Welcome to my latest Pencil Pet Portrait of Rusty which was a 20 x 16 inches drawing commissioned by a client in the USA. Verity emailed me asking if I would be able to draw Rusty for her husband’s birthday surprise – which I did! Have a read of Verity’s email below.
Dear Melanie,
I am interesting in commissioning a pencil pet portrait of our dog, Rusty, for my husband Iain’s seventieth birthday as a surprise. Though British, we now live in the US. I have lots of photos of Rusty, who is now nine years old and whom we rescued from a shelter when he was a puppy of unknown parentage (found abandoned in Mississippi), but I have begun by attaching a zip file with a selection of eight photos I took recently with my iPhone and following the advice on your website and two older photos that show Rusty more in character, on some of our favourite hikes (these may have been taken by iPhone also or by digital camera). I am not sure how good the resolution will be once sent by email. I am happy to take additional photos and also to send additional photos. But I thought I would start here. I look forward to hearing from you. Best,
Verity
This is pretty much the perfect kind of email to send if you are thinking about commissioning a pencil pet portrait. Get in contact win good time so that I can complete the drawing an accompany the email with lots of lovely photos of your dog.
Verity indeed had taken a number of photos of Rusty out in her garden on a sunny day from a variety of angles. This was helpful and it really allowed me to really get a feel for Rusty and his character.
Verity sent me a few emails and I have added a couple below for you to read. I very much enjoyed creating the pencil pet portrait of Rusty and I also hope that you all like it too!
Dear Melanie,
Thanks so much. The portrait looks beautiful: it captures Rusty very well in his more “thoughtful” mode – more common as he ages. I really look forward to seeing Rusty’s pencil drawing in the flesh, as it were.
Best,
Verity
Pencil Pet Portrait of Rusty Photos
In addition to sending Verity the final photo above, I also took a few more natural photos below with my pencils to show scale. This allows clients to see the portrait and the colour of the paper in a much more natural way. Hopefully having a better idea of how their portrait looks in real life. Once Verity has had the portrait framed she will take photos. Consequently, I am very much looking forward to seeing them! Hopefully Rusty will model with the portrait too!
Hi Melanie,
I meant to follow up to let you know my husband was delighted with the portrait. We plan to see our framer this weekend and I will send a picture of it once it is framed, perhaps with Rusty in dog-person, if he can be persuaded not to lick it while next to it…
Best wishes,
Verity
Rusty’s Pencil Portrait with my pencils. Photo taken on our plan chest in the art studio.
Similar to above, a photo taken of Rusty’s portrait taken from an angle with my pencils
Finally a close up photo of the pencil drawing of Rusty commissioned as a birthday surprise. If you would like a pencil pet portrait of your dog, please do get in touch. If you are looking to have one for a social date, ideally get in touch as soon s you can, even if it’s just to save your space in my commissions list. We can then make all of the arrangements after. Email or WhatsApp me at any time!
Are you enjoying our blog? Why not sign up to our Melanie’s Monthly News, which comes right into your inbox each month! You can sign up at the bottom of our website or at the top of the blog. Please don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel too. You are more than welcome to comment below, we love hearing from our readers!