Here Comes the Sun - custom portrait for Amy

I offered to do a custom portrait for Amy of the blog Ponder & Stitch. She always leaves the nicest comments on my blog, and she needs some new art to warm up her new home. She sent me a very lovely photo, and it inspired me to try a new technique: grey and white pencils on sepia-toned paper. It was amazingly forgiving and easy to work with! Everything blended so easily. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and I look forward to doing more drawings in this style.

Amy and I emailed back and forth several times to make sure I had all the details right! She even drew little notes and scribbles on the scans I sent her, to point out what needed adjusting. (Which was quite helpful!)

I'm thinking about offering this type of portrait in my Etsy shop - I think vintage photographs would look really nice drawn in this style. The only problem is that this kind of drawing doesn't jive too well with my scanner; I'm not sure why. It took a lot of level adjusting to get the shading to look close to the way it does in real life. (In reality, the whites are brighter.) So before putting up a listing for this in the shop, I'll should spend some quality time with my scanner. Maybe buy it a few drinks.

Thanks for letting me draw for you, Amy! I hope this makes your new house feel a little more like home!