cats fur is amazing and a joy to bring to life.
If you want a hand drawn portrait with an added impact then a coloured pencil portrait of your pet is the way to go.
Coloured pencil portraits do take quite a bit longer to complete so they are slightly more expensive than my pencil portraits but they are definitely worth the extra money.
My information about my prices click on the link below for details.
Equestrian portraits
The majority of my clients look for portrait drawings of dogs with the occasional cat portrait but I get fewer requests to do hand drawn portraits of horses. Which is a shame as there is a majesty about horses that makes them my favourite animal to draw.
So if you have a horse rider in the family, who spends every spare hour with their beloved horse, think how delighted they would be at Xmas or on their birthday to receive a pencil portrait of their horse?
Some advice on photos of pets
If you are interested in commissioning a hand drawn portrait of your dog then please send me all the photos you have and hopefully we shall find a photo that works well for a portrait drawing.
Sometimes people send me photos of their pets taken from human height, so they are looking down on their dog which does not make for a great portrait drawing. In choosing a photograph to use for a portrait drawing it is usually best if the subject’s eyeline is close to the camera eyeline. i.e. the person or animal is not looking up or down too much.
If you are thinking of a hand drawn portrait of your dog, then perhaps take some fresh photos of your canine friend? It’s a lot of fun.
A tip to help you take a good photo of any animal is to take the photo at their height. If you want a good photo of your dog you are going to have to come down to their level or raise the dog up.
A good way to do this is to break the house rules and invite your dog to sit on the sofa or the bed. Opposite is a photo I took of my own dog Lola lying on the bed and the resulting drawing. She is looking straight at the camera so it makes the portrait drawing much more dynamic. The use of a ball in the foreground also helps direct her attention. A treat has the same outcome!
If you are taking new photos then take off their collar unless you specifically want this included. On some dogs it really ruffles the flow of hair around their necks.
Similarly with horses you can consider taking their bridle off if you want. Horses have the opposite problem to dogs as they are often looking down on us humans. Consider a box for you to stand on or go further back and zoom in a bit so the angle is reduced.
Contact me.
If you like my work but would like further information about how to commission a family portrait, hand drawn from a photo, then please get in touch via the contact form below.
I am happy to chat about and supply information with no obligation to proceed.