A Furever Friend

Hello again, my friends! In my last blog, I wrote about my wonderful experience at the November Christmas craft fair, where a lovely lady approached me to commission a portrait of the family dog, to be presented as a gift on Christmas day. As you can imagine, I was elated. She sent me several colour photos of this beautiful dog, and I began work the next day.

Meet Miss Hazel, an exquisite Australian Shepherd with long wavy fur in lovely shades of caramel and brown, interspersed with white.

I was immediately drawn to Hazel’s expressive eyes. The owner told me that Hazel was looking at her when this photo was taken, and I could sense the loving relationship they shared. As a dog owner myself, it never ceases to amaze me how much dogs communicate just by looking at you.

As a first step, I opened the coloured photo in Affinity Photo and changed it to a black and white image. Then I used the software’s “posterise” feature to clarify the highlights, midtones, and shadows in the photo.

I began the actual drawing by using the posterised version, progressing through the tonal values in order to capture the depth and nuances of the original photo. This process helped to bring the graphite portrait to life.

...And here she is! It was an exciting few of weeks, but I managed to complete Hazel’s portrait by December 24.

And here’s the message I received a few days later:

Dear beautiful artist lady, Thank you so much once more for the amazing work you have done on Hazel’s artwork, and for the lovely ‘thank you’ package. I definitely will recommend you. Hope 2024 brings you lots of new customers.